Designing a Performance Costume

Originally, within the Pole Performance, I did not have a particular plan for a costume, as I had prepared a lot with the videos in the background. However, during the performance, and when having feedback, my costume choice was in the limelight as it was obviously not as prepared as everything else. I wanted to bring the elements of the Suffragettes and the simple design of the top and shorts together for my practice and final performance.

I first looked at the full Suffragette dress and what women would have been wearing 100 years ago when they got the vote. I also viewed Halloween costumes that were simplistic versions of these dresses in order to gain aspect of the full design first. Although correct, this would be unrealistic for the pole as I need my legs, side and arms to be free.

This led me onto having a shortened design of the Feminist Pole Mat and the Suffragette dress. These, admittedly, looked awful and I did not enjoy them as a concept. I feel as though people would not get the ideas that I was bringing across, as they would be trying to decipher what the costume was. I also wanted to bring the skirt element back, as this is very feminine and would look lovely while on the pole, along with the shadows of myself in the skirt. The skirt did not sit well with the Feminist Pole Mat design, and I found that there was too much happening at once.

Adding the skirt to a modified Suffragette dress, I was able to create a modern, pole friendly costume, that can easily show myself as part of the Suffragette movement, but can be further modified during the performance in order for the audience to look at me. I plan to test this design out in the next couple of weeks with a practice performance and a new display of projectors.