Costume Concepts

A director's job is visual storytelling.  They have to find ways to tell the story to the actors, staff and audience using pictures.  A director that ignores any of their potential visual palette (Aristotle's spectacle) should be taken out and shot.  The visual palette includes costumes, sets, props, special effects, lighting, etc.

Historically Shakespeare told his story on a blank stage, with little set to distract the audience from the action.  I am doing the same.  But with less set (and no applicable lighting until more than half way through the play), attention must be spent on the other elements, especially costumes.

It will be the costumes (along with props) that will create the settings of our Windsor.  The costumes will become the most important visual hook for the audience, and will be the most helpful way to tell the story visually.

Once the decision was made to make this production a western, I took special pains to decide what part of the west.  I settled on the great northern plains of South Dakota for a number of reasons, but primarily because I am huge fan of the HBO series, Deadwood.  In fact, all of the pictures I pulled (save the ones for Robin) are from that television series.  And more than the just northern plains, I want Merry Wives to be in a town setting, and not pastoral (like in Oklahoma!).  I see Windsor as an upstart town much like the mining boom town of Deadwood, South Dakota.

This means that there aren't any cowboys or cowboy hats or even traditional cowboy boots.  Instead the men wore suits; the women wore more formal dresses and not simple prairie dresses.  These people want to make the American Dream happen and they will live up to all of the physical trappings therein.  They are as urban as they can be, and only late into the play (save the ridiculous duel) do they all venture into the pastoral.

I want to keep the costumes as simple as possible, and as few a number as possible.  With 19 principal characters the fewer costume changes, the easier it is for audience to keep track of who is who.

For the men, the suit should be a three-button affair; this creates a shorter lapel.  The lapel can be almost any width, but should be notched.  Vests are almost always worn, and those vest should be either double breasted or "gambler's style" or better both.  A single-breasted vest (our more modern/traditional one set of buttons) is a rare exception and shouldn't be more than one or two people at the most.  Jackets can be wither off or on, creating a second look for the character.

If the male standard is the suit, then the derivations of that is what illuminates the character.  The color and pattern of the suit should reflect the character (light and airy colors for fey Slender; gray for old Shallow; bold pattern for the French Dr. Caius, etc.).  The vest itself can become the most indicative of the character (a wild/fun color/pattern for Page, a more solid and traditional one for Ford, an open vest or no vest for Bardolph, etc.).  Shirts on men should be collarless.

The tie is the last thing that can define the individual character.  Our traditional tie shape didn't exist per se, but neckware started to head in that direction.  Most of the ties were long, thin scarves, that were either wrapped several times around the neck and then done up in a bow (I'll call it the scarf tie) or were tied more like a traditional Windsor or half-Windsor knot.  Then there were other options available like the ascot or the jabot. The tie choice can inform a character--a scarf tie for Bardolph, Sir Hugh and Page, a Windsor knot for Ford and Shallow, a frilly jabot for Caius and Slender, an ascot for Pistol, or no tie for Fenton and Nym.

The women wore more fitted clothing/dresses through the bodice, but would even add a bustle to make their rumps look bigger.  Skirts were longer in the back, and may have multiple layers or levels (a double-skirt).  Jackets were certainly an option--both attached and unattached.  Jackets are great, because it gives you multiple looks to the same single costume.  Younger women and teen girls followed suit when possible, but they stuck more to simple prairie dresses as they needed new clothes each year.

Hair was just as important to women as anything else.  Styles varied depending on position and stature in community as well as wealth and the climate.  All women wore their hair up, and young girls wore their hair down.  Teens who wanted to be older wore their hair up like their mothers, immature teens wore their hair down.  I love this frightening picture of the different hairstyles.

Costuming can help in storytelling by more than just defining characters; it can become bookmarks for the audience.  I'd like to see the Pages in cool colors (as the more "stable" relationship), and the Fords in warm colors (as the more passionate characters).  I think will be a great visual cue to help audiences remember who is married to who.  Another storytelling point that costumes can help clarify is making Falstaff an officer in the Union Army.  I have no intention of eradicating all of the "knight" allusions and  mentions.  Our American knights are the leaders of our military, and it was the custom (especially for one so craven as Falstaff) for the Union officers to trade in on the victory in the time right after the Civil War.  Putting him in military garb (especially if it fit...once) keeps that knight imagery alive and in the fore of the audience's mind.

The last bit I want to discuss is the fairies.  I have this overwhelming visual image of these fairy costumes that look very homemade--where we can see the ropes and belts and the metal wire that was used to make the wings and attach them to the kids' clothes.  Where the wings are made not out of gossamer and tulle, but old lace curtains or an old gingham dress or a dirty tablecloth.  Where robes are made of pillowcases or bed sheets or horse blankets.  Where we can see hints of their clothes underneath. 

Storywise, the kids of Windsor were gathered together after lunch and told to meet in the woods at midnight with fairy costumes they had to make in between doing their chores and avoiding mom.  They used what they could find, including flowers from the fields or long grasses or sticks or antlers or animal bones or cattails or leaves.  Garlands of flowers or ivy in the hair would be terrific.  Domino style masks (a la the Lone Ranger or Robin of Batman and...) made from strips of fabric with eye holes cut in are a must.

While we should feel free to use hot glue or sewing machines or any other modern tool, the end product should look a bit cobbled together and very steam punk.  Falstaff may not recognize them as people he knows, but the audience should never once think they are really fairies.  The overwhelming image should always be these are kids from 130 years ago dressed as fairies to make fun of a fat guy wearing antlers.