Dress-Up, Costumes

The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. more...

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It can also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a masquerade, a fancy dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Types of costumes

Theatrical costumes

One of the more prominent places people see costumes is in theatre, film and TV. In combination with other aspects, theatrical costumes can serve to portray characters' age, gender role, profession, social class, personality, and even information about the historical period/era, geographic location and time of day, as well as the season or weather of the theatrical performance. Often stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate some aspect of a character for example Harlequin and Pantaloon in the Commedia dell Arte. Without theatrical costumers, the audience would be left wondering who is related to whom, and which person is which and it can be safely said that costuming is as important as the set and the script, yet is taken for granted by most theatrical audiences.

National costume

National costume or regional costume expresses local (or exiled) identity and emphasises a culture's unique attributes. It is often a source of national pride. Examples of such are a Scotsman in a kilt or a Japanese person in a kimono.

Holidays and festivals

The wearing of costumes has become an important part of such holidays and festivals as Mardi Gras and Halloween, and (to a lesser extent) people may also wear costumes in conjunction with other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Mardi Gras costumes usually take the form of jesters and other fantasy characters, while Halloween costumes traditionally take the form of supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and angels. Christmas and Easter costumes typically portray mythical characters such as Santa Claus (by donning a santa suit and beard) or the Easter Bunny by putting on an animal costume. Costumes may serve to portray various other characters during secular holidays, such as an Uncle Sam costume worn on the Independence day for example.

Children

Costumes also serve as an avenue for children to explore and roleplay by having a safari. That can be in various forms i.e. Wild Animals, Marine Creatures or Farm Animals.

Read more at Wikipedia.org