Designing for performance is a discipline that involves imagination, flare and an eye for the unusual. Karen Burge meets two designers who've left their mark on costume design as well as audiences.
If the art of fashion design is like putting colour to a canvas, then costume design is like watching that painting come to life.
Behind one artist is yet another adding movement, sound and story to something that begun as a humble stretch of fabric and a few ideas.
Whether it's for dance, theatre, opera, musical, film or TV, the performer's costume stays in the spotlight for as long as they do.
High profile designer Akira Isogowa made his foray into the arts in 1998 when approached by the Sydney Dance Company to create a costume for its production, Salome.
Despite having no shortage of fashion design credentials, he remembers feeling "nervous" at the idea.
"I'd never done anything like that before but at the same time I was very flattered to be asked. Then I decided that I would like to explore this opportunity to see if I could do it."
While fashion and costume design might appear similar on the surface, for many this tends to be where the likeness ends.
"My idea when designing for fashion is based on producing multiples of the same designs... I think about production capacity then obviously price points because it's got to be compatible for the market," Isogowa explains.
"Designing a costume has none of that. I can design a one-off piece - a one-of-a-kind and I can explore more couture techniques, hand-embellished or hand-stitched, what have you."
Because of the nature of performance, dressing dancers requires a certain type of fabric and a particular way to finish garments.
There's a lot more use of two-way stretch fabrics, like lycra and nylon tulle - "not so much of the silk that I'm used to using for my ready-to-wear collection", Isogowa points out.
Then come the practical issues - the dancers' sweat, the constant washing of costumes, the need for durability and so on.
Lead times are completely thrown upside down too. For instance, Isogowa is currently discussing a project with the Australian Ballet for 2010, which gives him plenty of time to work on his design in collaboration with production staff such as technical advisers, set designers and lighting technicians. Compare that to a whirlwind schedule in preparation for a fashion parade - about four months in Isogowa's case.
"Fashion design to me is like running a short distance, where you need to run really fast. Designing costumes is actually more long distance," he says.
Isogowa talks through the finer points of difference between fashion and costume design with an enthusiasm that leaves little doubt this is an area he draws much inspiration from.
He takes particular pride in his most recent designs for the Sydney Dance Company's production, Grand, which will be shown in Shanghai this year.
One specific garment stands out. "It was a dress for a female Japanese dancer. She wore layers and layers of silk organza and I was very excited to be able to use silk because it moves so beautifully. I was very extravagant about it. I would have used about 30 metres of silk organza. Because it was such a light fabric it moved so beautifully."
It's seeing the physical movement and the final product on stage - the weaving of design, story, movement, lighting and music - that Isogowa sees as an unparalleled experience.
"I was in the audience for Salome and I, and I'm sure the rest of the audience, felt transported to another place - into a different realm. It's amazing. You are in a different dimension; in a dream state," he recalls.
"When I finally see the company's production, when I see all the lighting and the music working together with the costume it's truly a magical experience."
Branching out into costume design also feeds into Isogowa's fashion business, offering an opportunity to take clients to performances here and overseas as well as inspiring designs for his own collections.
"Sometimes the [costume] collaboration does actually give me inspiration for my own work. For example, when designing for Grand there was a particular technique I explored in terms of designing textiles - it was all hand-stitching which was heavily done on the bodice of a costume for the dancers. I was very inspired by the look of it so I actually translated it into fashion in such a way so that the style was able to be produced. They can actually feed off each other - designing costumes and designing fashion."
The guidance and expertise surrounding designers in this collaborative environment is vital - something Isogowa found in abundance when working with the Sydney Dance Company.
Behind-the-scenes is an orchestra of experts; each playing a key role is bringing a garment to the stage.
These include costume technicians, pattern-cutters, researchers, wardrobe supervisors as well as those who work in costume maintenance and theatrical millinery - a range of professionals that support the role of the designer.
Helping skill this workforce is the Sydney Institute of TAFE NSW; specifically, Roslyn O'Dell who teaches theatre costume units and helps with course coordination.
She sees a variety of students come through the ranks into this highly creative field.
"Some have worked in the costume industry and want to gain further skills, some want to learn to actually make the costumes," she explains. All enter the course with some kind of background experience, including sewing or patternmaking.
For creative talent, Nigel Shaw, the path to costume design began from having worn many of them as a dancer.
After more than 24 years as an entertainer performing with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner and Elton John, Shaw set up his own costume company in 1995.
"I started doing costumes for club shows. I was shown how to use a sewing machine and an overlocker to start, then on to cutting out patterns using mainly lycra. I watched how friends made these great art pieces out of rolls of flat fabric that took life and shape and became a 3D-structure," he explains.
Today Shaw's business boasts a line-up of productions and performers, including The Wiggles, Tina Arena and The Lion King. Costumes are designed for performance in musicals, theatre, film, television, opera and dance.
It's the fun and fantasy in costume design that drives Shaw, and it's a career he clearly gets much joy from.
"I still feel like I did when I entered the stage as a dancer - to see people's reactions as hopefully something amazing enters the stage," he explains. "I love listening to people's comments as they leave as to whether it was a good show or not."
Among a long list of costumes designed over the years, Shaw has put together some amazing and unique creations.
"Fashion has to be practical to a point, whereas the freedom of ideas are endless for costumes," he says.
"I have made people into unicorns, made a 6'2 man look like a massive white cockatiel, an ascending butterfly made out of ripped organza's then painted and stoned, and many fantasy costumes for big corporation managers wanting to make a huge entrance at their Christmas party or event."
Right now Shaw is putting the finishing touches on designs for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade as well as creating costumes for a juggling/contorting family soon to appear on television. At the same time he is also putting together outfits for a pirate show on a cruise ship, highlighting just how varied this type of work can be.
While it all looks like fun on the surface, there is a method Shaw takes to his projects.
"We have to take the given budget and try and design something that can be created and made within the price and time limits. We start with various ideas and themes, draw them quickly to get an idea of how it all balances and then take it from there. I sometimes draw four or five While approaching costume design from two different perspectives, Isogowa and Shaw both see a similar trend emerging.
Whether it's life imitating art or art imitating life, today's costumes and fashion garments are starting to mirror each other.
Isogowa, who has personally taken costume techniques across to his fashion business, says the lines are starting to blur.
Shaw points to designers such as Jean Paul Gautier and Thierry Mugler who use "an amazing mix of fashion and costume techniques" in their work.
While there won't be any pirates and 6'2 cockatiels strutting the runways any time soon, it's the subtleties that are peeking through, making mainstream fashion all the more rich and unique from the experience.
Higher learning
The Sydney Institute of TAFE NSW has this year introduced a revamped version of it's Diploma of Costume for Performance - a three-and-a-half year, part-time course.
The course is for students who want to learn to apply creative, practical technical skills in the costume industry as a designer or wardrobe supervisor for professional stage and screen productions.
ToRoslyn O'Dell teaches theatre costume units and helps coordinate the course. She explains that students also do work experience throughout the year and make vital in-roads into this specialised professional area.
"They really learn to network with the industry," says O'Dell. "They walk away with a very thorough overall knowledge of the industry and the different job roles. "And in August is a theatre costume showcase and the students learn to collaborate with actors, and dancers and make-up artists as well as backstage work."
The Sydney Institute of TAFE graduates around 10 to 15 students every year but the market out there isn't huge.
"There is a limited amount of jobs but it fluctuates, depending on how many productions there are," O'Dell says, adding that the filming of the movie Australia brought along with it a variety of roles for costume professionals.
The National Institute of Dramatic Art also offers a range of costume design courses to prepare students for work in film, television and theatre, including short courses, as well as part-time and full-time studies. This includes a full-time, three-year Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production Crafts).
While the core of the bachelor course is in costume construction, graduates are prepared by both the teaching and NIDA Play Production program to work in many areas of costume in the arts and entertainment industry.
Head of costume Fiona Reilly tells potential students that "only the passionate need apply".
"A career in costume can be a lifelong journey into a world of challenges, collaboration, creativity and discovery," she explains online.
NIDA has graduated a number of high-profile designers, including Catherine Martin, designer for Baz Luhrmann, Oscar winner and nominee for Best Costume for the 2009 Oscars. There are a number of other education opportunities available through an online search.