Location: Zoom Room 1
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3874647177?pwd=Jw1g9axPFpvKa8qEe26DCLjGd0ACbW.1
Abstract:
Curated Panel Rationale: The Costume Cutter is a central yet often overlooked role in theatrical production. If the Designer functions as the architect of a costume, the Cutter is its engineer, translating vision into a garment built precisely for a performer and the action on the stage. For more than a century, professional costume production across Canada has relied on inherited, labour-intensive methods that have changed little over time, forming a rich and highly skilled creative lineage.
Today, however, the future of this traditional practice is under strain. Shrinking budgets, accelerated production timelines, and increased reliance on fast fashion threaten the sustainability of costume building as an artistic discipline. Senior practitioners face burnout as they are asked to produce more with fewer resources, while opportunities for mentorship diminish. Without intervention, these pressures risk eroding the expertise of Cutters, Builders, and even Designers, expertise that is foundational to the vitality of the performing arts.
This panel is a response to this state of transition, exploring digital technologies that could alleviate pressure on workrooms, expand Cutters’ creative capacity, and strengthen collaboration with Designers and Directors. Researchers in the field will disseminate their work assessing the ethnographic, educational and logistical implications. This conversation is happening at a pivotal moment in Theatre Production in Canada, where Costume Designers grapple with the pervasive threat of AI and reliance on fast fashion increasingly replaces costume building. We hope to start a conversation that broadens the scope of our collaborative contribution and re-centres value on the skilled technicians, and artisans contributing to the theatrical artform.
Paper Abstracts:
Cathleen Gasca Sbrizzi, “Clo3D – Digital Integration into the Costume Production Process from Theory to Practice”
This paper is directed at costume technicians, managers, designers and producers. It is meant to encourage a transition in building practices, which include our historical inherited methods of production, alongside new technologies. I will explore the benefits of digital integration, review case studies of companies using Clo3d, and provide guidance for further adoption.
Clo3D enables Cutters to present visual representations of their work to designers before cutting into fabric, supporting early concept validation and reducing material and labor waste. It is especially useful for developing custom prints and planning pattern placement on valuable textiles. The software also facilitates confident long-distance collaboration, allowing costume components to be partially constructed before a designer’s residency. By providing clear visual verification where verbal communication may lead to misunderstandings, Clo3D strengthens the design construction dialogue. As a powerful creative and collaborative tool, it warrants integration into our established methodologies.
Research presented at the 2022 World Stage Design by the CCDRI (Canadian Costumers Digital Research Initiative) identified Clo3D as the most promising CAD platform for costume production. Moving beyond hypothetical applications, this paper demonstrates how Clo3D is now being used in practice and argues for its broader adoption. Real-world examples illustrate how digital integration can improve timelines, efficiency, and communication offering a pathway to sustain and evolve costume production for the future theatre landscape.
Madeline Taylor, “Curiosity, Crisis and Community Curriculum: Professional Identity Narratives in Costume Practitioners’ Technology Adoption”
This research examines how costume practitioners’ professional identity narratives shape their adoption of digital technologies such as patterning software and 3D printing. Costume practice, particularly how this feminised field navigates technological innovation, remains underexamined. Practitioner resistance to new technologies is often dismissed as Luddism, rather than an understandable response to the uncertainty encountered with significant professional change. Drawing on domestication theory (Silverstone & Haddon, 1996) and innovation diffusion research (Rogers, 2003), the study analyses interview data from over 30 costume professionals internationally to identify distinct adoption pathways to digital tools.
Three consistent narrative patterns were identified. Crisis-driven patterns demonstrate how external pressures such as production demands or global disruptions can override professional identity concerns, enabling practitioners to reframe technology as necessity rather than a threat to craft values. Many practitioners suggest their own intrinsic curiosity about digital methods makes adoption a logical part of their career progression. Finally, the quick development of curriculum within the costume community and ready compliance with institutional or educational norms for those at organisations who have already implemented the tools indicates how quickly the field can shift. However, those moving between institutions tell of concerning disconnects, when practitioners trained in digital technologies encounter workplaces that stigmatise rather than value these skills.
Overall, the paper argues users inscribe technologies with personal meaning, revealing the active identity work that reconciles these digital tools with craft traditions. This research contributes theoretical understanding of how feminised technical practices negotiate innovation adoption, with practical implications for supporting technology integration in live performance industries.
Alyssa Ridder, “Plaids, pleats, and polygons: The tension between designing costumes for analogue and digital productions
Digital pattern drafting software invites new futures for costume cutters by expanding their expertise to industries beyond traditional theatre production. Software such as CLO3D enable costume cutters to create digital costumes for video games, virtual museum exhibitions, and digitally amplified performances. These industries can benefit from the careful eye, engineering experience, and material knowledge of a skilled costume cutter. However, just like film, opera, and all genres of dance each have discipline-specific needs and limitations, the digital mediums have their own practical demands.
This paper demonstrates new considerations for costume cutters when applying their analogue skills to virtual production. As a costume professional with a background in theatre, I will share insight from my own practice creating digital costumes for video games, museum exhibitions, and extended reality performance. For example, while plaids are typically matched at the seams, in digital production they also need to be efficiently packed into texture files. And while a heavily pleated skirt might weigh down a performer on stage, in digital production it can slow down the entire interface. Ultimately, this paper aims to encourage practitioners who have inherited traditional costume expertise to consider what their skills bring to emerging digital mediums, while acknowledging the industry-specific needs that must be embraced when collaborating in digital spaces.
Maarit Kalmakurki, “Digital–physical interplay in live performance setting”
Costumes operate in both material and digital forms, shaping character identity and narrative across a range of media. While physical costumes are traditionally associated with live performance and live-action film, and digital costumes with computer- generated imagery, animation, and games, recent scholarship has begun to examine the intersections of these practices and the artistic potential that emerges when they converge. This paper contributes to this expanding discourse by exploring the relationship between digital and physical costume through my ongoing artistic practice and research. I present insights to the design and making process for both digital and physical costumes created for Alice in Wonderland theatre performance. CLO3D software is employed both as a design tool in the early stages of character costume development and in the creation of digital doubles for the performers. I explore the creative possibilities of digital costume making, as well as sustainable approaches in the practise. In the Alice in Wonderland performance, digital costume elements are used scenographically, projected onto a hologram screen to complement and interact with the physical costumes on stage. Through this approach, digital and physical costumes blend into a multilayered visual language. In doing so, the digital components enhance the aesthetic and dramaturgical dimensions of the performance.
Biographies
Cathleen Gasca Sbrizzi holds a BA in Costume Studies from Dalhousie, certificates in Innovative Pattern Cutting and Clo3D from Central Saint Martins and Parsons and is a recipient of the Michelle Dias Community Service Award. She has published two publicly funded research projects and presented research at World Stage Design 2023. Web: QuarterlyCutter.com.
Dr Madeline Taylor is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Aalto University and a Senior Lecturer in Fashion at Queensland University of Technology. Her research examines the contemporary practices of costume professionals, exploring the intersection of gender, labour and technical innovation. She has over 20 years of professional experience in live performance in a range of production roles alongside her academic work.
Alyssa Ridder has 15 years of experience designing costumes for theatre and digital media. She is a leading innovator integrating costume design with digital tools and provides education in digital patterning software around the world. Alyssa is currently pursuing her doctoral research at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
Dr. Maarit Kalmakurki is a scenographer and academic, specialised in digital costume design. Her doctoral thesis (Aalto University, 2021) investigated digital character costume design in computer-animated feature films. This pioneering work has been recognised by the industry and media, such as The Walt Disney Animation and The New York Times. Maarit has digitally constructed historical clothing in international, multidisciplinary research projects Refashioning the Renaissance and Visualising Lost Theatres. She has received Eino Salmelainen foundation’s Theatre Arts Recognition- award and the Herbert D. Greggs Honor Award from USITT and TD&T editorial committee.