The Beauty Curse - Frock Paper Scissors

Dance
Artists of Bavarian State Ballet
Fashion the
WORDS Katie Goss
PHOTOGRAPHY Wilfried Hoesl, courtesy of The Australian Ballet
Dressing up in costume can make a
girl dream; of becoming a celebrity
fashion designer or a prima ballerina.
The artful fusion of fashion and ballet can evoke
images to inspire the imagination.
This year, high fashion met high theatre in a
new way when Karl Lagerfeld collaborated with
the English National Ballet in tribute to legendary
French company the Ballets Russes. He created a
sublime costume – a torso made up of pink, pale
grey and white feathers extending over a silk net
below.
Costume designer for the Queensland
Performing Arts Company, Christopher Smith,
describes the earlier twentieth century designs
seen on the stage of the Ballets Russes as
inventive and risk taking; something the world
had never seen before. “The combination of the
colours and shapes, the representing of different
cultures absolutely got picked up by designers like
[Paul] Poiret and appeared in high fashion and
eventually worked its way down.”
For the past 20 years, top fashion designer,
Christian Lacroix, has designed costumes for
22 landmark European and American theatre
6 FROCK. paper. scissors
The connections and
collaborations between
fashion and the arts
continue to grow and
connect in new and
exciting ways.
productions, acting as inspiration for many of
his collections. This year, Paris based designers
Viktor & Rolf made costumes for Carl Maria von
Weber’s romantic opera Der Freischütz.
In Australia, designer Akira Isogawa, who’s
opened a fashion outlet in Ann Street Brisbane,
has created costumes for four Sydney Dance
Company productions. In 2003, he and 16
other well-known designers, including Brisbane’s
Easton Pearson, created their own versions of
the iconic costumes for The Australian Ballet’s
TUTU project. Pamela Easton and Lydia
Pearson enjoyed “the chance to design a fantasy
garment within the constraints of a strict set of
formulas regarding fit and shape for dancing, and
the thought of the beautiful bodies that it might
grace”.
The head of wardrobe at The Australian
Ballet, Michael Williams, explains the specific
considerations that need to be made in terms
of designing for dancers. “Construction has
to be durable to withstand the rigours of the
choreography and we expect the costumes to
withstand many performances over a period of
many years. For this reason I think the level of
construction is well above that of haute couture
whilst the design is at least on the same level.”
In his view, contemporary fashion will
always impact on a costume designer, “and
hence influence the outcome of the design even
when set in another period”. For example, while
working on the costumes for The Silver Rose
(premiering in Brisbane in February 2010),
modern fabrics have been used to recreate the
Belle Epoch influenced costumes. “Availability of
fabrics can restrict the realisation of the designer’s
ideas,” he says.
Fashionista and marketing manager of The
Australian Ballet, Kate Scott notes, “ballet and
fashion have long influenced each other; with
romantic tutus finding form in 1950’s couture,
Audrey Hepburn popularising the ballet flat, and
countless fashion designers lending their flair to
ballet costumes”.
The connections and collaborations between
fashion and the arts continue to grow and
connect in new and exciting ways. In Williams’
view “when the audience reacts with awe as the
curtain rises - that is the most rewarding outcome
for a designer”. The dance goes on forever.
WX