The Fabric of Performance: The Role and History of Textiles in Costume for Theatre and Film provides an overview of the narrative properties of textiles and how they have been utilised in the design and construction of costume for dramatic performance in Britain.

The book explores how textiles can be used as a semiotic tool in the realisation of performance costume, subconsciously transmitting codified signs to the audience through the colour, pattern, weight, drape, texture, and embellishment of the character’s clothing. The main body of the book encompasses a history of the design and implementation of textiles within costume for theatrical production, from medieval mystery plays, Stuart court masques, and Shakespearean theatre, through to the work of innovative and significant practitioners who have created seminal costumes for twenty-first century performance. This is followed by a summary of the development of textiles in costume for film and television across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The final chapter documents the journey of the design and making of a costume from the perspective of the textiles used its creation, investigating the work of the costume designer, costume supervisor, costume maker, and textiles artist. Drawing on a broad range of visual, physical, and literary sources, this text provides an original perspective and unique insight into the historical and contemporary role of textiles in costume for both live and filmed productions.

The Fabric of Performance will be of interest to costume, textile, theatre, and fashion historians, costume researchers, costume design and construction students, and industry costume practitioners.