Modern day designers vs historic costumes

This article entails research on costume designers and highlights their past and contributions to the field of fashion. The artists in this discussion consist of Paul Tazewell and Michele Clapton. Paul Tazewell History One of the designers for his discussion is Paul Tazewell. Tazewell is one of the costume designers in the United States of America and operates in several other countries of the world. He designs mainly for dance shows, theatre arts, television, and opera. He has thus contributed a lot to the art field even though he had a traditional to costume design. Paul Tazewell is married to Michael McAleer (Fernald & Shenton, 2016). Business Startup  As indicated before, Tazewell gained a passion for costume design while at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

He had wanted to study costume design and acting concurrently. However, Paul was not able to do so because of lack of enough time. He has also designed for hip-hop musicals and other concerts (Fernald & Shenton, 2016). Influence by the Ancient Fashion  The old fashion has an impact on the designs that Tazewell made. One of the aspects of the past style that is seen in his works is the fact that his art is time or period specific. For instance, in Hamilton, he connected the show to the colonial period of the 18th century and gathered images and other valuable objects that could assist in the design. They even included paintings and several others (Stangos, 2015). The use of the court dress in most of Tazewell’s designs also reflects an influence of the ancient times, especially the Elizabeth performances between the 1500 and 1600 in the United Kingdom.

During this period, there were several Bible stories in theatre arts. As such, the different Christian vestments that were stylized from the Byzantine court dresses were mainly used in theatre arts. The use of various fabrics such as linen and wool in the making of cloths was a common trend during the Elizabethan era (Stangos, 2015). As that happened, the upper class had a slight adjustment to their clothing. The use of green silk coats in the Hamilton and other plays indicate the adoption of the ancient designs in his works. The heavy coats and cotton dresses are some of the indicators of the Elizabethan art in Tazewell's models. The few examples are a demonstration of the adoption of ancient art and design in contemporary fashion (Fernald & Shenton, 2016).

How Tazewell has influenced Modern Fashion The primary influence of Tazewell's works o modern design is the revision of a mechanism for streamlining the ancient costumes for the current or recent shows. He used a combination of classical and contemporary costumes in one of his shows to show how best to have a blend of both to make a performance indicate characters from different periods (Roche, Commins, & Farina, 2018). With his award-winning spree, many upcoming artists have emulated his example and are adopting the style of art Tazewell used. Since he is currently one of the global icons in the field of costume design, many are likely to emulate his example and come up with similar or better designs. As the competition increases in the industry, the world should expect a radical change in the fashion industry.

Paul Tazewell has already made great strides but is meant to improve in the future. With all the contributions and awards, Paul Tazewell is poised for greater heights in the fashion and costume design industry (Stangos, 2015). As a result, she ended up having a small bolero at the top of a six-panel dress when all the other students had round-necked dresses. However, her headmistress never allowed her to wear the res in school. Clapton hailed from a low-income family and at one time, she told her mother she preferred going to school barefoot instead of wearing the ‘bring shoes' she had at that time. Coming from a little village, Michele Clapton never visualized making it in the costume design industry (Roche, Commins, & Farina, 2018).

Even though she had a liking for clothing styles and tried different ones at home, she couldn’t have imagined building a career in that field. It was while at this college that she met Mrs. Hill, who became her mentor for that period. Mrs. Hill talked to her about costume designers such as Zandra Rhodes and encouraged her to pursue her career in that field. She also met Sasha Bradell, a theologian who had a lot of enthusiasm. She shaved her head then joined the romantic movements while still in college and working for the mentioned organizations (Reis, 2018). When she left college, Clapton opened a small brick mortar shop or stall at Kensington Market where she sold different types of cloths.

Also, she continued with her design work, designing Boy Georges shop. In the shop, they could present ideas, which the shop owners could determine, the best and execute the blueprints. Clapton later started her design and label then showcased it during the London Fashion Week (Roche, Commins, & Farina, 2018). Some of the awards consist of British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA), Emmy Award in the year 2012 with the Game of Thrones, in 2014, and in the year 2016 (Reis, 2018). She was replaced in the Game of Thrones series by April Ferry for the 6th season but resumed her work for the subsequent ones. Clapton also has a film she is working on in Morocco, and the job entails costume design for television drama series. Clapton’s work, just like Tazewell’s, has been influenced by the ancient arts as she has used individual romantic styles synonymous to the Elizabethan times.