The 6 Principles of wardrobe justice
When we work with clothes and bodies, we bring everything our society says about bodies to the surface. All people are impacted by body image rhetoric and the way oppression and marginalization are enacted on the body. As costume professionals, we have an impact on performers’ self-image and the backstage environment.
Being unclothed or partly-dressed are inherently vulnerable positions. As a costume professional, you are in a position of power over this vulnerability, regardless of your position in the larger workplace hierarchy.
Representation of diverse populations and voices onstage must be backed up by accessible, inclusive backstage spaces. We must recognize the systems of privilege and oppression that inform our society, our industry, and our interactions with one another, and work to create environments that are physically and emotionally supportive and adaptable.
Being informed, skilled costume workers means expecting diversity and difference. We don’t need to know everything, but we can and should be prepared to work with a variety of different bodies and minds. We must pursue further education to continually develop a better understanding of cultural aspects of dress and how dress and embodiment are experienced differently among different populations.
We cannot rely solely on the hidden labor and self-advocacy of minoritized people in efforts towards justice. Each of us has the responsibility and capacity to bring about change, regardless of the identities we hold or our position in the workplace hierarchy.
There must be a cultural shift in the entertainment industry to value safety, in all its forms, over running a performance as scheduled or “maintaining the integrity” of a design. The show does not have to go on, and it does not have to go on the way we’re doing it now.