Routledge Costuming the Curve: Dressing Bodies of Size for the Stage, Screen, and Life

Costuming the Curve: Dressing Bodies of Size for the Stage, Screen, and Life is a groundbreaking and practical guide that redefines how designers approach body diversity in performance. This book addresses the needs of larger female-presenting bodies, which are often overlooked in traditional costume design and construction training. Drawing on over two decades of teaching and practice, this book provides practical tools, innovative techniques, inclusive body positive strategies, and compassionate insights for designing, sourcing, fitting, and altering costumes and clothing that honor, celebrate, and empower performers with larger female-presenting bodies. With an emphasis on respect, collaboration, and body-positive design, this book fills a long-overdue gap in theatre, fashion, and film costume education. More than a how-to guide, this book is a call to reimagine the costume shop as a place of equity, respect, and creative liberation for creating costumes that honor bodies of size on stage and screen. With a focus on fit, function, and dignity, this book invites professionals, educators, and students to reimagine design through a lens of celebration―not limitation. Whether in the classroom or the costume shop, Costuming the Curve is an essential resource for designers ready to challenge outdated norms and reimagine what is possible when every body is seen, supported, and celebrated.