Now that’s an excellent question when you’re first starting to design a new costume. And how you answer will put you on a particular path for the look you want.
A few years ago I was talking about design with a long-time costuming friend. I was having trouble deciding how flamboyant to make a particular gown being that I’m not a flashy-type personality.
She said it all comes down to how you want people to see you:
Do they see the dress or do they see you?
“What’s the purpose of the dress? Why are you making it?”
I had to answer, that while I love being admired while wearing my hard work (don’t we all!), I really wanted to look beautiful. I wanted to create a vision of delight and awesomeness.
Ok. But what does that tell me? Seems that I really want the dress to be the showpiece… but I still want people to notice ME. I want people’s attention on the gown (which is where I’ve put in all my never-ending hours), so logically this gown should be made to wear me.
Here the dress overpowers the wearer. People see only see the dress. I may have hair and accessories that are not right but it doesn’t matter. The focus is all about the clothes and I’m lost in the middle of them. So is that what I wanted?
Remember when Bjork wore that swan dress to the Oscars? How could one forget?
That “dress” was totally wearing her. SHE didn’t even stand out. People didn’t take notice of her smooth black hair or white skin. Those “feathers” and that scary swan head blocked out her natural beauty and even shielded her raw talent….
Be mindful when planning an incredible, work-of-art gown. People’s focus will, of course, be on your dress, but they will probably never remember your name and that you have green eyes.
This is what it means to have the dress wear you.
And that’s ok. Those flashy costumes are so much fun to make even if they don’t reflect your personality (and even flatter your figure for that matter). Those particular costumes are what keep us interested in playing dress up.
But now let’s look at it from another viewpoint….
Have you ever been at an event and suddenly a group of the most gorgeously costumed attendees arrive in a cloud of splendor and grace? The room stops and stares. What is it about them that turns everyone into a now underdressed baboon?
Well, to start with, they are wearing their dresses. They are the perfect vision from the period appropriate hair curls down to the… well, everything! You notice the hair, and the dress and their smile brings you in. The whole picture is complete.
Then you peer in to see the details… to find a flaw. Oh! The trim is lacking from that skirt! But even when you notice that fact, the entire picture drowns out this minor detail.
This is what it means to wear your dress.
A lot of elements go into making a costume appear this way. You can include displaying the correct silhouette, fabrics within reasonable appropriateness, and, of course, a good fit.
But also important to remember is to take into account YOU when creating a historical design. If you wear cool colors better, be wary of making a bright orange dress – even if that’s just what it was in 1868. Tamper it down to a light tangerine and add ivory near your face.
Not a daring girl? Keep that low neckline raised an inch or two so you feel comfortable in the bodice.
If there’s no way you’d expose your skinny arms in a modern tank top, then by all means avoid it when re-creating period clothing. Doing this uncomfortable thing masks your individual self.
For true costume excellence, the design must reflect who you are and take heed of your figure.
I mean, that’s why we make historical reproductions, right? To dress up as they did. But let’s not dress up *exactly* as they did. Let’s give proper attention to our unique bodies and simply think of how they would have dressed someone with our stature. No doubt the wearer would shine through the clothes. The dress would only enhance the woman who wears it.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing an outrageous dress that is just for show. But if you crave a deeper appreciation, ponder on what hangs in your 21st Century closet and translate it to a 19th Century wardrobe.
Sew costumes you can be proud of, that you are happy to wear. If you feel confident in your work, YOU will be wearing that dress. And that’s what makes a truly fantastic historical costume.
Have you made any period costumes that you feel lost in? Are you one to make more of those works-of-art or would you rather sew something where people pay attention to YOU? Please share your stories!
Thank you for this
I realize this is an old article, but I just wanted to say thank you. I think you’re the first historical costumer I encountered outside of a renfaire… well over a decade ago, I think. Anyway, you’re one of my earliest costuming inspirations, and I wore my first 1860’s ball gown to my first Costume College gala last month. I felt like a princess. So thank you for inspiring my younger self to start on this creative path. <3
Aw.. this warms my heart! 💖 You are very welcome. Thank you for sharing a milestone in your journey.
One of the best compliments I ever got was not how gorgeous my dress was, or what a great job I’d done on the period correctness of it, but that when I wore it, I looked ‘comfortable’ in it. Like it was my normal type of clothing, and I didn’t look stuffed into it, or miserably uncomfortable, or chronologically out of place, and THAT is what made her admire it and imagine that she could do it too.
I feel that is the best kind of compliment – having someone say you look comfortable in it, as if you were merely wearing it as regular clothing. 🙂
Was reading about just this issue in ‘The Mirror of the Graces, or the English Ladies’ Costume’. It seems things haven’t changed that much from 1811!
That is spot-on. I have the perfect example of the dress wearing me. I made a version of the black/white brocade Eleanora di Toledo. My masterpiece of awesomeness. There is so much pattern there that all the photos of me wearing it in a busy room at the event (rather than an artificial solid backdrop) make me look headless. All hail the headless costumer!
LOL!
This is such a fundamental concept; thank you for covering it. Clothes today are so easy to wear I think we have lost the art of ‘wearing a dress’. I read lost of vintage dressmaking books and articles that frequently refer to the idea of what is and is not ‘becoming’: the dress most be becomming to the wearer but the wearer in a way needs to ‘become’ the dress. As you’ve alluded to it’s not about losing yourself, rather discovering another facete of yourself.
I have often used that phrase when designing costumes, but I think in my mind it has always come from a slightly different place. More like Jenny J. observes, I always think of it as being able to “own your look.” And yes, different people have different comfort zones, so not everyone is going to be able to dominate their wardrobe properly. (Hm, that sounds a little aggressive, but you know what I mean-) If you make it YOURS and wear and utilize and are comfortable in the entire costume, no matter how ostentatious and jaw-dropping it is, you can still avoid having it wear you. (Of course, I’m in New Orleans, and we rise to the level of Insane Mardi Gras creations every year…) Just the same, I’ve seen creative costume-enthusiastic folks rock the most ridiculously absurd ensembles year after year with utter confidence and naturalness, and at the same time seen fish-out-of-water tourists form the midwest look completely uncomfortable and overwhelmed just by wearing a Funny Hat.
It DOES work when designing costumes. And I agree with you that confidence in what you wear plays a HUGE part in how you view yourself in the costume and how you want others to see you. If you think you’ll look silly in a 1830s dress with that funky top knot hairstyle & curls then yes, you will give off that vibe and the dress will wear you (and not in a good way).
Deportment and poise are a large part of building a believable [costume] image. It’s like when you see a costume drama film and one actress looks SOOO uncomfortable in a corset. She (and the character she plays) gets lost in the dress. You can totally tell she doesn’t own that character.
You can even use this train of thought on our modern wardrobes. If you wear the same black skirt everyday but with different tops and accessories, if your personality and confidence shine through, no one will remember the faux paus (or stop to wonder if you’ve done laundry). Even in an outrageous Mardi Gras costume (which I’m sure you’ve seen some spectacular ones) YOU can still be present and admired.
(Fish-out-of-water tourists in funny hats? Would that be the Kentucky Derby? 🙂 )
Hahaha- No, not Kentucky Derby, but also at Mardi Gras, when some intoxicated out-of-towner realizes it’s “Some Kinda Dress-Up Holiday,” and sullenly slaps on a purple green and gold jester hat that they fuss with and complain about all day. It’s amazing to me how hard they can make it. 😉
A French woman once told me that her philosophy and the philosophy of every chic woman she had ever know was “Think you are beautiful and you will become so.”
As you say, in a large part it comes down to confidence.
I never understood why people with money/fame wear some of the most ugliest clothing. My concern (for when I’m sewing for myself)is: Okay, let’s do me.
Alot of times, I want to wear a bustle dress but I have a very full plus stout figure. So I try to incorporate some of the elements into my clothes to make me content.
Yes, all of this is so true! Even when I try out more novel styles, I still try to keep them very simple. I think it’s so easy to let your clothes wear you, especially when it’s something beyond the norm – that said, I think a lot of people who wear high fashion can also let their clothes wear them because they’re wearing them for the sole reason of them being fashionable. I’m always attracted to more simple styles (actually, I love the 1830s so maybe that’s not STRICTLY true) because I think they let the wearer shine through.
Thank you! I tell my fashion students this about *all* the clothes they create. Of course they are teens and don’t full appreciate the sentiment… yet. But they will. : )
I recently was asked to do a first person at an event. This meant I needed to make a bustle dress. I had a lovely piece of silk that was big enough to make the dress but the same color as my skin. I added green trim to define the bodice but the dress didn’t fit and I ran out of time. My bustle didn’t bustle and I swam in the bodice. It is now a one event dress that will sit in the closet. It wore me.
When I look at period photographs, most (not all) women look comfortable in their clothes. They are wearing their clothes. When I look at photographs of reenactors in their clothes, many (not all) look uncomfortable, ill at ease, not right somehow – and I think that you have just nailed the reason – often their clothes are wearing them!
As a flat chested woman I feel it silly in some of the more boosomy fashions. But there were always women around of different shapes and sizes, so presumably they also worked with their own body shapes to present themselves in the most attractive way. Many of the costumingpeople I see in the pics are looking so good in their outfit that I think they have put a lot of thought into what will suit them.
That all is so true! I’m writing an article about similar stuff and now I really feel like continuing with it. I’m into those dresses that look fabulous but the main point is that you look good in it. It’s really important for me to pick the colours that I would normally wear because normally people pick the colours that look the best on them and compliment their features.
I’m one of those people who are insecure in how I look, so I tend to focus more on how my gowns look and make people look at them, rather than me. But as long as I feel comfortable in what I’m wearing, I am satisfied that *I* am wearing the dress, and not vice versa.