Set design and costume

Manifesto

Have you ever considered that you might be typecasting yourself with your costume and set design choices?

I wrote an enormously misunderstood post about this a while back.

What I was trying to say is that you can play any character you want.

By making conscious choices about costumes and sets, you can be whoever you like; the character you want to play.

We are all born into a situation but we take over as the director, scriptwriter, producer and art director the minute we manage our own budget, location and get to choose our own projects, so to speak.

It’s an interesting way to approach self-development. Who do I want to be more like? How would I like to be living, as opposed to how I am living now? It doesn’t hurt to observe the people you admire and emulate them.

Set designers know that a character holds a mug differently to a fine bone china cup. Costume designers know that a certain fabric weight, collar height, heel or undergarment will make a character move a certain way.

I’m not encouraging anyone to be insincere or ‘act’ in their life. I’m encouraging you to become more fully the person you want to be by making conscious choices.

If you love cooking, buy a great knife and set up your kitchen properly. If you want to be a ballroom dancer, wear the feathery dress.

Costumes and sets are a support structure. If you take your dreams seriously, build the set, assemble the cast and wear the costume of the hero in your story: you.

Still not convinced about the power of costume? Go and check out Manifesto at the Art Gallery of NSW. It’s a video installation starring Cate Blanchett by German artist Julian Rosenfeldt. It packs quite a thinking punch on this topic.

 

 

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