Behind the Scenes
Costume Design
The Costume Designer's process for designing and creating the costumes for this show began in May, 1999, and was accomplished in 7 basic steps:
From the time the process hit step 7 until the opening of the show, there were 20 people working approximately 100 hours per week for 7 weeks--dyeing silk and building the costumes, headdresses, and other worn pieces.
In early discussions with the play's Director, several themes began to emerge:
The ways which costumes portray these concepts and themes is through design, shape and color. For example, the basic shapes of the costumes are based on historical, ancient Greek dress. Modern and/or futuristic jewelry and hairstyles along with modern fabrics and vibrant colors are combined to create a unique look. Characters in the "Establishment" are dressed in "cool" colors--blues and greens, while "Anti-establishment" characters are dressed in "warm" colors--reds and oranges. Antigone is the only character whose costume changes colors, a subtle reinforcement of the playÕs theme. The "Messenger" characterÕs costume is another example of the costume reinforcing the play's theme. His costume combines elements of both the "Establisment" and the "Anti-establishment."
Most of the research done for this play was through information found on the Internet as well as books on costume history. Imagery used as reference ranged from ancient Greek statues to "punk-rock" music groups to Star Wars movies. Click here to see imagery used as reference.
The Costume Designer chose silk, hand dyed by the costume crew, as the material to construct the major portions of the costumes. The silk dyeing methods used are ancient Japanese techniques: Shibori and Itajime. Shibori is a stitch resist technique where material is sewn in a way that prevents dyes from reaching all areas of the fabric thereby creating patterns, while Itajime is a folding and clamping method of resist--a method thatÕs sort of the great-great-grandfather of tie-dyed t-shirts. The Costume Designer also chose silk as the fabric since it drapes similar to the robes worn by the ancient Greeks, but is also sleeker and gives a sense of the more modern world...not to mention that sheÕs just crazy about the Japanese silk dyeing techniques--Special Topic classes are offered through the department.