The Costume Designer as Student

audio: The Costume Designer as Student
audio of Suzanne Noguere's poem, The Costume Designer as Student

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Suzanne Noguere

The Costume Designer as Student

 

      Ladislas Czettel at the Munich Academy of Art, 1910

      I haunt the galleries to see the clothes:
      a pharaoh naked from neck to navel
      wears only a kilt in his striding pose,
      his queen a sheath that heat cannot dishevel—
      so thin and snug her mound of Venus shows.
      For sheer simplicity they have no rival.
      I guess Fourth Dynasty as I exalt
      to see white linen carved in black basalt.

      Half the Greek statues are completely nude!
      I might as well be in my drawing class
      behind an easel with my eyes glued
      to our model’s perfect hour-glass
      of creamy flesh. Believe me, I’m no prude,
      but all I longed to do was draw a dress
      over her shape to add some interest—
      some decoration, inspiration, zest!

      And so I did: a peplos—pure illusion!—
      a gown and blouse from just a tube of cloth
      folded over, pinned at top—instant fashion!—
      with a cord around the waist to gather both.
      I braced for censure at my emendation.
      “Czettel, you’ll never be accused of sloth,”
      the teacher said (no change in his demeanor).
      “I see Aphrodite has become Athena.”

      Exactly! What you wear tells who you are
      and where and when. A dragon robe in golden
      yellow silk befits an emperor,
      especially embroidered to embolden
      him alone, and horsehoof cuffs declare
      it Qing. To this the court remains beholden.
      A robe may hide your body, yet it will
      reveal your concept of the beautiful.

      That’s what’s so intriguing about the Tang
      funerary figurines aglow
      in their three-color glaze. Isn’t a long
      green streak on an amber skirt (or cream) a flaw?
      The potters clearly loved what looks so wrong!
      I catch their spirit and dream about a show
      with court ladies, singers, dancers, and their ilk—
      I have a yen to paint those drips on silk!

      The medieval room with its millefleur blooms
      holds me in thrall to a tapestry:
      real mint, carnations, lilies, orchids, mums;
      the gentlewomen in high-waisted V-
      neck gowns; the men in doublets, hose, and plumes.
      Here wealth is cloth, and cloth is pageantry:
      brocade, moiré, red velvet, damask, wool—
      one warp and weft to re-create them all.

      And what about Rembrandt? He loves to paint
      burghers and beggars in clothes that glisten:
      exotic costumes or the richly quaint.
      But his self-portraits in work clothes, by the dozen—
      is it humility or pride he meant?
      As he grows older and his brushstrokes loosen,
      is that a sturdy robe or a splendid gown?
      I think the black beret may be a crown.

      The little geometric princess looks
      sweetly grand: her bodice an inverted cone,
      her skirt a vast rectangular box
      on which her arms rest their entire span.
      Velázquez paints a bow to match her cheeks
      and gives the well-dressed dwarfs around the throne
      their dignity, no matter each one’s lot,
      some perfectly proportioned, others not.

      What could be farther from the artifice
      of farthingales and corsets than this pure
      Empire style echoing ancient Greece?
      The low-cut bosom burgeons with allure;
      the cinch beneath makes it a precipice:
      Gérard depicts the sheer drop to the floor—
      (one color, one fabric for home and ball)
      white muslin plunges like a waterfall.

      I step outside into the dusk among
      men and women in their long black coats,
      so like the endless black when I was young
      and Mother mourned my father—black gloves, black hats.
      In all this bustle, not a single thing
      turns my head and makes me wonder what’s
      that she’s wearing. Oh, it will be sweet
      to see my sketches walking down the street.