Emotion and Memory; clothing the body as performance

Jessica Bugg
Abstract
This chapter focuses on clothing as performance and scenography and the
presence and role of clothing and costume design in performance. I explore
through my practice as a designer, the clothed body as a site for production of
meaning, narrative, performance and communication in an interdisciplinary setting.
The intention is to expose the role of costume and clothing design as a generator of
performance and meaning through design by drawing on embodied experience,
memory, sensory interaction, emotional and physical triggers in garment design as
a generator of embodied communication. The design within this research draws on
oral histories of dress and seeks to engage viewers and wearers on an emotional
and experiential level by connecting to cognitive understanding and memory.
This work builds upon aspects of my completed doctoral researchi which
identified that the intersections of subject disciplines are increasingly complex and
new interdisciplinary ways of working have emerged that focus on the body and
clothing, challenging preconceptions, traditional approaches and subject
definitions. I argue that as performance and experimental fashion practice both
increasingly move into new and site-specific contexts and as focus is extended
around the role of the performer, audience reception, conceptual and experimental
approaches, the divisions between clothing designed as conceptual fashion and
clothing designed as costume for performance have become less defined. I suggest
that it is the shared use of clothing and the performing body to communicate
meaning that has enabled a hybrid practice to emerge between fashion and
performance. I place emphasis on clothing the body as a visual and physical
communication strategy and in relation to research in the fields of performance,
costume design, fashion design and fashion communication.
I suggest that by focusing on the body as the site for production of meaning and
performance, clothing can be not only present in the production process of
performance, but also can become a generator of performance and communication
through design. By focusing on costume and clothing as a form of narrative and
scenography, I have been able to take into account how the emotional and physical
factors as well as the site of the body itself contributes to the making, intention and
reading of work in the context of hybrid fashion, clothing and performance practice
within a contemporary context.

Key Words: Interdisciplinary, conceptual design, fashion, experiential design,

memory, emotion, performance, scenography, design for dance, costume.

*****
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1 Clothing the Body in Fashion and Performance

Costume and Fashion design have tended to view one another as related
but distinctly different practices, traditionally taught and practised separately by a
differently trained type of designer. The role of the designer in the traditional
hierarchy of production is also very different. Fashion designers concepts are often
embedded in the designs that drive the story told on the catwalk or in the final
communication context, costume design on the other hand has traditionally been
seen as subordinate in the hierarchy of production coming from a theatre tradition
where the text and actors and the directors intention is the framework to which
visual or scenographic collaborators respond. In this context more often than not
costume has been applied to performance and has tended to be absent in the
developmental phase of a production. Looked at simplistically high-end fashion
collections tend to drive a particular narrative or communication with the audience
whereas costume design has tended to be responsive to a particular communication
or narrative.
Although designers in both disciplines use clothing as their medium through
which to communicate, the worlds of fashion and performance have tended to be
analysed and understood in the context of their own disciplines as separate and
distinctly different in terms of their design process and intention. It is often
assumed that the difference between clothing designed for performance, as
opposed to fashion, is the focus on character, narrative and spatial and time based
aspects of performance not usually associated with fashion, which is seen to focus
on contemporary aesthetic, wearability and consumption. I challenge this position
and argue that as performance and fashion start to draw on similar theoretical
frameworks and as practice in both areas increasingly moves into new and site-
specific contexts coupled with extended focus on conceptual and experimental
approaches, the divisions between clothing designed as conceptual fashion and
clothing designed as costume for performance have arguably become less defined,
process and intention are being reassessed in both disciplines and this has opened
up an interdisciplinary dialogue.
I focus on the shared emerging languages and use of the clothed
and performing body as a catalyst and space for creation and communication of
meaning as the starting point for this interdisciplinary discussion. I also use the
term performance here as opposed to theatre as it encompasses a broader
definition, which includes music videos, film, live performance, opera,
contemporary dance, street performance, mime, performance art, installation
performance, pop up performance, physical theatre, immersive and site-specific
work. This platform gives wider scope for understanding the emerging area of
contemporary creative practice pointing towards a hybrid practice between
conceptual fashion and costume design in recent years. This relationship from my
perspective runs deeper than theatrical approaches in fashion and embraces shared
approaches to methodology, intention as well as to communicational strategies.
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Sophia Pantouvaki in this volume supports this point saying ‘the fields of costume
in performance and experimental fashion as neighbouring in terms philosophy,
presentation and communication’ 2 To understand the relationship between fashion
and performance it is necessary to identify that this area of cross disciplinary
practice differs in relation to the commercial application of discipline cross over
employed as a means of gaining promotion, financial backing or as a way of
extending audiences in both fashion and performance.
Nancy Troy In her book Couture Cultures3 identifies a growing cross over
between theatre and fashion in contemporary fashion practice and states that:

In the modern period the connections between fashion and

theatre are multiple, encompassing not simply the design of
costumes for the stage, or the dramatic potential of fashion
shows, or even the performative aspect of wearing clothes, but
also the exploitation of the ‘star’ system for the commercial
purpose of launching new clothing styles.4

Troy alludes to the breadth of practices emerging at the intersection of

fashion and performance, that includes fashion practitioners designing costume for
dance and opera 5 and the application of narrative and performative communication
in fashion photography as seen in the work of photographers and art directors such
as Tim Walker and Marcus Tomlinson. Also the increasing celebrity endorsement
and promotion of fashion by celebrities, film stars and pop stars who wear the
designer’s clothing in performative advertising campaigns and music videos6 It is
however performance of the clothed body in catwalk presentation over recent years
that can be most clearly associated with performance in the most holistic sense.
The mechanics of performance and the stage have been employed in hugely
expensive productions, catwalk shows have become highly sophisticated,
performed, art directed and spectacular. More than this a type of fashion
performance art can be seen to have emerged within areas of conceptual fashion
design practice.
In 2001 Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress Body and Culture devoted
a volume solely to the subject of Fashion and Performance that focused on this area
of cross over7. Within this volume Caroline Evans in her article The Enchanted
Spectacle discusses the development of mannequin parades in the early 1900s and
their progression into the large scale blockbuster spectaculars of recent years
referring particularly to ‘the spectacle, excess and showmanship’ of Alexander
McQueen and John Galliano in the 1990s8. She extends this discussion in her
seminal text Fashion at the Edge9 where she addresses experimental fashion design
and the increased use of spectacle within fashion communication. In the case of
designers such as Galliano I would argue that despite the performative approach to
communication, the garments themselves remain fashion and are not driven by a
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performance intention, rather this treatment was applied to the collection to assist
in the promotion of the designer and the communication of the garments themes or
intended muse.
There were a group of fashion designers from the early part of this
century who were moving beyond this remit10, challenging fashion itself, exploring
the potential of cross disciplinary practice and communicating concepts, ideas and
messages through their work employing visual narrative through the clothed and
performing body. Victor and Rolf typify this approach and have questioned the
commercial imperative of the fashion system itself through their collections,
employing conceptual approaches and using visual semiotic messages that embed
meaning within their garments and within their communication. This performative
approach reassesses the role of the designer, production processes and audience
relationships as illustrated in the Russian Doll (2008) collection where a single
model was dressed by the designers in front of the audience in layer upon layer of
their couture garments in a ritualistic performance. Here the performance is that of
the designers creating and communicating messages to the audience through
design, echoing aspects of costume design practice. The communication is clearly
performative however the role here of the model is very different to that we may
think of in relation to actor or performer, her role is that of a representational body,
she is clothed but is subservient in the dressing, responding or performing process.
Martin Margiela works in a similarly narrative way and has consistently
rejected commercial imperatives and has challenged fashion systems, structures,
processes, material and meaning. Through his focus on craft and process, his
anonymous persona, the reassessment of body and of the ideal model he
deconstructs both garments and of the fashion system itself, his work projects
conceptual and political messages or narratives that are often communicated
through controversial performances in non fashion contexts and on non fashion
body’s. From my perspective this work can be understood in a trans disciplinary
context and although routed in fashion it speaks to performance in the way the
designers work with clothing to communicate socio political ideas, narratives and
concepts through a performative means. This approach is clearly akin to clothing
based performance art where both the clothing and the performance are driven by
the clothing located concepts. The communication in effect becomes more about
process and ideas prioritised over the clothing as product or the commercial
success of the collections. There are clear parallels in these designers work to the
working method of visual artists in performance, particularly if we view the body
itself as a stage on which the designer’s concept are enacted. This approach enables
audiences to understand the messages from their own understanding of the clothed
body in the contemporary context, I will return to this point later in this discussion.
The performer however does not necessarily react through an embodied
understanding in these examples and becomes a canvas or site for the
communication.
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The work of Hussein Chalayan speaks more directly to performance and
begins to suggest a new perspective on contemporary embodied clothing practice.
He explores clothing led narratives, performance, art, technology and new
platforms for communication often telling story’s through design. Although his
work is similarly conceptually motivated he designs narratives and experiences that
are embodied in the clothing, and that are extended through the wearers
engagement physically which is conveyed through performative communication.
He draws on experience of the body as visual, emotional and physical messages,
derived from personal or shared human experience such as cultural identity,
isolation and migration. Sophia Pantovaki states ‘Costumes embody meanings and
narratives’11 and this is exactly what Chalayan’s garments do. Pantovaki argues
that clothing even when devoid of the body still retains the ability to perform and
states that she considers ‘the exhibition as another type of performance: as a new
performance in which the body of the performer does not participate in a
conventional way’12 Therefore the body can is always inextricably linked to
clothing whether it is being performed or suggests performative potential,
Chalayan’s garments demonstrate this inherent embodiment in dress and his
garments perform meaning whether communicated live in catwalk presentations, in
short animations or indeed in static exhibition contexts. He interweaves disciplines
as integral to his process placing the emphasis of the work on conveying embodied
concepts through garment design and performative communication. In the reading
of the work the discipline becomes irrelevant and it can be understood as narrative
led although functioning on different levels as craft, garment, meaning and
message. It is the primacy of clothing as conduit between designers and viewer that
is of central importance here and that sheds light on my argument. Bradly Quinn
discusses Chalayan’s interdisciplinary approach in the catalogue for the Chalayan
retrospective exhibition and suggests that his work could be understood as a new
genre describing him as:

‘a thinker who refuses the premise that fashion and the other
creative disciplines are separate entities. In fact much of his
output over the past ten years has brokered significant
connections between them. As Chalayan builds bridges between
the visual, the ideological, the invisible and the tangible, his
designs challenge preconceived notions of what clothing can
mean, contributing towards and even setting the parameters for a
whole new genre’13

New approaches, terminology and hybrid practices have emerged in both fashion
and performance. I have discussed the centrality of clothing as message, narrative
or performance and also the performance of fashion on the catwalk, however the
relationship between fashion and performance is far more complex than this. The
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design processes themselves also have shared elements in their methodology for
example high end and couture fashion design and costume design both realise one
off garments for a particular wearer or event, they utilise semiotic codes and
messages within clothing as a means of communicating to their audience and both
work with character in different ways to inform the design process. Character may
manifest in fashion as designing for a particular musician, muse, the styling for a
collection or may more directly become the design intention as in many of the
collections of Bernard Willhelm, Gareth Pugh, Henrik Vibskov, Alexander Mc
Queen and Walter Van Beirendonck. The exhibition Arrrgh! Monsters in Fashion
14
highlights this approach and points towards an extended exploration of the
relationship between fashion and performance methodology and practice. What is
interesting here is not only the visual and semiotic messages about character that
have been central to fashion for some time but the emerging exploration of
character behaviour, narrative and time based development through design that is
conveyed through a physical communication on the performing body.
At the same time as new developments have been taking place in fashion
performance has also developed its practice and parameters. Terminology, process,
new media, new audience relationships and contexts for communication are all
being challenged and responded to. The role of costume itself is being reassessed
in the hierarchy of design and performance production, researchers and
practitioners are beginning to discuss the developed role of costume as
performative conduit or maker of meaning. A generation of designers are now
graduating and entering the creative industries working with costume in new
spaces, with new methods and trained in different backgrounds. Design education
has also developed and approaches to costume are diverse a good example of this
shift is the MA Costume Design for Performance course at London College of
Fashion which specifically seeks to develop ‘experimental practitioners who will
push the boundaries of the subject of costume beyond its established traditional
role’15
As fashion has moved into the performative space performance has also
extended into the traditional fashion space. For example Seven Sisters group in
their performance Double Take (2000) used the interior of Selfridges department
store as a site specific performance platform. They continued this exploration of
the fashion site and performed Boxed in the window of John Lewis on Oxford
Street (2006) inhabiting the commercial fashion environment and speaking directly
to fashion audiences. Punch Drunk have also collaborated with high end fashion
designer Louis Vuitton where they created a site specific immersive performance
in an old post office for the opening of the new flagship store on Bond Street
(2010), interestingly breaking with performance tradition this performance did not
specifically tell a story or follow a narrative but was inspired by the Vuitton
archive and museum 16, an approach often taken in fashion as part of the design
intention. In a post modern context the idea of what performance is, its duration,
purpose, audience, visual languages and premise to communicate narratives is
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being pushed into new territories and performance like fashion is exploring the
potential of methodologies and practice from other disciplines.
New media and communication platforms have also informed and
extended approaches in both disciplines and contribute to this cross-disciplinary
dialogue. The possibilities of film, projection, digital editing soft wear, animation
packages, mobile technologies, live feed and the relationship between the real and
the virtual have all altered the way both disciplines communicate, the way
audiences engage in the meaning making of any communication and in turn have
extended the practice of designers in performance contexts. Liora Malka Yellin
discusses in this volume innovative use of technology and the relationship between
the visual and the virtual in relation to contemporary dance and illustrates the
influence of technology on changing perspectives in performance. She talks
specifically of the ‘interchangeability between the real and the virtual’17 in relation
to Merce Cunningham’s Biped and Parjad Sharifi takes this a step further where he
discusses ‘Bioscenography’ and the construction of character through assemblage
of scenographic elements to ‘deterritorialise the discourse of theatrical agency from
human actors and humanoid puppets to anthropomorphic non-representational non-
representational characters’18 The rules of scenography and performance making
are clearly being reassessed and developed. These perspectives embrace methods
of abstraction, deconstruction and questioning of methods of performance
production and receivership that reflect the way I challenge and question
methodology’s in my own clothing based research and practice. Practitioners
across disciplines are also now able to communicate using a wide range of
scenographic and visual meaning making tools. The illusion of a communication
can now be manipulated, re contextualised and reviewed and this in turn enables a
reassessment of the ephemeral nature of both fashion and performance. Narratives,
characters, time and space can be fragmented, abstracted and multi layered
enabling agency and traditional hierarchical structures of production to be
reconsidered and re ordered.
Within fashion exploration of time-based narratives through animation,
virtual presentation platforms and layering of the real and virtual particularly in
presentational formats has become more commonplace. The catwalk is being
challenged as an expensive and exclusive undertaking that does not reach the
widest audiences and as a result fashion film has grown exponentially over recent
years. Fashion Film employs clothing and its related intentions and connected
narratives as central to its methodology and is a hybrid genre between fashion and
performance and has enabled designers and communicators to work with narrative,
sometimes with performers as opposed to models and to embrace new platforms
and audiences emerging from the potential of time based and digital platforms.
ShowStudio.com has played a central role in the development of the genre, giving
a platform for the exploration of experimental communication of garments through
time based and digital media. This practice has also been adopted in the
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commercial realm by high-end brands as an advertising platform and in some cases
the films function both as commercial conduit and as films in their own right. The
use of the medium has been employed with different degrees of integrity and can
often appear lacking in performative purpose or intention. There are notable
exceptions such as the short film MUTA by Lucrecia Martel commissioned by
Muccia Prada for the Miu Miu collection (Fall Winter 2011/2012)19 that functions
somewhere between dark emotive narrative and fashion promotion.
Other collaborations with film makers are extending the potential of this
medium beyond the commercial realm notably Gareth Pugh’s presentation 20 (A/W
2009) by Ruth Hogben which demonstrates a sensitive and developed use of the
medium as a means of communicating the kinetic potential of the garment’s and
the theme of the collection through embodied experience of the wearer. Menswear
designer Aitor Throup’s work with Jez Touzer goes a step further and uses film to
convey a physical and emotional narrative of transformation where the clothing
morphs from the body to become the cases of musical instruments. This work
responds to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, drawing on the idea of a
traditional New Orleans funeral marching band, telling ‘the story of five musicians
and their fight for survival in the wake of the devastation – a struggle in which they
must protect both themselves and their instruments’. 21 In this case the film enabled
the designer to communicate the narrative through both the design itself and
subsequent performance. This work from my perspective functions in a space
between fashion and performance and can be interpreted from either perspective or
indeed read and understood in its own right outside of discipline parameters
through the particular lenses of the viewer and is socio cultural context. I argue that
the examples of fashion design and communication discussed here all have some
form of message or visual narrative that drives the rationale for a performative
communication and the process and message is the primary focus as opposed to the
consumption of the garment as product.
There are shared areas of process and methodology that go beyond current
discussion of character, narrative, spectacle and performance in fashion
communication which are manifest in a variety of ways. What is most interesting
however at this interface is the transferability of areas of the design process itself
and the role of clothing in the overall communication. Both disciplines work with
cloth, the body, embodied meaning, semiotic codes, exploration of time with
reference to the past and present and both speak to an audience of some kind in the
present. I am not arguing that all performative applications within fashion are
performance or that contemporary aesthetics, themes and use of fashion spaces in
performance are fashion but rather that there is a particular and growing area of
practice in both disciplines that seems to function close to or at the intersection. In
a climate of reassessment of discipline parameters, interdisciplinary and
collaborative thinking it seems natural that a cross fertilisation of processes and
ideas has emerged. I further suggest that it is the shared understanding of clothing
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and the body and the similarity in methodology that enables practitioners to work
in a developing hybrid space with refocused methodologies.

2 Clothing as Scenography and Performance

Within traditional theatre design practice and still in much performance today
costume is required to be responsive to the text and the actors but to not
overshadow the performance itself, in effect costume is not usually seen to be
present and becomes part of the overall mise en scene. Aoife Monks discusses the
role of costume in the ‘illusion’ of theatre saying they are ‘expected to somehow
appear and to disappear, so they don’t interrupt the flow of the characters presence’
22
. Good costume design can indeed contribute to the overall scenography through
collaborative development and well researched and developed design. It can also
sometimes be both present and absent simultaneously, often visually present but
not oftern present within the performance process. I am interested here in costume
design that is clearly present both visually and as an instigator of performance.
Pamela Howard gives a definition of scenography as ‘The seamless
synthesis of space, text, research, art, actors, directors and spectators’ 23 She
discusses the collaboration between different participants in the making of theatre
and places emphasis on the role of the text and importance of collaborating with
the director to enhance the vision24 All of these elements that Howard mentions can
be understood by reinterpretation to relate to the body of the designer, performer
and viewer and the way that meaning is created through clothing the body and its
reading as performance. Much like in fashion, performance terms are being
contested and re focused. The role of the director is also shifting within areas of
contemporary practice. Within this volume there are a range of perspectives on
scenography that question or shed light on work that is being produced across
disciplines and that does not fit within the usual frameworks of theatre and
scenographic practice as it is currently understood25 Through my own work and in
specific examples of contemporary clothing lead performance my intention is to
expose on the role of designer as generator of concept, narrative and meaning
through clothing design and this negates the role of the text and director to some
extent placing the emphasis on the costume and the body as a text or narrative and
meaning essentially that the performance is the costume and the body’s responses
to it.
Some contemporary costume practitioners are beginning to question and
redefine the role of costume within the hierarchy of production and the making of
performance. Sophia Pantaouvaki challenges the role of costume through her
practice as a costume designer and curator and argues that costume can ‘generate
performance through its sole existence, independently of the performer’ and the
original performance in the new performative space of the gallery26 Others are
using costume as central to the communicating narrative of a performance, as
opposed to an applied or supportive element. Pantauvaki discusses the Costume
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designer Donatella Barbieri’s costume lead performance approach that is text or
character focused27 Others such as Sonia Biacchi for example are using costume as
instigator of movement response as opposed to responding to character and
narrative and is inspired by the way in which ‘actors, dancers and models bodies
and movements are transformed by the weights and volumes of her costumes’28
Maria Blaisse’s work with Iso Dance Company in the 1990s demonstrate an earlier
example of this type of costume exploration. More that this, her foam garments
modified the body form becoming integral to the movement and directing the
choreography itself.
This absence of costume in the development process of performance is
particularly prevalent in contemporary dance, where the costume is usually
encouraged to blend into the movement and is required to show the line of the
body, which is the central focus of the choreographer. Interestingly some of the
most challenging costume lead approaches are emerging in contemporary dance,
possibly in reaction to this lack of costuming that has rarely moved beyond the
body conscious design. There are also notable exceptions in an historical context
such as Martha Graham who explored costume as a means of extending the body in
performances such as Lamentation29 where Graham utilised the tensions and
possibilities of a stretch sack like garment to extend and develop the dance. Loie
Fuller is another pioneer of this approach with her innovative exploration of the
body and particularly costume ‘to express pure movement’30 is discussed
extensively by Malka Yellin within this volume where she talks of Fuller not only
dissolving into the dance but also into the conceived imagery’ created through
costume, movement and light31 This approach bridges the gaps in Howard’s
description of scenography by illustrating how the visual and physical elements of
performance can come together to become a form of body located scenography as
well as the choreography or direction.
Over recent years an increasing number of fashion designers have worked
for or collaborated with contemporary dance, however there are particular
examples that highlight the significance and potential of clothing in the devising or
choreographic process. Issey Miyake’s collaboration with the Frankfurt Ballet
begins to demonstrate how clothing can contribute not only on an aesthetic level
but also seem to extend the dancers movement through the pleated fabric and shape
of the garments 32. Rie Kawakubo’s design for Merce Cunningham’s Scenario goes
further than this and introduced costume as a catalyst for reaction. The
collaboration extended the chance led development process that typified
Cunningham’s creative process or indeed the costume experimentation of Martha
Graham. In this radical departure to dance costume Kawakubo explored the idea
of extending and distorting the bodies of the dancers by developing fabricated
protrusions and padding through clothing the dancers bodies that was inspired by
her S/S 1997 collection concept33. This radical intervention through clothing
arguably extended and became part of the dance as Suzy Menkes wrote in her
review:
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‘By the time Merce Cunningham and his modern dance company
took a standing ovation at the Paris Opera on Tuesday, those
weird goiter-like protuberances had become part of the
performance, as the costumes created forceful, sculptured shapes
against the surgical white set’ 34

In this example the costumes are not only a tool for developing the choreography,
but they enable conceptual, emotional and physical development of the
performance between the choreographer and dancers. A more direct example of
this approach is the work of Ulrik Martin Larsen who having trained in fashion
started to work in costume. His ‘Choreographed garments’ are inspired by ideas of
dressing the body and he utilises this exploration in the development of both the
garments form and as the performance itself seeking to ‘actively define movement
and influence choreography’ through clothing 35 This work demonstrates the power
of the performative nature of clothing, dressing and wearing and potentially of the
design process itself. My own research and practice over the past fifteen years has
exposed the potential for costume and clothing to be central not only in the final
‘performance’ but in the process of developing performance, physical response and
communication with wearers and viewers.
Artists and performance artists from the late 1960s to the present day have
used the medium of clothing and the performing body to convey their ideas in an
interdisciplinary context36 There are however currently a community of
contemporary practitioners like Larsen who seem to work specifically in the hybrid
space between performance and fashion. They come from diverse backgrounds
such as fashion, textiles, architecture and visual art, some have trained or worked
in more than one discipline and all have a preoccupation with clothing the visual
and performing body to one degree or another. They work with different
methodologies and employ performance and performance art approaches using
narrative, character, physical action through time and space as well as employing
fashion led processes or communicating contemporary ideas, narratives, themes
and aesthetics.
Fashion trained Di Mainstone works directly with the body designing
dance and performance pieces through clothing. In her process she employs
performance design processes writing stories that are translated into wearable
forms. Through physical improvisation in collaboration with a performer she
choreographs short garment lead performance narratives. Others work outside of a
specific narrative and their work indicates the possibilities of communicating
shared clothing and body related concepts in performance. The sculptor Nick Cave
comes from a background of fibre textiles and then modern dance and produces
fabricated body sculptures that convey, semiotic and performative messages when
worn. The design duo Lucy and Bart work in a similar way creating fabricated
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body forms that explore character, narrative and meaning through clothing the
performing body. Their work has been described on their blog as an ‘instinctual
stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body’ 37 The artist Margret
Wibmer also works between disciplines and often across media creating
performances, photographic narratives and installations that use clothing that she
designs as both fashion and communication conduits, her conceptually led works
function firmly at the interface of performance art and fashion. The Finish artist
Riitta Ikonen works from a more conceptual position using costume as a
communication tool in her work, she explores concepts related to the body,
emotion and socio political issues to create short performative photographic
narrative responses38. The Japanese artist Pyuupiru uses clothing, makeup and
prosthetics as a means of exploring character and identity producing costume,
images and short performance films that deal with contemporary issues.
The work of these practitioners embodies some form of suggested
narrative, characterisation or message as dictated by the material choices and
forms, although this goes beyond the traditional parameters of fashion or costume
design for performance by drawing ideas and inspiration from both methodologies.
In all of these instances the performance relies upon the costume and the
performers response to it as integral to the visual narrative and the development of
the performance or communication itself. I suggest that from these examples
clothing can be understood not as scenography alone but as a form of body located
scenography that metamorphoses the divisions between costume and set, body and
costume, wearer and audience by communicating a narrative of some kind or
through the relationship between the materiality of the garment and the embodied
response of the wearer in an intimate and experiential exchange 39 There are many
definitions of the term scenography as with the understanding of the term fashion
and its many and increasingly diverse practices. Arnold Aronson’s description of
scenography40 seems to embrace a perspective that is more tangible in this context,
he understands scenography as:

‘something more than scenery or costume or lights. It carries a

connotation of an all encompassing visual-spatial construct as
well as the process of change and transformation that is an
integral part of the physical vocabulary of the stage’ 41

This description may seem to take the focus away from costume but if the clothing
is designed to communicating meaning or visual and physical narratives or
messages through its interaction with the body, and if we understand the body itself
as site or stage then I argue that this interdisciplinary practice can be understood as
a type of site specific scenographic practice in its own right.

3 The Body as Site, Message and Meaning

The intimate relationship of clothing to the body is understood visually as well as
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through lived experience and physical exploration and embodiment. As Cohen
states ‘Observing the world is interacting with the world through the body’42
Designing and making clothing for the body is in itself a performative action, as
designers we communicate our own experience, knowledge and associations with
clothing as well as sculpting meanings and messages through materials, colours,
details and forms. Unlike static visual communication, clothing is interpreted by a
wearer or performer and in turn by the audience all of whom read through a
complex blend of cognitive, haptic, visual and physical reading and response. In
this sense the term scenography can be extended to recognise the significance of
the body itself as a form of narrative or communicational strategy.
Fashion theory has increasingly embraced the concept of the body itself as a
site for communication and more specifically the generation of concepts and
communication of meaning, for example (Warwick & Cavallaro (1998); Entwistle
& Wilson (2001) Entwistle (2000) and Fraser and Greco (2005). These texts begin
to deal with the complexity of fashion and dress in relation to the discourse of the
body. It is, however, Joanne Entwistle in her book The Fashioned Body who
importantly identified that although there was writing on discourses of the body it
had not been related to embodiment. She identified fashion as a ‘situated bodily
practice’which needs to take into account the lived and experienced elements of
wearing fashion and dress. She goes on to say ‘Dress in everyday life is about
experience of living in and acting on the body’.43
This perspective points towards a shared platform from which to understand
the type of experimental clothing design practice that is evident in both fashion and
performance that is perhaps best understood as ‘situated bodily practices’. It also
suggests that performance does not necessarily require a lengthy or possibly even
linear narrative or story, if understood in the context of the body itself, as the
designer, wearer and viewer come from a shared understanding of embodied
experience of wearing clothing. As Warwick and Cavallaro highlight:

The 'imaginary anatomy' becomes the point of organization of

relations, and it provides a means by which the self can be
perceived by others, it is now both subject and object: the
specula image is the basis of being in the world. The name Lacan
gives to this moment, in English translation as well as in French
(stade=stadium), indicates not only the relevance of the visual,
but its significance for the subject: it is not simply a
developmental phase, but a theatrical stage upon which the
drama of subjectivity is constantly enacted.44

Aoife Monks discusses the significance of these ideas to performance and costume
design specifically, identifying the role of costume in the production of meaning
between costume, performer and audience 45 She also looks to fashion theory to
14 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
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locate this argument saying ‘if we take the work of fashion theorists seriously, who
point to the ways in which clothing anchors and produces the social body, and
embeds that body with a web of social and economic relations, we might need to
acknowledge theatre costumes crucial role in the production of the body on stage’46
The viewer essentially imbues the costumed body on stage with meaning through
not only a visual reading but from experiential knowledge of dress, as Monks
affirms ‘Spectators do not simply see costume representing clothes on stage; they
also see it being used. Actors visibly wear their costume, and this costume is made
of the same stuff of the dress worn by the audience’47 Therefore clothing’s physical
relationship to the body extends its meaning making potential through a sensory
understanding of clothing. The feel, weight, shape and physical attributes, as well
as embedded emotional and semiotic messages afford potential to connect and
communicate on a more experiential level.
If we focus then on the ‘performing’ and communicating body in both
fashion and performance being not only received by viewers but also being
experienced and viewed by wearers then clearly there is an experiential dialogue
that emerges between the designer, wearer and viewer. This dialogue connects the
viewer and performer through an embodied and emotional response, whether that
be in the moment or through connection to memory and previous experience of
clothing. Effectively the wearer and viewer draw on what is remembered
physically about wearing clothing, its materials, forms and associated memory and
interpreted meaning as well as its visual symbolism. Of central importance here is
also the role of the designer, who creates work through his or her own embodied
knowledge of clothing. Cohen talks of this ‘intimacy’ between body and materials
in her practice and research highlighting the importance of ‘material thinking’ that
‘acknowledges unconscious and emotional connections’ she talks of this
relationship as a process of ‘thinking through the body as material and materials
triggering the body in processes’48 this approach enables focus on emotional,
sensory and physical response and reaction to the clothed body which is central to
my current practice and research into contemporary clothing based communication.
I argue that it is the concept highlighted by Entwistle of ‘situated bodily practice’49
that resonates and connects with this way of thinking, providing not only a means
of understanding hybrid practice between fashion and performance but uncovers
the complexities and potential of the body in its holistic sense as a site for clothing
design and communication. Within these frameworks costume and the clothed,
communicating body can itself be seen as a body located scenographic practice,
this is particularly so where clothing becomes the generator of performance
through design.
Cohen’s discusses the ‘creative site’ as ‘a combination of multiple inputs
and connections-conscious and unconscious’ and that it is ‘also a site where
practitioners may have opportunities to experiment with various levels of cognitive
process and development of shared experience’50 In the context of my work it is
the combined conscious and unconscious reading and response as well as the focus
 Jessica Bugg 15
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on shared experience of the lived, performing, wearing and viewing body that
combines to make a ‘creative site’ through which costume is designed, experienced
and communicated between designer, wearer and viewer in performance. I argue
that essentially it is the focus on the body both physical and emotional as well as
the experience, memory and embodied understanding of clothing as part of a
complex performative dynamic that contributes to the making, intention and
reading of work within contemporary performance contexts.

4 Clothing the Body as generator of Performance through Design.

Drawing on this theoretical research my current practice led research
explores the potential to communicate embodied physical and visual narratives
derived from and communicated through clothing the performing body in a hybrid
space between fashion and performance. The project is informed by qualitative
research into memory of clothing and explores the potential for using embodied
experience, emotional and physical triggers in garment design and embodied
communication. My practice lead research seeks to develop a more multi layered,
and experiential communication through clothing, drawing on personal histories
and memories of dress and seeks to engage both performer and viewers on an
emotional and experiential level.
I have designed and produced garments that draw on physical experience
stories and memory of clothing, using these to inform emotional, visual and
physical triggers in design. These garments have then been tested in performance
and recorded in collaboration with a dancer and a filmmaker. The outcome of the
work is a short fashion performance film produced collaboratively that aims to
heighten communication with audiences by visually and physically suggesting
narrative and seeking to tap into sensory, visual and experiential memory.
The methodology for this work enabled a focus throughout the production
of the work and in the final communication on an embodied and experiential
understanding of clothing. It places costume at the centre of the production process
as opposed to an applied element. By working with a body located scenographic
process in the ‘creative site’ of the clothed body, I was able to explore the potential
to communicate ‘body narratives’51 in an exchange between designer, performer
and audience. The design of the costume and its relationship to the wearer’s body
becomes the generator of the performance itself. This dialogue was then extended
through the participant’s responses to the work and through the editing of the final
short clothing lead films.
16 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
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Image 1- Blue Air dress, J.Bugg 2011, Photographer Roulla Silver

Image 2- Black Point dress, J.Bugg 2011, Photographer Roulla Silver

The design was informed by series of semi-structured questionnaires and

oral history interviews that sought to draw out emotional, psychological and
experiential associations with clothing from a diverse range of participants. This
information was then analysed through a content analysis enabling identification of
shared experience, visual and sensory memories in relation to clothing. The first
section of the questionnaires allowed participants to talk in an open-ended manner
about clothing and memory. Participants were encouraged to discuss visual,
emotional and experiential factors in relation to clothing and to specifically
consider colour, texture, details, structure, materials as well as the stories and
histories associated to the garments. Some of the participants showed me garments
an others provided pictures. The second section of the questionnaires focused on
specific emotions and required respondents to relate memory of clothing to
particular emotions.
Analysis showed that emotional response to clothing is complex and
incorporates both physical and emotional response but is also impacted upon by
sensory and visual memory as well as associations with the clothing, particular
times, places and people. This research brought forth many narratives and stories
about dress as well as specific reactions to materiality, form and symbolism. The
 Jessica Bugg 17
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embodied experience of wearing clearly effected different respondents in different
ways however there were clear areas of shared emotional and physical experience
of wearing clothing, sometimes across the respondents and sometimes in relation to
particular age groups, sexes and demographics.
The most common emotional associations and retelling of embodied
experience of wearing clothing was in relation to the feeling and sensory aspects of
clothing, for example smells, textures, colours, comfortable clothing, restrictive
clothing, movement and freedom of movement. Some of these particular stories
and emotions are designed into the Blue Air dress and subsequent film. Aesthetic
aspects were evident in all the interviews although they varied hugely, the aesthetic
of the work is pared down and seeks to enhance particular messages, emotions and
memories. The Blue Air dress on one level tells a story of being dressed up,
feminine and desirable. On another level it explores the dualism of feeling sensual
and increasingly uncomfortable and the eventual feeling of release when such a
garment is taken off, revealing a sense of freedom and a different form of
sensuality.
The Black Point Dress draws on a significant recurring theme emerging
from the interviews that related to the look and signification of clothing. Many of
the interviewees spoke of the need to express personal identity within generic
garments such as school uniforms, nuns habits, work uniforms and the journey
taken to make clothes their own or to find a new identity within the clothing. These
memories were particularly strong in almost all of the interviews undertaken. The
garment reflects the potential for physical exploration and a multitude of
possibilities in an abstract and repetitive form. The garment reflects many of the
issues raised by the interviews such as personal space, transformation, acceptance,
and struggle with femininity, identity, rebellion, difference etc.
Both garments have a suggested narrative designed into them although
this is layered into the design in different ways and deconstructed from a range of
stories, embodied experiences and associations. The garments were explored
physically before the film was produced in short improvisational situations where
the performer and the filmmaker were not aware of the ideas and narrative
fragments that had informed the design’s. The dancer found her own meaning in
the garments through physical exploration, however her reactions did convey many
of the emotional and physical narrative elements that had inspired the design, as
did her verbal response. This suggests that the design extended a physical and
emotional communication of specific ideas and feelings. Analysis of her
experience and physical responses through movement was recorded. The
collaboration towards the performance and subsequent films from this point drew
on a shared emotional or experiential reaction to the clothing in movement and
performance that was informed for each of us by our own memories of wearing
clothing and in response to the dancers physical and emotional responses.
18 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
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The films do not have characters, a plot or linear structure and
‘overlapping connections and non-linear conversations’52 place the focus on
emotional narrative and sensory experience between the body and clothing. The
final films seek to form a dialogue between the clothing the ‘performing’ body, the
film itself and the viewers reading. Emphasis is placed on The work has a strong
pared down aesthetic and does not present the audience with a character and
narrative in the traditional sense, rather it employs a broken visual, physical and
fragmented narrative of wearing, emotion, dress and experience. Editing sought to
enhance the emotional and physical narrative and messages within the work by
deconstructing and re constructing the narrative, enhancing visual and embodied
messages. It is intended that the viewer will construct their own meaning derived
from aspects of shared embodied understanding, memory, experience, visual
association and sensory experience. The ‘narrative’ could be seen as more of a
dialogue between participants and their reading of visual, embodied and
performative meanings produced through collaborative interpretation and
authorship between the designer, performer, filmmaker and the viewers. Ultimately
meaning is suggested but is made and interpreted at the moment of reception
through the particular lenses of the viewer.

5 Performing Clothing; Towards an Interdisciplinary and Embodied

understanding
I have discussed a hybrid area of practice that has emerged between
fashion and performance design in contemporary performative contexts and
demonstrate that there is potential to extend the dialogue between the two areas of
practice and that this in turn can develop clothing based practice and performative
communication across a range of disciplines. I have demonstrated that clothing has
the potential to be central to the development of contemporary performance
communication in both fashion and performance and that it is necessary to draw on
aspects of practice and theoretical frameworks in conceptual fashion, costume,
performance design as well as other disciplines to develop this area of work. This
practice can be understood as functioning outside of discipline parameters or as an
emerging cross-disciplinary genre, that to quote from Cohen, ‘combines multiple
inputs and acknowledges embodied, situated, unconscious and emotional
connections in combination with analytical intelligence’53
The practice based research within this project employs a multi method
and exposes how design drawn from physical experience and memory of clothing
can heighten an emotional and experiential communication with wearers and
viewers through clothing design and the potential of a design methodology that
uses embodied experience as the driver for design and subsequent communication
with wearers and viewers. It is the potential of clothing and its relationship to the
body that affords practitioners in this interdisciplinary area the opportunity to take
into account how the emotional and physical factors as well as the site of the body
 Jessica Bugg 19
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itself contribute to the making, intention and reading of body located clothing
based work.
The practice of clothing design as embodied communication in cross-
disciplinary territory, has been argued here as a type of scenography in its own
right and most importantly as a ‘situated bodily practice’. This approach provides a
conceptual platform on which to approach embodied and performative clothing led
design approaches in conceptual fashion and performance. It is on this level that
we can understand the significance of the body itself as a site and the clothed body
as emotive visual and embodied narrative, whether that is linear, deconstructed,
fragmented, emotion led or suggested. By focusing on the body in its own right as
a site specific context for development of both clothing design and subsequent
performative communication, it is not only possible to extend communication
between the participants in a collaborative production but also to develop the
potential reading of the work, engaging audiences on an experiential level without
the application of specific narrative or character.
By making clothing present or indeed central to the conceptualisation,
development and communication process as opposed to applying it to a particular
communication or performance, garments can become the generator of
performance through design. The clothed body in effect becomes the site for the
creation and communication of meaning whether that is a narrative, a concept, an
emotion or character or indeed a complex and fragmented interchange between
these elements. It is the shared understanding of the body and clothing that can
connect designer, wearer and viewer on an experiential level, and that makes
clothing the body such a powerful communication tool and one that has the
potential to be further utilised and exploited in interdisciplinary
fashion/performance practice and research.
20 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
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Table 1- Methodology: Research Model for Design and Emotion 2011
 Jessica Bugg 21
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Notes

1
Jessica Bugg, University of The Arts London, 2006.
2
Sophia Pantouvaki, Presence and Absence in Performance, Costume in the
Absence of the Body. (Place: Pub, date p.7)
3
Nancy. J. Troy, Couture Cultures: A Study of Modern Art and Fashion, (USA:
Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2003).
4
N.J. Troy, nd. 2003, 81.
5
Walter Van Beirendonck, designed for Robert Lepage and Russell Maliphant’s
Not Strictly Rubens, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Sadlers Wells (2003). Alexander Mc
Queens designed for Eonnagata, Sadlers Wells (2009). John Paul Gaulthier
designed for Regine Chopinot’s, Le Defile, Astoria (1985) and Zandra Rhodes for
Aida, English National Opera Coliseum (2008)
6
Uma Thurman was the face of Louis Vuitton (Handbag campaign (2005) and
Halle Berry for the Versace campaign (2006). Bjork and Lady GGa have both
endorsed and promoted Alexander McQueens designs which have been worn in
live performances, interviews and to high profile events.
7
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress Body and Culture (Vol 5 Issue 3, Berg,
2001).
8
C. Evans, The Enchanted Spectacle, n.d. 301.
9
C. Evans, Fashion at the Edge, (USA: Yale University Press, 2003).
10
Bugg, n.d. 2006.
11
S. Pantouvaki, Costume in the Absence of the Body, (Place: Pub, date. p.8)
12
S. Pantouvaki, n.d. Costume in the Absence of the Body, (Place: Pub, date. p.3)
13
B.Quinn, Hussein Chalayan, (Rotterdam Nai publishers 2005) p.46
14
Arrrgh! Monsters in Fashion, Benaki Museum, Athens Greece, May-July 2011
22 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
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15
www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/courses/graduate-school/ma-costume-design-for-
performance. 7.6.12
16
S.Garrett, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/7843548/Punchdrunk
17
Liora Malka Yellin, Louie Fuller and her Legacy: The Visual and the Virtual,
Presence and Absence in Performance. (Place: Pub, date. p.12)
18
(Parjad Sharifi, Bioscenography; Towards the Scenography of Non-
Representation. (Place: Pub, date. p.1)
19
www.miumiu.com/en/wtales/2/film
20
http://showstudio.com/collection/gareth_pugh_paris_womenswear_a_w_09
21
http://showstudio.project.neworleans
22
A. Monks, The Actor in Costume. (London: Palgrave, 2010, p.10).
23
Pamela Howard, What is Scenography (Routledge, 2009, p.224)
24
P.Howard. n.d, (Routledge, 2009). As discussed in the Introduction to the book.
25
Scenography and connected terminology is discussed from different
perspectives in this volume by, p. Sharifi, H.Cohen, M. Malka Yellin and S.
Pantaouvaki
26
S. Pantouvaki, n.d. Costume in the Absence of the Body, (Place: Pub, date p.2)
27
S. Pantouvaki, n.d . Costume in the Absence of the Body, (Place: Pub, date p.9)
28
In an Interview with Dazed Digital Sonia Biache discusses her inspiration and
process. http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/4391/1/from-the-triadische-
ballet-to-the-giudecca)
29
Lamentation was first performed in 1930
30
L. Malka Yellin, n.d. Louie Fuller and her Legacy: The Visual and the Virtual
(Place: Pub, date p.1)
31
L. Malka Yellin, n.d. Louie Fuller and her Legacy: The Visual and the Virtual
(Place: Pub, date p.7)
32
Issey Miyake collaboration with William Forsythe, Loss of Small Detail,
Frankfurt Ballet, (1993)
33
Rei Kawakubo's costume for Merce Cunningham’s Scenario, The Barbican,
London (1998)
34
Menkes, S. Ode to the Abstract: When Designer Met Dance (1998)
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/08/style/08iht-dance
35
info@ulrikmartinlarsen.com
36
Artists and Performance Artists such as Rebecca Horn, Caroline Broadhead,
Leigh Bowery, Lucy Orta, Azra Aksamija, and Yayoi Kasama as well as many
others have all in different ways used clothing and performance as central to their
work and communication.
37
lucyandbart.blogspot.com/
38
http://www.riittaikonen.com
 Jessica Bugg 23
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39
See also L. Malka Yellin, Presence and Absence, Loie Fuller and her Legacy,
(Place: Pub, date), p.2. Yellin discusses the costume and dance of Fuller as
integrated and non-separable.
40
A. Aronson, Looking into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography, (Michigan:
University of Michigan Press, 2008).
41
Aronson, 2008, p.7
42
H. Cohen, n.d. Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But
you can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date),, (Place: Pub, date, p.2)
43
J. Entwistle, The Fashioned Body, (Cambridge: Polity, 2000).
44
A. Warwick and D. Cavallaro, Fashioning the Frame: Boundaries, Dress and
the Body, (Oxford: Berg, 1998), 24.
45
Monks, n.d.8.
46
Monks, n.d. p.l0
47
Monks, n.d. p.39
48
H. Cohen, Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But you
can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date), p.9
49
Entwistle, n.d. 2000
50
H. Cohen, Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But you
can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date), p.4
51
H. Cohen, Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But you
can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date), p.6
52
H. Cohen, Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But you
can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date),p.5
53
H. Cohen, Presence and Absence, You can Take the Art out of The Body, But you
can’t Take the Body out of Art, (Place: Pub, date),p.5

Bibliography:
Aronson, Arnold. Looking into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography. Michigan:
University of Michigan Press, 2008.

Atopos CVC, Not a Toy: fashioning radical characters, Berlin: Pictoplasma, 2011.

Bugg, Jessica. Interface: Concept and Context as Strategies for Innovative Fashion
Design and Communication: An Analysis from the Perspective of the Conceptual
Fashion Design Practitioner. Phd Thesis, University of The Arts London, 2006

Counsell, Colin. and Mock, Roberta. ed., Performance, Embodiment and Cultural
Memory. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.
24 Emotion and Memory; Clothing the Body as Performance
__________________________________________________________________

Groninger Museum. Hussein Chalayan. Rotterdam Nai publishers 2005

Entwistle, Joanne. & Wilson, Elizabeth. ed. Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg, 2001.

Entwistle, Joanne. The Fashioned Body. Cambridge: Polity, 2000.

Evans, Caroline. Fashion at the Edge. USA: Yale University Press, 2003.

Fashion Theory The Journal of Dress Body and Culture, Fashion and
Performance, Journal Vol 5, Issue 3, Oxford: Berg, 2001.

Howard, Pamela. What is Scenography? second edition. UK: Routledge, 2009.

Menkes, Suzy. Ode to the Abstract: When Designer Met Dance, 1998
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/08/style/08iht-dance

Monks, Aoife. The Actor in Costume. London: Palgrave, 2010.

Troy, Nancy. J. Couture Cultures: A Study of Modern Art and Fashion. USA:
Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2003.

Warwick, Alexandra. & Cavallaro, Dani. Fashioning the Frame: Boundaries,

Dress and the Body. Oxford: Berg, 1998.

Jessica Bugg is a Principal lecturer in Performance and research development for

the School of Media and Communication at London College of Fashion, University
of The Arts London. Her research embraces interdisciplinary design practice across
fashion, performance and visual art.