Modernizing Costume Design, 18201920 Routledge Advances In Theatre Performance Studies

Annie Holt identifies the roots of contemporary Euro-American practices of costume design, in which costumes are an integrated part of the dramaturgy rather than a reflection of an individual performerâs taste or status. She argues that in the period 1820â1920, as part of the larger project of modernism across the artistic and cultural field, the functions of clothing and costume diverged. Onstage apparel took on a more specific semiotic task, acting as a fresh channel for the flow of information between the performer, the literary text, and the spectator.

Modernizing Costume Design traces how five kinds of artists â directors, performers, writers, couturiers, and painters â made key contributions to this new model of costume design. Holt shows that by 1920, costume design shifted in status from craft to art.