Technological Innovations in Costume Practice (TICP): Enabling the adoption of new manufacturing technologies by live performance costume professionals

The production of stage costumes relies on the talents and expertise of diverse costume professionals.

These practitioners employ a range of tools and technologies as they collaboratively work to convert an idea or 2D sketch into a 3D garment custom-made for that character and show.

Industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies, such as virtual patternmaking and 3D printing, offer substantial productivity, financial, sustainability and creativity benefits to costume construction, but the adoption of such technologies is haphazard and obstructed by a perception that costume practice is not technically innovative.

This perception is informed by systematic gender biases that limit investment in, and recognition of, the skills and creativity of costume professionals, who are predominantly female.

Technological Innovations in Costume Practice (TICP) is a research justice project that investigates the integration of technological innovations with the aim of facilitating their adoption and application in the work of costume makers. This will elevate the field of costume production and strengthen the future employability of professional costumers.

The central research question driving the project is: As costume practitioners implement new manufacturing technologies in their workflow, what are the structural and attitudinal factors that constrain and facilitate their adoption?

Through a groundbreaking cross-disciplinary approach that applies theories about sociotechnical change to data from practitioner interviews and digital ethnography, the project will develop a model of technological adoption for costume that responds to the very specific context of the live performance industry.

Such a model will enable practitioners to be more deliberate, effective and empowered when engaging with new manufacturing technologies.

The project results will centre the feminised area of costume at the cutting edge of a currently very male-gendered technical production research discourse.