live Design: “In talking with the director and other designers, we envisioned an Art Deco theme for the Zarkana costumes,” notes Slovenia-based designer Alain Hranitelj, about his first complete project for Cirque du Soleil (he had worked on an uncompleted project for Macau several years ago). “There is a lot inspired by Erte and Paul Poiret, and that is the most beautiful period,” says Hranitelj. “I love the clothes and the costumes. Erte was a great illustrator and I love the costumes he did. They are so different from costumes today. We are more serious, they had more fun: We have fun during the process but those costumes were really fun… The crazy 20’s.” The result is a contemporary version of the 20th-century Art Deco aesthetic.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Zarkana: Costume Design
live Design: “In talking with the director and other designers, we envisioned an Art Deco theme for the Zarkana costumes,” notes Slovenia-based designer Alain Hranitelj, about his first complete project for Cirque du Soleil (he had worked on an uncompleted project for Macau several years ago). “There is a lot inspired by Erte and Paul Poiret, and that is the most beautiful period,” says Hranitelj. “I love the clothes and the costumes. Erte was a great illustrator and I love the costumes he did. They are so different from costumes today. We are more serious, they had more fun: We have fun during the process but those costumes were really fun… The crazy 20’s.” The result is a contemporary version of the 20th-century Art Deco aesthetic.
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4 comments:
One thing Cirque does really well is bring artists from all over the world together to create a piece of art. I think that that is one of their strongest selling points. They are able to take and borrow from the histories, cultures, and expertise of professional performers, acrobats, and technical and design practitioners from such a wide range. This increases the levels one which the team is able to work and increases the number of ways a problem can be approached. Beyond simply working with people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, Cirque draws upon many different cultures as inspiration for their productions, creating a magnificently vast array of offerings. Each one stylistically unique, but still part of a whole.
Cirque du Soleil does a wonderful job of bringing the new and unexpected to their audience. The always incorporate a variety of influences buy incorporating artists from all over the world. I love to hear about where the costumes come for the Cirque du Soleil performances because each is unique and very specialized not only for the performance but also for the individual performer. It seems like a ton of work making each costume appropriate for each performer and their needs. I would love to see this show.
Stylistically, Cirque du Soleil is the ultimate standard in production. So it stands to reason that they would have elite costume designers create the costumes not only for utmost quality of the performance, but to tell the multi dimensional story as well. As with all costumes in stage shows, the fact that they must be bigger, brighter and louder is a concept that Cirque has always portrayed in subtle ways in every aspect of the art direction of all of their shows. With these team of designers, the bold colors play a more important and prominent role. The use of red leads the audience to experience a much more passionate and romantic experience than some of the other Cirque shows. Reading that the design team has a whole year to research, conceptualize and sketch, then a second year to construct the costumes filled me with both envy and hope for my future.
It baffles me to think about all of the elements of a costume that a Cirque du Soleil costume designer has to think about other than just design. They have to consider wearability, durability, flexibility, the disguising of harnesses, longe belts, etc. and so much more. I learned this summer that a fabric's reaction to friction is actually a huge concern for some Cirque costumes, as artists in poles acts need a fabric that will withstand high amounts of friction without wearing away too quickly and without heating up too much so as to burn the artist. It's great to hear about the designer's process here because it shows the amount of thought and time that goes into every single decision about fabric, color, aesthetic, etc. I admire the creativity of these designers and the way they can make these costumes work for circus performers and still look fabulous.
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