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The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. It can also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a masquerade, a fancy dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Theatrical costumes, in combination with other aspects, serve to portray characters' age, gender role, profession, social class, personality, and can even reveal information about the historical period/era, geographic location, time of day, as well as the season or weather of the theatrical performance. Sometimes theatrical costumes literally mimic what the costume designer thinks the character would wear if the character actually existed. On the other hand, often stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate some aspect of a character.

National costume or regional costume can express local (or exiled) identity and emphasise uniqueness.

The wearing of costumes has become an important part of Mardi Gras and Halloween celebrations, and (to a lesser extent) people may also wear costumes in conjunction with other holiday celebrations, such as Christmas and Easter. Mardi Gras costumes are usually jesters and other fantasy characters, while Halloween costumes traditionally take the form of supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and angels. Christmas and Easter costumes typically portray mythical holiday characters, such as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, and costumes may serve to portray various other character themes during secular holidays, such as an Uncle Sam costume worn on the Independence day for example.

Some people wear costumes for erotic purposes. This is taken as a harmless fun or a form of fetishism, or a combination of the two.

See also: cosplay

External links

• 1000 Costumes.

• LACY'S DRAMATIC COSTUMES, collected & edited by Thomas Hailes Lacy, 1865 & 1868. (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format)

• The Costumers Manifesto.

This article is based on the article "Costuming" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.

"Fabric" redirects here. For other uses, see Fabric (disambiguation).

Cloth or fabric is a flexible artificial material made up of a network of natural or artificial fibres (thread or yarn) formed by weaving or knitting (textiles), or pressed into felt. The words fabric and material are commonly used in the textile assembly trades such as tailoring and dressmaking, as synonyms for cloth. They are however, words with much more general meanings.

Contents 1 Uses 2 Sources 3 Treatments 4 Types of cloth 5 Synonyms 6 External links

Uses

Cloth is most often used in the manufacture of clothing, household furnishings, and art such as tapestry. Before the advent of woven cloth, the functions of textiles were fulfilled by furs and skins.

Sources

In the past, all cloth was made from natural fibres, including plant sources such as cotton, flax, and hemp, and animal sources such as wool, hair, and silk. In the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres such as polyester and rayon.

Treatments

Cloth is most often but not always dyed, with fabrics available in every color. Coloured designs in fabric can be created by weaving strands of different colours (plaid) and adding coloured stitches to finished fabric (embroidery), but also by using various printing processes on finished fabric. The hobby of machine embroidery has become popular in the last few years, thanks to less expensive home embroidery machines.

Since the 1990s, finishing agents have been used to strengthen fabrics and make them wrinkle free. [1]

Types of cloth

Cloth is made in many, various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer fabrics to sturdy canvas sails. The relative thickness of fibres in cloth is measured in deniers. Microfiber refers to fibers made of strands thinner than one denier.

• Bògòlanfini
• Bombazine
• Broadcloth
• Burlap
• Calico
• Cambric
• Canvas
• Charmeuse
• Chiffon
• Corduroy
• Crêpe
• Damask
• Denim
• Faille
• Felt
• Flannel
• Fustian
• Gabardine
• Gingham
• Lamé
• Lawn
• Linen
• Muslin
• Organza
• Satin
• Serge
• Silk
• Split Microfiber
• Taffeta
• Twill
• Velvet
• Worsted

Synonyms

rag

External links

• Fabricdictionary - explanations for fabric- and textile-related terms

This article is based on the article "Fabrics" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.