Lahoda O.
Ph.D. in History of Arts, Associate Professor, Professor of the Design Department
of Cherkassy State Technological University, Cherkassy, Ukraine
REPRESENTATIVE PRACTICES OF THE COSTUME MODERN DESIGN
Introduction. As a sphere of artistic and design activity, fashion design
summarizes a variety of approaches to the study of costume and fashion, synthesizes
the axiological basis of the costume as a cultural phenomenon that is an integral
element of any culture, be it ethnic, of a certain historical period, corporate, or
subculture. It takes into account the theoretical interpretations of the costume as a sign
and symbolic system, which, due to the appearance of the costume wearer, allows
expressing a variety of information through designer means. The personal
characteristics of the designer, the costume creator, which determine the credo of
his/her activity, and the personal characteristics of the costume wearer, who visually
stylizes his/her own appearance with its help, are based on the bi-functionality of the
costume as a design object and the costume philosophy as a phenomenological
phenomenon. Due to this, the work of the designer increasingly acquires the socio-
cultural significance, and the search for the ideal takes place at the individual-personal
level and manifests itself in the visual image of the wearer. As an outer shell, structured
by specific symbols and signs, such as the silhouette shape, assortment, cut, colour,
etc., the costume indirectly captures the concepts of modernity, marks the ethical-
aesthetic and psychological advantages, reflects the technical level and technological
development of the fashion industry and design practices.
The study of the costume, as a result of design activities, aims not only to
determine the specifics of the creative process but also to reveal the impact of the
development of design and artistic culture on it. The author understands the
evolutionary process of the forming of clothes in the context of the formation of the
visual narrative of a costume by artistically-design means as a unique phenomenon and
representative practices of costume design.
The time frames of the study – from the second half of the 19
th
till the early
21
st
centuries – are determined by the following factors:
• The activation of fashion illustration and the release of specialized fashion
publications, the birth of fashion products advertising, the development of
photography, the change in the social role of women, the overall economic
development of the society and the achievements of science;
• The official opening of the first House of Fashion of Ch. F. Worth in Paris in
1858, the birth of a high (haute couture) tailor-made costume design that correlates
with the progressive development of clothing industrial manufacture;
- 937 -