Towards the Development of an Apparel Design Framework for Circus Costume

Abstract

Overview:Training and performance attire for intensive physical activity requires particular attention to functional design, and in the case of circus arts these garments carry the additional and essential consideration of safety, especially in conjunction with the use of an apparatus or physical interactions with act partners. Circus performers are artists and athletes, executing extraordinary physical feats while wearing garments that allow for movement, provide for safety, and simultaneously meet the aesthetic needs or themes of the show. Knowledge of apparel development for circus arts is traditionally held within the community or by specially trained designers and technicians who work closely with performers. As the essential safety and functional specifications required for circus costume are not widely documented or readily available to apparel and performance design programs and industry, there are precious few apparel designers with the knowledge and skills to create circus attire. This paper is presented as part of a larger dissertation research project developing foundational resources and information on the topic of safety and function in apparel for circus arts and is intended as a starting design framework for the development of circus apparel. Given the considerable lack of information or knowledge in the field of apparel regarding development of these garments, there is an urgent need for guidelines and frameworks on the design and production of performance attire for circus. By combining elements of existing apparel design frameworks, it is possible to locate necessary design considerations and processes for circus costume development. These frameworks are 1) Stokes and Black's (2012) work on clothing for adolescent girls with disabilities, which is based on 2) Lamb and Kallal's (1992) functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) model of consumer needs and accompanying apparel design framework, and 3) a costume design framework by Jablon-Roberts and Sanders (2019) on garments for historically set theatrical productions. These three frameworks are particularly important because they stem from rigorously researched works involving design practices targeting people with specific needs ranging from safety and function to aesthetic storytelling. Existing Frameworks: Within the entertainment industry, many designers follow practices that align with Jablon-Roberts and Sanders' (2019) costume design process framework centering on three themes (applicability, attainability, and performability), and four factors (incubation, research, role-playing, and historical manipulation) underpinning iterative approaches, all focused on live entertainment productions with historical settings. Of these, historical manipulation and role-playing may not always be necessary for circus and thus are discarded in the present research. Lamb and Kallal's (1992) FEA model of consumer needs and accompanying apparel design framework (see figure 1) is an established and often-used resource for scholars across apparel design discip...