A slightly different article from us this month! A couple of weeks ago I ran a “Backstage Theatre Workshop” for kids aged 8-11. As part of that session we designed and made capes and masks of our own superheroes, I got them all to sew a channel for their capes on the sewing machine and they decorated them after. (Glitter everywhere). The rest of the session saw them making puppets and then creating sound effects for a short script, and at the end of the day they performed and showed off what they had created. It was brilliant to see young kids getting excited about the backstage side of theatre, as most theatre clubs are about performing. I really hope we get to do more of them in the future.
It also made me think about ‘costume’ in a wider context, how costume is actually a huge part of our lives; world book day, stag/hen dos, costume parties, cosplay, Halloween, as well as tv/film/theatre. I love when people dress up as their favourite characters – I hope the designers of costumes know how much joy they bring way past the ending of the show. It’s a shame the pay doesn’t reflect the impact those decisions and ideas have on the world.
The kids workshop also made me think how a cape and mask is recognisable and understandable to be what a superhero wears. Me and a group of kids were all on the same page instantly. How many other instances are there of where costume design has been ingrained into our normality so we don’t even have to communicate to understand the same thing? If we saw a series of distinct costumes lined up on a rail I bet most people of a shared culture would match them to the character without even having to think.
There’s something kind of wholesome about a shared understanding. There’s something also deeper about the psychology of clothes and what they do to represent an individual, how clothes / an outfit / a costume says so much about a person’s character. It’s also slightly disheartening when they are wildly inaccurate because your image doesn’t define your inner self. Yet as costume designers that’s what we’re aiming to do, give the audience a greater understanding of who the person is, we’ve got 2 hours of their attention, we don’t want them questioning why that person’s outfit doesn’t match the person’s personality. We’ve got the real world for that ….
I guess this is a reflection piece, so I’ll leave you to reflect this.. Isn’t ‘costume’ a completely under-appreciated type of art? Its impact is huge, from how much joy it brings, how much money it generates and how much deeper it makes us understand each other and ourselves. Keep going, what we do is important.
Celebrate with us on Costume Professional Appreciation Day this year: 23rd July 2025.
