Modernizing Costume Design 1820-1920

<p>Annie Holt identifies the roots of contemporary Euro-American practices of costume design in which costumes are an integrated part of the dramaturgy rather than a reflection of an individual performer's taste or status. She argues that in the period 1820-1920 as part of the larger project of modernism across the artistic and cultural field the functions of clothing and costume diverged. Onstage apparel took on a more specific semiotic task acting as a fresh channel for the flow of information between the performer the literary text and the spectator.</p><p><em>Modernizing Costume Design</em> traces how five kinds of artists - directors performers writers couturiers and painters - made key contributions to this new model of costume design. Holt shows that by 1920 costume design shifted in status from craft to art. </p>