Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2010 - 53

Changing

the

image

By Catherine BradLey

The image on the left, "Paris Spring Toilette," is from Harper's
Bazar (1896). On the right is a modern actress in the same style.

The Harper's dress on a modern actress placed on
a costume technical sheet.

a tendency to draw a stylized figure taller and thinner than the
actual actor in their initial costume illustrations. This has the unfortunate effect of promising the director an unachievable vision.
Since the illustration is our contract with the director to produce
a costume that reproduces the sketch as faithfully as possible,
exaggerating the actors' proportions seems risky practice at best.
Given that one of the goals of a costume design illustration is to
show the director what the costumes will look like on the individual actor, this was an area that needed to be addressed.
In response to this need, my team at McGill was asked
to design a system that could be used to manipulate the proportions of a particular costume sketch in order to see what it
would look like on a specific actor, before making the costume.
We created the Changing Proportions Guide as a step by step
system for manipulating costume images. This guide uses a few
skills that go beyond the basics of Photoshop, but our userfriendly instructions cater to designers of all skill levels. A side
benefit of our design system is that extremely useful techniques
are explained which are invaluable in other graphic and desktop publishing applications.
Showing the designers at the National Theatre School how
to digitally produce a scaled costume illustration was the primary
goal of this project. From that starting point, the technique took
on a life beyond our expectations. We have used the technique to
demonstrate the difference in shaping created by corsets of different periods (McCord Museum Colloquium: Reveal or Conceal,
2008), and to transform period illustrations into working drawings that depict the individual actor's actual image. Our team has
produced a video clip to demonstrate the technique, and a longer

The original Harper's illustration is proportioned
for a model who is approximately seven feet tall.

The "Bridesmaid Syndrome" demonstrates how some dress styles look
more flattering on certain body types.

video to use as a teaching tool. By the time this article is in print,
we will have shown our technique to thousands of college students at a McGill Exhibition on Excellence in Research aimed at
encouraging technical innovation.
We see potential uses in made-to-measure fashion, with an
emphasis on facilitating design for non-standard body shapes.
The technique of changing proportions can be used in high-end
dressmaking to create wedding dresses or red carpet gowns
for clients who have proportions that differ greatly from those
of a supermodel. The dress used as inspiration can be digitally
transformed using our method and shown as it would look on
the actual proportions of the real woman. The experience of
being able to see what a particular style would look like on
their own body shape for someone who is outside the standard size range, or for someone who is physically challenged,

S U M M E R

2010

theatre

design

technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2010