Costumers at Work: The Collaborative Creativity, Emotional Labour, and Technical Skill of Costume Creation...

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Madeline Taylor

Costumers at Work

The Collaborative Creativity, Emotional Labour, and Technical Skill of Costume Creation

Madeline Taylor

$305

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
23 June 2025

Theatre Studies; Theatre: technical & background skills; Film, TV & Radio

Series: Studies in Costume as Scenographic Practice and Technical Craft

Costumers at Work: The Collaborative Creativity, Emotional Labour, and Technical Skill of Costume Creation explores the various forms of work carried out in the costume workshop by the myriads of skilled professionals who transform ideas and sketches into the wearable costumes seen on stage.

Costume work, as collective, collaborative, and material labour produced by a predominantly female workforce, has been long overlooked by the performance industry and those who study it. This book exposes the inherent tensions between theatre’s strict hierarchies and collaborative ideology and how these inform the structures negotiated day to day by costumers as they carry out their work. Through close attention to their work, the book establishes costumers’ work as collaborative and complex, a creative and emotional labour that contributes to enhanced storytelling, actor performance, and audience experience. Using extensive ethnographic observation conducted over 14 months at three professional theatre costume workshops around Australia, combined with extant interviews and research from across the globe, Costumers at Work provides explicit theories and guidance about the behaviours, skills, and communication modes that make costume collaboration more effective and enjoyable.

This book is written for costume researchers, practitioners, and students of theatrical costume design and construction, along with theatre scholars broadly.

By: Madeline Taylor
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9781032556628
ISBN 10: 1032556625
Series: Studies in Costume as Scenographic Practice and Technical Craft
Pages: 228
Publication Date: 23 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Costumers in the Workshop and Beyond 2. Learning in the Costume Workshop 3. The Creative Costumer 4. The Emotional and Social Dynamics of Costume Work 5. Building Costumes, Building Trust 6. Collaborating Through Materials 7. Collaborating Through Language

Madeline Taylor is both a creator and researcher of costume. A lecturer in Fashion at the Queensland University of Technology, her research focuses on contemporary costume practice, social engagement using clothing, and community-led circularity practices. This draws on two decades of experience in costuming for theatre, dance, opera, circus, contemporary performance, and film around Australia and the UK, and her creative practice as a co-director of Meanjin / Brisbane-based fashion and design group The Stitchery Collective. She has written about contemporary costume design, production and aesthetics, and alternative modes of engaging with, consuming, and displaying fashion and clothing in book chapters, conference proceedings and journal articles. These publications build on her diverse experience, including a 2010 research internship and working as Australian Editor for World Scenography Project Vol II – 1990–2005. She is Book Reviews Editor for the international peer-reviewed journal Studies in Costume and Performance (Intellect), a co-director of TextileR, a QUT research group focused on circularity in fashion practice, and a 2024 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow.

Reviews for Costumers at Work: The Collaborative Creativity, Emotional Labour, and Technical Skill of Costume Creation

""Taylor offers a compelling account of the work of costume technicians, revealing rich complexities. Integrating diverse theoretical approaches with Taylor’s deep professional knowledge, this book is both an important contribution to costume literature, and a template for reconceptualising many other ‘hidden’ disciplines of theatre."" Professor Nick Hunt, Rose Bruford College, UK ""Costumers at Work masterfully highlights the intricate, often overlooked art of costume making. Drawing from her extensive practice experience, the author reveals the collaborative, nuanced process behind costume production, honouring the unseen labour and creativity of costume professionals. This book is a vital read for anyone seeking to understand the true value of costume work."" Sofia Pantouvaki, Professor of Costume Design, Aalto University, Finland ""This is an excellent (and important) book that makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of the complex and nuanced costume realisation process. Its strength is in both the rigorous theoretical framework within which the research is situated, and the successful quantifying and analysing of ephemeral and subtle phenomena that are extremely difficult to measure."" Toni Bate, Course Leader, MA Costume Design & Making, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, UK