Screen-to-measure: A practice-based, formative and historical study of Edith Head's costume designs in the 1940s noir thrillers

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The purpose of this research is to find out how Edith Head's costume department at the Paramountstudios in the 1940s got to the costumes seen on screen and to trace back and analyse how patterndesigners transformed the to-be-looked-at designs into wearable garments. The project will study towhat extent cinematography influenced costume design (and vice versa) and the ways in whichpatterns function as mediators between a to-be-looked-at aesthetic and the embodiment of the dress.Through this research I will investigate the creative processes of designing film costumes(particularly the role of pattern design as a craft and an artistic practice), its relation tocinematography, film style and genre and the history of fashion design. Drawing on a formativeapproach and applying a theoretical framework of costume theory, I will ask how the relationshipbetween the audience and the filmed costumes works as a paradigm of fashionability to be desiredand reproduced.This project will combine practice-based research methods and archival research. It will draw on themethodology of comparative historical research. My practice-based research methods start from thescreened costumes and trace back to the pattern designs. By analysing the lighting, photography,framing, and the movements of the actress' body, I intend to conduct a cinematographic analysis ofthe screened costumes. This formative study will be completed by the knowledge obtained througharchival research, in which I will analyse the various artistic practises involved and the relationsbetween Edith Head and other people on the set.