Developing an Understanding of the Imaginative and Creative Processes Utilized in Theatrical Costume Design

Using materially oriented, embodied and reflective design methods can significantly enrich the educational experience in costume design by deepening students’ understanding of their design processes while increasing their creativity. This article analyses the pedagogical benefits of applying body-awareness-based devising methods, typically used in contemporary performance creation as a starting point, combined with a contemplative teaching approach. With the increased popularity of various devising and process-led approaches to performance-making, there is a growing need to build new knowledge on devised, process-oriented costume design approaches. This inquiry corresponds to the current shift in costume research and pedagogy, emphasizing the influence of costume’s material agency and the embodied experience of costume in enriching the performance-making process. The article is based on a research workshop held at Aalto University, Finland, in May 2023, with master-level students in costume design and fashion. The workshop employed an observational, stimulus–response methodology that focused on observing the variety of stimuli that materials ‘in’ and ‘of’ themselves evoked through an iterative sequence of sensitizing exercises. The students became mindful of and attuned to the materials they worked with, gradually guided towards instinctive, associative ideation alongside material engagement. The study shows that by engaging in material-led and body-aware work through reflective practice, students can empathetically access their own experiences and use them as a source of inspiration, resulting in a creative process that feels natural and responsive. The article argues that such methods applied to costume design pedagogy promote emancipatory and transformative aspects of learning, as they foster a connection between the students’ ‘self’ and their artistic work.

Background and Aim: Fashion design is a highly creative, interdisciplinary field that covers many aspects such as clothing, accessories, and textiles. Through creative design, material selection, process technology, etc., provide people with unique, beautiful, and practical fashion products and services. There has been a significant surge in research activity in the field of fashion design over the past decade, and by reviewing the data it was found that there is an academic gap in the bibliometrics of Fashion Design. The purpose of this study is 1) To study the research overview of Fashion Design. 2) To analyze the research frontiers of Fashion Design. 3) To analyze the evolution Path of Research Frontiers of Fashion Design. Materials and Methods: The key steps in retrieval: (1) Select database; (2) Enter "Topic"; (3) Select Document Type; (4) Select Document Language; (5) Enter Document Release Time Scope. Enter Topic="Fashion Design". Document types are article, proceeding paper, and English review from 2014-01-01 to 2022-12-31 for recent research. Book Citation Index-Science and Book Citation Index-Social Science & Humanities were excluded, leaving 1,049 documents. Common scientometric software includes CiteSpace, HistCite, Loet Tools, SciMAT, and VOSviewer. This study uses VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) for visualizing and analyzing scientific literature, helping researchers identify patterns, trends, and relationships in data. Results: The result of this research is that there are many prolific authors, Countries, and Publishers in this research field. There are three research fronts: "Impact", "Consumption" and "Industry". The evolution path of the research fronts starts from "Clothing Design" in 2014-2018. and "Arts", to "Innovation" in 2018-2019, to "Creativity" in 2019-2020, then to "Technology" and "Sustainability" in 2020-2021. Conclusion: The quality of articles in the "Fashion Design" research field is generally higher, with more research and very active. Research Frontiers: There are three research fronts: "Impact", "Consumption" and "Industry" The fashion design field’s focus on influence, consumption, and industry reflects its increasing emphasis on business and social impact. Evolution Path of Research Frontiers: The evolutionary path of the research frontier ranges from “Costume Design” and “art” in 2014-2018, to “Innovation” in 2018-2019, to “Creativity” in 2019-2020, and then to “technology” in 2020-2021 and “Sustainable development”. After 2021, it will be "Impact ", "Consumption" and "Industry". The evolution path of the research frontier reflects the shift in the development direction of the field of fashion design from single design and art to more design and art: diversification and comprehensiveness. From focusing on innovative ideas to technology and sustainable development to market, consumer, and industry development, it reveals the changes and evolution in the field of fashion design in the pursuit of excellence, sustainable development, and social impact.

Costume design is one of the most valuable visual elements of film making considering its significance to the overall film outlook, authenticity, cultural reflection and documentation. However, one aspect that has often been criticised in Nollywood films is the historical accuracy of the costumes in them. This alteration from a strict historical continuum diminishes verisimilitude in film due to costumes misrepresentation. This paper therefore, addressed this gap by examining the historical authenticity of the costume designs in Elesin Oba by Biyi Bamidele in order to determine the extent to which the costume designer realistically reflected the clothing styles and cultural norms of Nigerian’s colonial era and old Oyo Empire in the film. The theoretical frameworks that foreground this paper are New Historicism by Stephen Greenblatt and Symbolic interactionism by John Dewey. This paper employed qualitative research method through analytical, descriptive and interview tools to gather the primary data in order to discover the creative techniques used by the costumier in the selected film; while the secondary data was sourced from relevant journals, articles, books and other internet materials in order to ensure a robust submission on the discourse. The Findings revealed that intensive research on the historical background of Elesin Oba by the costumier added depth to the historical narratives, character portrayal and enriched audience engagement. While, the key elements that contributed to historical authenticity of the costume designs in the film include: period-specific styles, appropriate colour, and meticulous attention to period fabric and accessories. However, the paper also observed that there are few costume accessories that the costumier improvised with instead of the real material in her costume designs. The paper concluded that, the challenges of costume misrepresentation in the production of historical films in Nigeria stemmed from the lack of proper research into the historical period of films by costume designers. The paper therefore recommend that, budding costume designers should research into the historical events and use them as a guide for their creative designs in order to avoid costume misrepresentation in their costume designs.

Generating repeatable guidelines for designing creative products has long been an aim of the design research community. Even so, a widely trusted or agreed-upon process has not yet emerged. As a first step toward this goal, it is important to take stock of the reported connections between creative design processes and creative design outcomes. Thus, we conducted a scoping review focusing on creative prod-uct design. Our search identified 130 papers published from 1969 to 2021. The most frequent study type was a proposal paper (n = 53). Twenty-seven of the included papers used experimental methods. When connecting the creative design process to the outcome, 72 papers theorized about how the targeted design process could influence design outcome creativity; 58 papers used empirical methods to assess outcome creativity. These findings suggest that more empirical studies are needed to examine the process-to-outcome association in creative product design.

The proposed paper concerns with fashion and clothing as visual and semiotic signifiers of both the individual and society in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth and its representations in other media: film (costume design) and haute couture (fashion design). As such, the language of fashion and the vestimentary frame of Shakespeare's tragedy are used as tools for visual and semiotic reading of sociocultural anxieties between the individual and the society as expressed through art. Given rich symbolic and metaphoric value of the language of fashion in Macbeth through which Shakespeare conceptualises his characters and their relationships with the societal framework they inhabit, the paper will thus demonstrate how such a relationship can be conveyed through film costume and fashion design. Analysed representations will consider costume design by Jacqueline Durran for Justin Kurzel's film Macbeth (2015) and fashion design by Alexander McQueen and his collection The Widows of Culloden (2006). In such analysis, fashion is, as fashion theorist Elizabeth Wilson defines it, seen as a cultural metaphor for the body and the material with which we write or draw a representation of the body into our cultural context.

Kyra Markham: An Introduction

An empirical study of the psychology of creativity carried out over a period of more than 20 years has identified a specific creative operation called "homospatial process. " This process has been shown to have an important function in various types of creative activities in the arts and sciences. As defined, the homospatial process consists ofactively conceiving two or more discrete entities occupying the same mentally represented space or spatial location, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities. A technical method for facilitating homospatial thinking in costume design is described. This method involves the use of slide transparencies superimposed on a projection screen from two separate light sources and reproduces the effect of discrete entities occupying the same space. Specific examples demonstrate the feasibiltiy of using such a technique to facilitate the creative process of costume design.

CoCoStyle: Mixed initiative co-creative system to support creative process of fashion design

The research is about the role of the costume designer and the extent of its effectiveness in achieving the balance between character design that reflects the ideals and goals of movie, and finding the appropriate reference, whether historical or civilized influence, through the design idea on which it is based. For example, the research was taken from the costume design of the star wars movie in a condition that applies to the elements of a suitable design and limited the analysis On Queen Padmé character from the series of star wars movies, the research mentioned three costumes that appeared during the film; throne room gown with its elements inspired in the creative process of design, the lake gown, and the travel gown with its details which Inspired by different civilizations like old historical Russian dress.

This interdisciplinary project exhibits the possibilities of combined creative efforts between students in apparel design and telecommunications. The particular project between student film director and myself as a costume designer was initiated by the need to fulfill our own respective independent study courses held in spring 2016. By combining the skill sets of a director, cinematographer, actors, and costumers to name a few, we are engaging in a production that comes close to professional working experience. This report follows the creative process using a three-stage design model: 1) Problem definition & research, 2) Creative Exploration, and 3) Implementation (Labat & Sokolowski, 1999). This collaborative project explores ways of dealing with challenges such as limited time, historical authenticity, and working in front of a green screen. Overall, this interdisciplinary project will leave a synergy between two departments and a creative historical narrative that will last long after the credits have rolled.

This study analyzed the characteristics of morphing in fashion design through the documentaries on morphing and fashion. The characteristics of morphing in fine art, media, and design area were categorized as reversible metamorphosis, sequential dissolve and blurring of interpolation boundaries. The results were as follow in fashion design. Reversible metamorphosis showed an automatic silhouette transformation by remote control, the metamorphosis of folding method by wearer`s own movements and the automatic silhouette transformation by the air pressurizing method. It represented the thoughts of omnipotence as in the feeling of the magical world, the human desire for control in life, the rationalization of magical thinking and imaginative power, the creation of a new dress space and the extension of dress function. Sequential dissolve showed juxtaposition in the same area by the time order, juxtaposition in virtual space through the computer graphics, the series of fashion photography by steel cut of the dress making process and the blending of digital film and fashion design. It represented the approach for the storytelling of fashion show, implication of creative fashion design process and the creation of organic forms and the feeling of fantasy through artificial technology. The blurring of interpolation boundary showed an overlay of different fabrics with transparent boundaries, an overlay of different patterns with transparent boundaries and the blending of fabrics through the visual mixing of color. It represented the obfuscation of the object, the connotation of the space order, the connotation of the extensive and various meanings and the integrative property of objects.

Accompanying with the advent of Information Communication Technology and its common usage in daily lives, design business has then encountered new challenge by adapting these changes into business implementation concern. This paper aims to provide a creative and effective design process by examining current interior design business and its relationships with design management. Major noticeable issues are aroused by re-considering roles between clients, involved designers and design managers. Apparently, relationship between client and designer is changing dynamically over the course of design process particularly under today's communicational ways. This paper focuses mainly on the use of changing and applicable modes that not only supports design process to be more creative but also assists design process to be further effective by implementing design management at internal level. Through exploring existing difficulties of communications and potentialities in the design phases, this paper proposes a conceptual framework attempting to employ Information Communication Technology into business implementation based on theory of Participatory Design where creative design processes and management could both bring better outcome for interior design practice as well as achieve a sustainable business model.

<p>The focus of this thesis is on visual communication design (VCD) students’ engagement with creative design process learning within a transnational context. The context is an international partnership between a higher education institution in New Zealand and Hunan City University (HNCU) in China. The Chinese government is currently positioned in a third wave of an internationalisation strategy which encourages cooperative agreements with foreign or overseas institutional partners situated within Chinese universities. For design institutions in particular, the Made in China government initiative has led universities to actively engage with design education approaches imported from the west. The aim for Chinese institutions is to encourage student creativity in order to build on government aspirations to move China from a manufacturing, to an innovation and design led economy. Cultural historic activity theory (CHAT) was used to analyse data from a VCD studio classroom at HNCU in China. A three-level hierarchy of artefacts model was developed for the analysis, which by extention offers a CHAT approach for creative design scenarios. The study had two phases. The first comprised two project-based case studies exploring how creative design process learning occurred when the students were exposed to design thinking. Students were organised into dyads to foster collaborative work for the projects, a branding project, and a cultural project involving illustration design. Data gathered through video stimulated recall interviews with eight dyad participants (sixteen VCD students) and 200 written reflections were analysed. The second phase of the research focused on understanding the cultural and historic pedagogical context. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with local teachers at HNCU, and observations were undertaken in Chinese language medium classrooms. Underpinning the findings, are the ways in which Chinese design education practices at HNCU are shaped by an interweaving of Confucian thought within contemporary social and political tenets (e.g., striving for perfection). The analysis revealed that familiar and unfamiliar learning practices, including previous models encountered by students in the classroom, together with an adjustment to new practices, directly impacted student actions. Imported educational practices resulted in tensions and contradictions between step-by-step and iterative design thinking processes, and collaboration within the division of labour. Non-creative and creative activity outcome conclusions were drawn, and it is argued that a fresh perspective emerged. A creative craft practice situated within its historic and cultural context exists at HNCU. Key to the idea of creative craft practice is that historic and current sociocultural contexts participate in the creative process and contextual elements such as materiality, and teaching practices which use imitation, repetition and precedents, are assembled. The practice contained deeply intertwined student object-oriented motives of product over process, and productions of excellence or perfection. Over time, the efficacy of these motives, alongside drawing from examples for conceptual development, led to enhanced student agency and engagement. This overall finding challenges the creativity deficit belief about students from China, and the originality syndrome imposed on VCD students. The contribution is timely owing to a dearth of studies about graphic or VCD education in general and the potential influence of transnational teaching on creative design process learning in China.</p>

Creativity, which is concerned with problem solving, is essential if we are to generate new solutions to the massive and complex problems in the unknown future. Our next generation needs an educational platform where they can be taught to possess creativity. Design education is such a way to foster students’ creativity. Therefore, it is essential to understand the creative design process and its routine in order to show how students can generate creative output and how teachers can guide students in the design process. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to investigate the creative design process as it is employed in producing creative designs, and further recommend how students can practise and learn to be creative based on the model process developed in this paper. The model is expected to provide a guideline for teachers to facilitate students along the creative thinking process.

In the current economic climate, many university collections and museums are asked to justify their continued existence. Demonstrating that they are meeting the home institution's tripartite mission of research, teaching, and service is considered essential. Textiles and clothing collections (TCCs) are often utilized by researchers and in classrooms focusing on fashion design or historic dress within the apparel field. However, costume designers have equal need for TCCs. In addition to visual and textual sources, costume designers examine historical artifacts to gain a deeper understanding of a period or place. While Welters and Ordonez (2011) understood this, recommending outreach to theater departments in their monograph about academic TCCs, the connection between TCCs and theater makers is tenuous at best. The purpose of this presentation is to offer suggestions to TCCs related to theater makers in order to advance their mission and to increase their visibility within the university and the community.