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Major Textiles Project
Influence of costume design on fashion
One of the focus areas for the Major Textiles Project is Costume. If you are considering this focus area for your Major Textile Project this tutorial will help you explore the influence of costume design on fashion.
Outcomes
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes.
H6.1 analyses the influence of historical, cultural and contemporary developments on textiles.
Extract from Stage 6 Textiles and Design Syllabus © Board of Studies NSW 2007.
Costumes have always had an enormous influence on world fashion.
When a star captures the public's imagination, a film or television role has taken him or her there. The exposure this celebrity brings to a costume style generates millions of dollars for the fashion business. When a film engages the public's mind, it is a powerful tool for a clothing manufacturer.
A style cycle begins as this role is recreated in retail fashion to the delight and demand of fans. Often the most successful screen images become "iconography", as new classics feel like they have always been part of the culture.
Costume designers receive great pride from seeing their efforts reproduced on a global scale, but little recognition and no remuneration for setting worldwide trends.
Costume designs from all forms of theatre are an important resource for the fashion designer. Famous designers often base a whole collection around a theme generated from watching a movie. Elements of old design ideas from period pieces in particular are creatively used to create new designs.
Activity 1
In the movie The Aviator the fashions of the 1930s were influenced by several famous actresses, including Jean Harlow, Louise Brooks, Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. Not just by their own fashion sense but by the costumes they wore in their movies.
Find out more about the fashion icons of the 1920s 
.
Fashions that have appeared since The Aviator was released have also been influenced by the styles and fashions it featured, with many designers being inspired to explore the fashions of this era as they develop new collections.
Transition to New Fashion Trends Autumn 2005 Winter 2006
In Autumn 2005/Winter 2006 the overall fashion trends feature components that echo the drama of historical costume and the glorious glamour of screen starlets. There are even more opulent embellished fabrics than previously seen. These fashion looks mostly emphasise women and their hour glass curves, feminine ladylike attributes and a longing for the chic sophisticated grooming combined with a yearning for the more romantic clothes of decades past. Black of course is back - as if it ever went away! http://fashion-era.com/Trends_2006/1_fashion_trends_2006_looks_autumn_05_winter.htm#Aviator_Look
Look at the fashion trends which followed the release of The Aviator to identify the trends for which it and the costume designer Sandy Powell can be attributed.
Extension
Would you like to know more about period costume in movies? The following sites will provide you with a review of movies which feature period costumes from Ancient Egypt to the 20th century.
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Movies 2 |
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