Costume (Taught)

MA Costume is driven by the concept of embracing the past to inform the future. As a student on the course, you’ll focus on handcraft and traditional excellence in cut and construction. You’ll combine these with digital design and production techniques. You’ll also consider the impact of costume for diverse performances and audiences.

The course has 4 units. The first 2 units focus on developing research skills. You’ll use creative research techniques to explore research sources that are applicable to costume practice. These will be highlighted by practical, technical workshops that will introduce and develop costume interests in the making or realisation of work. The final 2 units of study will enable you to apply these acquired, research concepts to support costume practice. This will result in a full costume for the final unit.

At the end of your studies, you’ll graduate as a specialist costume researcher and maker. You’ll also be able to apply the research interests you have developed to contribute to costume practice within the industry. This could be as a practitioner in:

• conservation

• restoration

• fabric production

• costume supervision

• costume production

• costume curation

• other associated, research-based, costume roles in live or recorded performance mediums.

The course places an emphasis on sustainable and ethical production methods. The types of ethics addressed may be related to several areas of costume practice, including but not restricted to:

• current industry practice

• past perspectives of the industrialisation of costume-dependent materials such as fabrics

• cultural readings of representation and character

• audience reading or interpretation

• mainstream or normative professional practices that relate to economic, social/racial and environmental justice.