Modernizing Costume Design 1820–1920

<p>Annie Holt identifies the roots of contemporary Euro-American practices of costume design in which costumes are an integrated part of the dramaturgy rather than a reflection of an individual performer’s taste or status. She argues that in the period 1820–1920 as part of the larger project of modernism across the artistic and cultural field the functions of clothing and costume diverged. Onstage apparel took on a more specific semiotic task acting as a fresh channel for the flow of information between the performer the literary text and the spectator.</p><p><em>Modernizing Costume Design</em> traces how five kinds of artists – directors performers writers couturiers and painters – made key contributions to this new model of costume design. Holt shows that by 1920 costume design shifted in status from craft to art. </p>