Old+Times+Costume+Design

General concept – People are judged immediately judged by their appearance, so the audience can be swayed to view people a certain way through very precise control over the characters’ costumes. The play is targeted towards both a younger audience and a middle aged audience, so I tried to pick outfits that connote the same thing among different generations. I tried to use the outfits to develop both aspects of the characters background and aspects of their personality.

Kate – As Kate is a parson’s daughter with a very reserved personality, her conservative clothing – long dress with minimal cleavage – reflects her conservative personality. She enjoys life without hard edges, so her dress contains soft pattern images reminiscent of flowers. I also captured the softness to her personality by making her bathrobe out of silk. Anna and Deeley talk about Kate “as if [she] were dead,” so I added an element of dullness to her dress by making the background gray to develop her dull and almost dead personality. Women living in retirement homes are typically seen as sweet and honest, so I chose clothing often worn by women of this age to connote Kate’s innocence. White is often seen as a color of purity, so I made her bathrobe white to also reflect her innocence. Given Deeley’s relatively extravagant outfit, one would expect his wife to match his level of formality; however I chose not to do this – Kate doesn’t wear heels and her dress is relatively informal – because it makes Kate seem more distant.

Anna – Anna demonstrates her wit through her lyrical collage with Deeley; they sung different lines from an amalgam of songs and cleverly pieced them together so that they made sense in context. I tried to match this wit by giving her glasses. I gave Anna an elegant look by dressing her in a very sleek dress and relatively large earrings for several reasons. The first reason is that Deeley calls out Anna several times for her elegant and unfamiliar diction. Additionally, wearing all black either gives off an aura of elegance or somberness, and in the memory of the Wayfarer’s Tavern Anna wears nearly all black, so it is important to emphasize Anna’s elegance so the audience does not believe her to be wearing all black because she was depressed, but rather because of her exceptional sense of style. Anna owns a villa near one of the most expensive tourist spots in Sicily, Taormina, and a yacht, so I exposed her wealth by giving her pearls. Her energy is reflected in her long speeches and singing, so I made her dress a bright, eye-opening red. One of the many interpretations of this play is that Kate and Anna are two sides to one whole person, so I tried to reflect the differences in their personalities by not allowing either character to have an element of their clothing similar to the corresponding element of the other lady. Both dresses are polar opposites in the setting they are typically seen in, their colors, their defined edges, and their moderation; Anna wears heels, while Kate’s shoes are flat; Anna has many accessories while Kate has none.

Deeley – At the beginning of the play Deeley is very excited to meet Kate’s only friend, and I showed this excitement through overdressing Deeley. Deeley is a businessman, so he should dress accordingly: khakis, white button down, nice shoes, and a dark brown coat. I decided to make his outfit dark to emphasize the depth of his personality. There are many different interpretations of the play so adding this layer of mystery to his outfit helps put the play up to interpretation by the audience. He is very interested in the arts and Kate mentions he is very sensitive; as both of those qualities are associated with men with scarves, I decided to give him a scarf.