0 0 2B Thursday, March 17, 2011 Fashion Issue // Thursday March 17, 2011 7B Laying out clothing on the printed page Staging fashion with costume design The usti plac Two v "Little W the Walg with the ing profe gloves, fu for the fo ner of the closet te sartorial ing gold fine and full, soph cream-co Amy,t and swe wears th her child rie, hers: "This big 'S w Music, T Davis. Davis responsil piece of 1 dles. Am "built" - from scr artists who move "I was so disappointed when I found how quick this scene is, how hrough time and little stage time the dress is going to get," he said. "But if the audi- e using clothing ence doesn't gasp when it comes on, I won't notice because I'll gasp loud By ERIKA JOST enough for everyone." Daily Arts Writer Davis's attachment to his work is understandable. As the costume eeks before the opening of designer, his role is to support the Vomen," the costume shop in story on stage through dress and reen Drama Center hummed color. Combining considerations of activity of "stitchers" (sew- period and character, Davis uses essionals) working on laced fashion to construct a world on stage. ill skirts and bowed bonnets And, if he is successful, the audience 'ur March sisters. In the cor- can be transported to that world too. e shop, near the end of a long After determining the "silhou- eming with 1860s-inspired ette" - the line, size and general splendor, hung two match- shape of the clothing - that was dresses - golden fabric is specific to the 1860s, Davis manipu- detailed, skirts long and lated the fashion to reveal traits of isticated jacket lined with a the characters. For instance, Amy's slored ruffle. clothes are pink, "girlier" than her the youngest of the sisters sisters'. Her dresses are full and et ingenue in the opera, long, while Jo's one dress is plain and is dress when she returns to utilitarian, with a smaller silhouette hood home married to Lau- than Amy's. ister Jo's first love. "Jo just doesn't care about fash- dress communicates Amy's ion," Davis said as, like a proud father, on' to Jo," said School of he absent-mindedly patted Jo's skirt heatre & Dance senior Corey on the stitcher's mannequin. Meg, the oldest sister who gets is the costume designer married early in the opera, is the ble for every skirt, bow and most matronly. Davis dressed the ace under the stitchers' nee- character in green, as a reference to y's gold dress is one Davis motherly fertility. He signified the that is, designed and made perpetual innocence of Beth, the atch. frail sister who never matures, with a shortened skirt more suited to run- ning and playing outside than attend- ing the society functions her sisters grow to enjoy. "You can tell beautiful, quiet, detailed stories with that kind of detail," said Christianne Myers, assistant professor of theater in MT&D. "You can make all those real- ly specific character-driven, circum- stance-driven choices and apply it to a period." Like Davis's gold revelation, Myers has made her share of gasp-induc- ing outfits. For a 2001 production of "Hair" at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, she created a single red metallic stretch dress worn by three Supremes-inspired characters as they sang and danced. one character wore the center tube dress, flanked by the others who each wore one sleeve. The dress got a round of applause. "And it should," Myers said. "But you don't always want the clothes talking about themselves." As Myers suggests, not every cos- tume is meant to be a showstopper. In period pieces like "Little Women" and "Hair," the audience cannot help but notice and admire the costumes. But for every three-person dress, there are countless scenes in which a T-shirt and jeans should say what- ever a T-shirt and jeans can say, and then move on. For this reason, Myers stresses the importance of costumes that look authentic and wearable. "I usually talk about them like clothes, not costumes," she said. "Regardless of period, in the world we're creating, these are the clothes they would wear. Even though we never see it, there's a closet some- where, a theoretical closet that this was pulled from." So when we see Amy's gold dress, we don't just see a beautiful costume. We see Amy's newfound wealth, we see what success looks like for a woman of that time period and we see young Amy perhaps showing off a little to her family. With one outfit, we get an explanation of plot, his- torical context and the character's motive. The process of designing "Little Women" began last summer, when Davis received and read the script. He researched fashion from the 1860s, compiling his findings in a book in which he also drew his designs. Now, he keeps the book at hand in the cos- tume shop while he and his stitchers fit costumes. After researching, Davis spent months gathering material and accessories from stores in Royal Oak and Chicago, finding suitable cos- tumes from rental houses around the country and organizing the items, like petticoats and men's hats, that the school already had in the cos- tume shop. "Art is less than half the job," Myers said, saying budget issues, time frame limitations and the chal- lenge of effective communication are equally trying concerns. In one of her first experiences working with a cast for whom "acting was their day job," the director cut a dress she had "built," a first for her. The production was a re-imagining of "Oedipus," written and directed by Dare Clubb, for the Blue Light The- atre Company in New York. "I had to leave the theater and walk around the block," she said. "The biggest lesson I learned was that yes, I need to invest, but I have to be able to let go." It also helped that Frances McDor- mand ("Fargo"), one of the actors who was to wear the dress, liked the garment so much she took it home. Whether designing for a modern show or a period piece like "Little Women," costume designers use the same principles to breathe life into the world in the theater. In the right hands, we can be as taken away by a simple dress meant to fade into the background - like the dress for "Oedipus" - as by Amy's charmed attire. When asked what kind of show is her favorite, Myers responded "the one I'm working on." But surely it doesn't hurt when the audience gasps in awe when your gold dress waltzes on stage. Visuals and styling are key for 'U' fashion magazine Shei By ARIELLE SPECINER Daily Arts Writer Magazines. We find them all around us, whether in doctors' waiting rooms, drugstore shelves and bookstores; we can't help but browse through our favor- ite semi-glossy pages and feel a tinge of happiness. Though we may flip through a magazine and enjoy looking at the photos adorned with gorgeous models in equally gorgeous clothing, we can't fully appre- ciate a publication without an under- standing of how much work and effort goes into every detail of every page. Magazines act as outlets to showcase specific ideas to niche markets. And while there are many different kinds of magazines out there, fashion publica- tions often seem to be on the forefront of people's minds. This might be due to their strong emphasis on visuals, driving and presenting trends that we see every day through editorial spreads and storylines. "We are constantly surrounded by fashion. We are constantly exposed to inspiration," said LSA junior Grace Grande-Cassell, fashion editor of the University-published fashion magazine Shei. Though some believe fashion is highly superficial, it's often taken for granted that it's an art. "It's actually very cultural," said LSA sophomore Jess Linton, Shei's assistant fashion editor. According to Linton, magazines them- selves are an accessible and relatable art form to display and distribute the cre- ativity of clothing. "You can just pick one up. You don't have to go to an art gallery or a showing," she said. Though most of us don't have the avail- ability to jet-set to major fashion capitals like New York and Milan, magazines can, in a way, allow us to sit front row at inter- national Fashion Weeks alongside the rich and famous. What distinguishes fashion magazines from other publications is their qual- ity of pictorial content. More than any- thing, the pictures in a fashion magazine tell the story. Though written work is an important component in any magazine, the images are what make people want to read it. "Even if (an) article is really interest- ing - it may be the best-written article in the world, but if the graphic qual- ity doesn't look up to par with that, then nobody's going to want to read it," said Architecture senior and Shei design edi- tor Jackie Kow. Fashion magazines have the ability to pull together a number of diverse design- ers and looks to create a cohesive spread that can influence what we wear every- day. As a visual culture, we are natu- rally attracted to beautiful things, and magazines, with all their perfectly posed shots and fantasy settings, become the aesthetically pleasing entity we strive to emulate. "Unlike photojournalism, you can't shoot how it is," said Art & Design junior Mai Truong, design director at Shei. "With fashion, you create it yourself. It takes time and effort." Photography is what drives the fash- ion business. A person flipping through the pages of a beautiful magazine spread who sees a dress, shirt or piece of jew- elry that he or she likes might be more inclined to buy that article of clothing, or something from the same designer. Fashion photography usually takes into account two things: background and design. Shei stages its photo shoots in an assortment of places, ranging from a white-walled studio to graffiti- filled buildings in Detroit. But the most important part of a fashion photo is still the designs that it shows. Though Shei doesn't have a huge fashion closet available, as some of the major publica- tions like Vogue and Elle do, it's OK - its staffers make do with the local designers and stores, like Bivouac, The Getup and Poshh. "We don't do a whole lot of avant-garde pieces - you know, high-fashion things. They're sort of more wearable with sort of a couture flare," Grande-Cassell said. According to Grande-Cassell, Shei staff members even use clothing from their personal closets for photo shoots. This diver- sifies the magazine even further. The literary edi- tor of Shei, LSA senior Bridget Bod- CLOSE TO U nar, describes the NORTH CAD magazine's look as "do-it-yourself" AFFORDABLE and youthful. Ann - ONSHUT' Arbor has a good BUS ROU mix of high and low fashion with stores like Poshh, which carries designer jeans and dresses, to vintage and consignment mich stuc shops like Star Vin- tage. The magazine housing takes these two types of fashion 7 . and combines them into a cohesive style that looks like a mil- lion bucks - this is what we call the art of fashion and styling. Grande-Cassell understands that Ann Arbor is not the conventional center for fashion, but still feels the University is worthy of a fashion publication. "Obviously, we have people from all over the world, and so they contribute to a lot of different looks you see on cam- pus," she said. "I think that Ann Arbor is more artistically inclined than a lot of places, so I think people are more accept- ing as well." But just a few striking photographs of interesting looks and styling does not a magazine make. Magazines need a back- bone - and that's where layout comes into play. Accordingto most of the Sheistaff, the layout of the magazine is just as impor- tant as the photos it holds. "Layout is like putting together a book and telling a story," Kow said. Like every shoot they contain, fashion magazines have many different compo- nents that have to come together to make sense. Once all these pieces fit together, a final product makes its way onto our newsstands. Though some people may believe it is fickle and shallow, the fashion magazine culture has large effects on our everyday lives. The publication with pages of pho- tos of gorgeous models clad in stunning pieces of clothing is not just a tactile enti- ty - it is a presentation of a lot of work, effort and creativity. Daily Arts Writer Will Defebaugh is the creative director of Shei, but did not take part in this story. Shei fashion show in Russell Bazaar during the Detroit People's Art Festival. OF H MPUS E RATES dent Iom Where the cheese flows like champagne. Enter coupon code at checkout. 1 I -- -------------------------campusfood.com- Lmit one per customer, Min.$15. rst 2000 cusomers. Only valid 0 er onlineordersat participating restaurantsthrough Campusfood com.Nocash value Expires 3 r1611