Creative Research Essay · Year 3
BA (Hons) Costume for Theatre & Screen
The Fabric of Resistance: Identity and the Power of Clothing
A personal, research-led essay on resistance clothing - how dress becomes politically potent when its symbolic meaning exceeds its material function.
Using Roland Barthes' theory of semiotics and Judith Butler's theory of performativity, this essay analyses case studies including the Appalachian miners, the Brown Berets, the Economic Freedom Fighters of South Africa, and Britain's Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism - tracing how uniformity, solidarity, and "political accessorising" have been used to shift ideology and shape movements. It argues that dress is never only decorative: it carries the capacity to organise resistance and to make change visible on the body.
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Creative Research Essay · Year 2
BA (Hons) Costume for Theatre & Screen
Uniforms of Power: Costume, Spectacle, and the Aesthetics of Authority in Dystopian Cinema
An exploration of costume as a semiotic and political tool - how dystopian cinema dresses authority, and what those uniforms reveal about the systems that wear them.
"Costume design is so much more than the superficial aesthetics of clothing. It provides an insight into a character's life, revealing vital details about their psyche that the audience wouldn't be able to infer through other cinematic storytelling tools…" Drawing on Michel Foucault and Georges Bataille, and reading films such as The Hunger Games, this essay examines how political leaders cultivate image to enforce authority, and how dystopian cinema exaggerates and exposes those dynamics through dress.
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