Invisible Design

When I tell people what I do (and I'm sure many girls on my course would agree with me) I generally get the response: "Oh, you can do a degree in Costume?" or "So you're doing a Fancy Dress degree?" or "Do you make big fancy ball gowns?".
In response to the last question, in a way, yes. But costume is so much more than that. To study costume design is essentially studying several degrees at once: Literature, Psychology, History as well as have a creative eye for design and be a damn good dressmaker! It's hard work!

Costume is technically more about character than the elaborative clothing which is why I want to focus this Blog post on contemporary costume to demonstrate what I mean.

Yesterday Jane Petrie (costume designer for Fish Tank, 28 weeks later, How I live now and more) came to my university to talk about her career in contemporary costume. She talked about how in some ways, contemporary costume is harder than period costume in the sense that the audience are more knowledgeable and can therefore be more critical of the costumes.
Jane discussed the costumes she designed for the television series 'Top Boy' on channel 4 (shown below). As you can see, they all look extremely natural. Like they are wearing their own clothes. This is what is called good costume design.

Top Boy
Costumes designed by Jane Petrie

I know it's easy to assume that there is no design behind contemporary costume but there is just as much research involved as there would be for period costume, if not more. To make something that is seen in everyday life believable is what's called invisible designing. Analysis of the character's past, present and future is extremely important in order to get into their mindset and think about what they would chose to wear and why.

To make the costume seem lived in it is taking through a process called 'breaking down'. This involves dying, staining and general wear and tear on the costume. This, again, involves a lot of thinking and the designer must consider what the character has done in their clothes. For example, things to consider would be: would the character eat some food and wipe their hands on their trousers causing greasy finger marks? Would the character lean on a table causing wear and tear on the elbow? Does the character have a pet that would leave hair over their clothes? It is this sort of analysis that makes costume design a lot more complex than one might assume and what helps make the character believable and bring them to life.

This video demonstrates basic breaking down at the National Theatre.


I often also get asked the question, "So what is you favourite costume?" 

The purpose of costume is not necessarily to make a beautiful ball gown that's taken weeks to make. In film and TV the best costumes are the ones that you don't notice. The costumes that are true to character and making you believe what you are seeing is when the designer has 'invisibly designed' the costume. When you can just sit and watch a film and not notice any of the design behind it, ironically this is the sort of design that should be noticed and applauded. Just something to think about when you next watch a film or TV show.