An inspiration to do better as a performer.
Many people look at clothes as only that: clothing. This includes me. However, if we really take an in depth look at clothing, it is the outward demonstration of who we are on the inside. Therefore, maybe it becomes important. When we take care to reflect and plan our appearance, we prepare our audiences for the performance we deliver. When we do not take care with our material look, we cause disorientation in the preconceived notions of our show-goers. This takes away from our shows. Five simple ways we demonstrate a good presence to our audiences are with personal fashion and style, cleanliness, tidiness, fresh clothes, and knowing the fashion of our audiences.
Clothing is an integrated part of our society and we tend to wear things that are similar to each other. However, there is fashion to the wardrobe of each person. Fashion is the following of treads. Whether the treads are of now or the trends of certain era in history, you declare your personality with the fashion you choose to wear. “What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.” —Miuccia Prada
Your individual style is something different from fashion. Style is the unique way that each one of us dress and accessorize. If we take time to developed our own style, our audiences have the opportunity to understand us. “Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself.” —Oscar de la Renta
Another important part of presentation to your audience is cleanliness. Being clean isn’t only for your physical health but shows a level of ‘put togetherness’ that any on-looker will appreciate. It could be argued that, when playing a character like a street rat, a level of dirt and grim brings more thoroughness to your character, but cleanliness is still important. Makeup can be used to make you look dirty and grimy, while being clean shows a strong level of professionalism and personal standard. “Cleanliness is the Hallmark of perfect standards and the best quality inspector is the conscience.“– J. R. D. Tata
Next, and an equally important aspect of presentation is being tidy. Tidiness is the order within the chaos of performing. You can wear fifty different pieces of jewelry and accessories and still be so tidy that it all fits and you look organized. On the other hand, when we are not tidy, even one single piece of accessory or jewelry can be a distraction. That distraction can be so bad that some people may not even remember your performance, but remember trying to figure out your outfit. “He longed for cleanliness and tidiness: it was hard to find peace in the middle of disorder.”—Robin Hobb, City of Dragons
Worn out clothes make us look worn out too. Every time we perform, we are presenting something new to an audience. We need to look our best and overused clothes take away from such performances. A metaphor, referring to the new believers of a faith in old habits, it can be applied to costuming a performance. When we deliver a ‘new’ performance we should not do so in decaying clothes. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”—Mark 2:22, New International Version Bible
Lastly, being approachable to your audience by understanding their material tastes is paramount, they make you relatable. Punk-stars wear black and dark striking makeup while opera singers wear formal gowns and soft toned makeup. If you were to wear a formal gown with warm tones to a punk-star concert, you would seem out of place and your audience would have a hard time relating to you. Therefore, we need to understand the fashionable taste of our audiences and our relatability should be demonstrated in our appearances. “It’s a wild thing, that people have the ability to help each other by just relating to one another.”—Natasha Lyonne
With our personal flair and style, being clean and tidy, by wearing clothes that are intact and in tasteful fashions, we pick the appearances that will speak to our audiences. When we do not take care with our physical presentation, we cause disorientation that takes away from this. Clothes are the outward expression of who we are and when we take care to pick our clothing, we are ready to perform for our audiences.