Seen on the Stage
theater gives fashion a dramatic twist
Smoke rises gradually around eight waltzing men and a 20-piece orchestra. Rufus Wainwright croons “Over the Rainbow” as dramatic, lovely women in even more dramatic and lovely ensembles glide through the scene. Is this a new off-Broadway production? Or perhaps some sort of spin-off of Dancing With the Stars? No—it’s the runway show at Paris Fashion Week for Viktor and Rolf’s spring 2008 prêt-à-porter collection.
Such productions on the catwalk are becoming more and more common. Designers from Rag & Bone to Marc Jacobs have started to use live performers at their shows. It seems the current feeling is that the more theatrical, the better. For example, at Christian Dior’s spring 2008 couture show “The Space Age,” a highly exaggerated runway perfectly balanced the symbolist motif in his designs.
Considering the strong ties between fashion and theater, this connection is hardly new or surprising. After all, it was Condé Nast himself who seemed to recognize this relationship nearly a century ago when he decided to keep a magazine feature called “Seen on the Stage” when he took over Vogue in 1914. In a time before fashion shows were prevalent, these monthly photos of actresses in stylish costumes would preview new colors, lines, and trends.
Nast strongly believed in theater’s powerful influence on mainstream fashion. Thanks to him, embellishments such as slashing and puffing—both traditional Shakespearean and operatic costume designs—began to appear subtly in everyday clothes, in the same way that John Galliano’s exaggerated styles eventually show up in the mall (albeit in a much tamer form than on his muses).
Many designers, seeing that theater could be a useful tool of exploration and advertisement, began to experiment in both fashion and theater. Mainbocher used the stage to test designs. Paul Poiret was inspired by the Ballets Russes. Jean-Paul Gaultier joined with Regine Chopinot for Le Défilé and demonstrated a marriage between performance and apparel.
Phyllis Magidson, curator of costumes and textiles at the Museum of the City of New York, notes that many costume designers have lifted “the vocabulary of the 19th-century ballet costumes that have defined character.” These elements include romantic details featured in productions like Giselle, such as the full skirt, corseted waist, and feminine bodice.
One notable couturier to incorporate these elements into her wardrobe was Valentina Schlee, who, according to Magidson, “would lift a simple motif or an element that was very recognizably present in the costume of the 19th-century role and morph it into her couture of the 20th-century.” The effect lent “a timelessness to her fashion.” Her experience with stage costume helped her develop a unique palette for her line.
In an almost symbiotic way, the fashion world has also given much to theatre by adding to costume—a huge part of the meaning and the spectacle of any show. Kara Feely, the costume-shop manager for the Barnard theater department, says: “Costumes can reveal specific information about individual characters or performers, while also revealing a larger stylistic idea. They can work on a micro and macro level simultaneously, revealing individual qualities while presenting overall artistic concepts at the same time.”
In some cases, the impact of a costume can be so strong it can make or break a performance. Magidson uses the example of Glenda the Good Witch’s entrance in The Wizard of Oz.
“You wouldn’t remember it the way that you do if it hadn’t have been for that incredible pink toile gown,” she says.
While the relationship between theater and fashion is certainly intertwined, some lines between the two arts need to be drawn. “Theater designers are often aware of trends in theater design but don’t attempt to replicate them, because they want to present their own unique ideas and interpretations ...,” Feely says. “That being said, it’s important to know what your peers are doing, so you can build from that, add something new to the conversation and not just re-hash old ideas.”
Magidson sees a similar issue when the theatrical infringes on the stylish. She states that there is probably “more of an impact of fashion on the stage, because theatricality can be difficult to translate” to everyday clothing, making the looks tricky to incorporate into mainstream fashion.
Considering that fashion itself is ever-changing, perhaps it’s only fitting that the connection between it and theater—no matter how strong—cannot be easily defined. Today, theatrical productions’ fabulous clothes still inspire viewers to put a dramatic twist in their wardrobes, and costumes continue to add excitement to performances and win Tony Awards. As designers become more and more bold and their clients become more and more creative, theatricality is taken into our own hands.
“There’s less of a separation [between fashion and theatre],” Magidson says. “I think that especially contemporary fashion shows no constraints whatsoever. There are no rules. ... NY is a theatre of fashion on the street.”