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Costume Design: Guiding Principles

Part of designing costumes is finding a way to pick from many solutions. Limiting these choices can be the art of design. 

I have some of my own "Guiding Principles" or Design Principles when it comes to costume design. Some of these constraints are based on non-mutable factors. (Or currently difficult to change.) The fun ones are a bit on the arbitrary side. These are self-imposed limitations for the costume that as a designer I decide to apply to any given costume. 

The point of these principles is to help you make a final decision if you are paralyzed by many choices. I may get hung up on some pretty silly things, so at the very least, this helps me move forward and kind of imply that I had a plan all along. 

Immutable Design Principles


We might run into some touchy subjects here but whatever, here we go! Immutable principles are either constraints your life situation has you in at any given time or core beliefs about what you wear. This can mean things like religious beliefs and practices or moral convictions. 

One of mine is Modesty. The name of the blog and my internet handle is not a mistake. It was deliberately chosen as a virtue I aspire to and try to reflect. (With varying results.)  I might get into modesty as a topic later. 

The other immutable principles are perhaps more circumstantial. These can be things like level of income, availability of space to work, time, skill level, material availability, or your the look of your body. 

Now to be fair, these thing can change! You could move to a bigger space or you may grow taller (or wider as my situation seems to be. 😅) However, the time it takes for these things to change may not span the length of time it takes for you to make a costume. 

The point really is that when it comes to decisions around how to make a costume, these limitations factor in automatically. You can accommodate for these limitations in various ways.  But these are more "practical" design decisions such as whether you will go with a cheaper material or save up to purchase the more expensive one. Or determining if you can make a prop yourself or if you will need to hire someone to help you. 

Arbitrary Design Principles

So these are the more fun, creative design choices to make a costume with a cohesive vision or meaningful design. And a lot of these things are similar to visual character design elements. However, even if you are making a costume of a franchised character, you can still take these principles to that character and show a different interpretation. 

Word Cluster

Cluster words

This one I think works best for "concept" costumes like "vampire" or "unicorn". It's basically a Brainstorming method where you come up with words you associate with a concept and then use the word-association as your decision making tool. And to be fair, this is a very arbitrary way to do things. Even after you come up with your core concept like "Wisteria Fox", you can go further into brainstorming and come up with descriptive words about a feeling you want to evoke or themes to include. 

So for a vampire I might pick: Poisonous, Spider, Confident, Charming, Elegant, Dark 
These will help choose style of clothing, colors, perhaps even appropriate fabric designs and props. A subtle spider web design may appear on a bodice or I may opt to use black pearls instead of white. 

Personality/Background

Just a big personality.

Even if it starts as just a concept type costume, you can build a character around it with a personality and backstory. This works for any kind of costumed character from existing characters, original characters, and non-character concepts. 

Background is a good place to start when conceiving a character. This just means where the character comes from, their status in society, the work they do, the culture they live in. Personality is taking aspects of their background and showing how the character interprets it. 

For example: 
Olenga a Student
Olenga is a student with a uniform. But he does not wear it right. The sleeves are rolled up, the pants too long, shirt untucked and tie is very loose. Who knows when he ironed it last? His personality is rebellious and somewhat of a delinquent. (He is 18 and smoking. Many healthy choices ahead for this boy.) 

If you have a good grasp of the character's personality and basic background, it will help make choices in costume design. 

World Building/Lore/History

Most Historical!

Whether you have a fleshed out story for an original character or not, the "lore" of their universe can come into play. This might apply most to characters for reenactment, roleplay games, or even concept characters. I have vague memories of trying to create a persona for a Ren Faire costume. 

This again can seem a bit like a character background but in this case we're not necessarily applying a big personality to it. They may be an individual, but they are following the "rules" of their surrounding culture. Whether that is a culture that actually exists now, in the past or in a fantasy realm. 

Blending Concepts

Princess Lotor

Cross-overs, Culture Change, Gender Swap, Time Travel, or somehow taking elements from the original version and interpreting it through a new theme. Such as a Star Wars character set in Edo Era Japan or Dragon Age characters set in Mass Effect's Universe.

With this the arbitrary choice comes with deciding what to blend and choosing the identifying features of each you want to include.

It Happens 🤷

Sometimes, more likely than not, the choice just happens and all other choices derive from it. It happens more like an instinct than a deliberate thought process. 
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