I have had a lifelong love affair with costumes. Not just Halloween costumes, but costumes worn during plays, in movies or even simple disguises meant to hide the real you for just a few hours. Looking back, I suppose this love stems from my love for theater. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved to act. I vaguely recall one of the first costumes I donned for a show was that of tree. I obviously wasn’t the star of that show but I played my part proudly and stood as still and tall as I could throughout the play. After that an endless string of costumes followed, both for plays and shows as well as Halloween (which is one of my favorite holidays! Go figure!) I was a Buttermilk Maid, a bumblebee, a pumpkin, a reporter (what a stretch), a clown, a Pretty Penny Chatterbox doll, a ballerina, a Spanish Flamenco dancer, a Jedi, a Hogwarts student, and most recently, a firefighter.
I can obviously trace a large part of my love for costumes to the stage but even more than that I just love dressing up for the chance to become another person for a while. Halloween was so fun for me because not only did I get to dress up as something outrageous and crazy but I got to act outrageous and crazy, too. I got to be a whole new person. Which is actually strange because costumes were never really a big part of Halloween until the very late eighth century though the actual holiday has it roots in Celtic culture over 2,000 years ago. Basically, people went from door to door asking for treats (at the time it was small breads or cakes as opposed to the candy overload it is today) and donned simple costumes such as black and/or white robes. More elaborate costumes evolved from this and pretty soon people all over the world were dressing up in the simple, crazy, and complex Halloween costumes we have today. And what’s more, people really get into the costume and begin to act like what they are wearing.
I actually got to thinking about costumes recently because of many factors. The first, naturally, was the Halloween that just passed (which I really enjoyed!). The second was the play I am currently acting in: Theatre Down South’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream which boasts a wide array of gorgeous oriental-inspired costumes that just seem to come to life on their own! And finally, the last reason I was thinking about costumes was because I am reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night again and I realized how important an element costumes (or more accurately “disguises”) are to the play. They allow certain characters (namely Viola who dresses up as a man) to experience a life she might never have been able to experience otherwise. Not only that, she is only truly free to express her love for Orsino without fear of rejection or prejudice when she is dressed as a man and becomes his confidant and servant as opposed to potential lover.
And that’s not the only play recognizing this special freedom found indisguise. In As You Like It, the beautiful Rosalind is able to talk comfortably for great lengths with her true love Orlando only when she is disguised as a man. It allows her to listen to what he has to say with a little bit of safety since he does not know who she is. It’s much like the movie Shakespeare in Love in which Gwyneth Paltrow’s character dresses as a man to be able to join the all-male theater troupe.
As for me, I don’t think I need to wear a costume to be able to say the things I couldn’t say otherwise; but I can easily relate to how donning a disguise helps you feel a measure of freedom. It helps you step outside of yourself for a while. Indeed, putting on a costume is sort of like shedding “you” and putting on a whole new character — and, in essence, a whole new life. Costumes can go a long way to helping someone shed their own insecurities and fears and truly be free. Then there’s a more shallow reason: they can help you see what it may be like to be someone else for a day.
And yes, though I know it sounds terribly clichéd, even after all the acting and the lights and the sounds, the moment you put on that costume you know you have fully transformed for the next few hours. You are no longer you, but someone else. I feel that way every time I don my fairy costume or my costume to play Robin Starveling the Tailor. I’m not just me dressed up in strange garments, I actually am Robin Starveling the Tailor. It’s an incredible feeling and one that I enjoy for however long I can. So yes, I am crazy about costumes. All kinds! And in the end as I pull of yet another strange getup meant to turn me into someone else I can’t help but feel a bit of appreciation for the real me and my real life which, for a few hours, I get to look at from a whole new perspective.