Working Costume Designer’s Guide to Period Style

A Working Costume Designer’s Guide to Period Style equips costume designers and technicians with all the necessary information to make decisions about fit, shapes, garment choices, accessories, and other aspects of costume design to create a period impression on stage.

The first part of the book discusses approaches for designing costumes set in a particular era in the European/North American context, exploring themes such as accuracy, research, and the role of costumes in creating a sense of time and place. The second part is designed as a practical, user-friendly tool that can be easily accessed during a fitting, while designing, or when evaluating extant historic garments. It provides:

• Reference tables for each of the eras covered in the book
• Full-color images and line drawings
• Information on the representative textiles, colors, and patterns for the period
• Details on how different areas of the wearer’s body and garments areas are defined, ensuring that a costume can be examined for accuracy point by point

This is an essential guide for students of Costume Design courses and professional costume designers of any experience level. It will also be of interest to students of Costume History and Fashion History courses.

The book includes access to additional online resources, available at www.routledge.com/9780815352198. These include information on hairstyling, makeup, headdresses, footwear, accessories, and undergarments, research sources for each era, and a glossary.

Jeanette deJong is Associate Professor of Costume Design, History, and Technology at the University of Oregon. A member of United Scenic Artists, she has been designing costumes and teaching costume design since 1984. She is also the author of A Working Costume Designer's Guide to Color (Routledge 2021) and A Working Costume Designer's Guide to Fit (Routledge 2023). Her professional design credits include shows at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Illinois Shakespeare Festival, amongst many other theatres. Her technical costume credits include shows at Glimmerglass Opera, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, and Parson-Meares Studio, New York.