Page 155 - sarah-simblet_sketch-book-for-the-artist

Costume

WE MAKE OURSELVES EXOTIC, outrageous, intriguing, and even invisible by the w a y w e
dress. Like it or not, it is the public sign by w h i c h we are judged, and everything

we have chosen for our wardrobes—reflectors of our taste, personality, culture, and

profession—began life as a drawing. Designers all over the world continually pen and

brush lines to lash us with color, warmth, and exuberance, or calm us with chic, cool,

and subtle tones. Popular fashion design exploded with the Industrial Revolution.

Previously, only the wealthy could afford to have costumes specially made. The rural

masses wore homespun simplicity, while court painters—Michelangelo and Holbein, for

example—designed the wardrobes of popes and kings, and courtier tailors followed

suit. Cities changed all, so that choice, variety, and indeed image became the property

also of the industrial classes.

The paper pattern is perhaps the most widely k n o w n of costume drawings: a

formalized plan of lines, shapes, and symbols that lets men and w o m e n in all countries

and areas have working access to the latest fashions. The entourage of the theatrical

stage o f t e n l e a d s the c a t w a l k . D e s i g n e r s create m a s t e r p i e c e s of haute couture for

LEON BAKST Hollywood stars, fulfilling lavish and spectacular briefs, which in turn feed consumer
Lev. Samoylovich Rosenberg,

known as Leon Bakst, was a

Belarussian Art Deco theater fantasies and desires to immediately possess a version of the same. W e dress ourselves

and costume designer trained

in St. Petersburg and later exileidn designers' ideas and are surprised and delighted b y their continual f l o w of inspiration.

toParis,As artistic director of the

Ballet Russe, he and cofounder It is s h o c k i n g to t h i n k h o w m a n y m i l l i o n s of d r a w i n g s m u s t be m a d e a n d d i s c a r d e d

Serge Diaghilev took Paris by

storm in 1910 with their producetioanc h y e a r in the industrial f r e n z y of creating o u r i m a g e a n d aspirations.

of Scheherazade. Bakst's designs

and costumes immediately To the fine artist, costume offers a rich vocabulary of textures and color, but

influenced Parisian fashion and

interiordecor,This voluptuous a b o v e all a p h y s i c a l p u p p e t w i t h w h i c h to animate character a n d narrate personality,

woman was drawn by Bakst one

year later for the ballet Narcisse. In p s y c h o l o g y , and intent. Artists d o this n o t so m u c h b y the style of a figure's g a r m e n t ,

arichand unusual combination of

pencil, charcoal, and gouache, theb u t b y the w a y it s p e a k s w i t h its f l y i n g , g l o s s y folds, c a r i c a t u r e d p l u m e s , c r u m p l e s ,

dancer leaps through swaths of

golden cloth. or bulges. In this chapter we see how clothing can seem to possess the weight and

monumentality of stone, articulate a dangerous satirical joke, and be so expressive of

temperament that it overtakes the need for an occupying human form. Practical classes

Bacchante look at ranges of colored materials including pastels and felt-tip pens. Structure is

1911

111/4 x 81/2 in (285 x 220 mms)t u d i e d t h o u g h the i n v e n t i o n of s h o e s , a n d w e will c o l l e c t p a t t e r n s , e m u l a t e textures,

L E O NB A K S T and explore the characterization of fabric through movement, gesture, and atmosphere.