12/31/2025
I posted this a few years ago on a different page and it just came up in my memories. It is long, but good food for thought as we head into a new year of creativity and design.
Just lately, I have been stewing quite a bit about taste versus personal style. In the Finishing Touches class at TutuSchool, I always ask the students, “What is taste?” “What makes a costume design, an interior design, etc, “in good taste” or “in bad taste?” “How will you KNOW if your design is in good taste or not?” Everyone always answers that taste is personal and what one person considers done in bad taste can be considered good taste by others. If this is true, then one had best know exactly who their audience is and stick with only that audience. It is just not that simple. There are many more factors involved than your own initial feelings and what you like to make. Often our feelings about something have more to do with who designed it, who wore it, who lives in it, than whether or not the object is in good taste or not. You like a certain movie star so you give them a pass that you would never give to the bitchy woman down the street. It is just not simple.
Setting “taste” aside for a few minutes....At our tutu shop, we are constantly getting calls, emails, private (and public) FB messages, etc., asking EXACTLY how we made various tutus in pictures we have posted....I have found through teaching people how to make tutus, that the people who DON’T ask for EXACT measurements/techniques/fabric mixtures etc., are the ones who actually make a place for themselves in the “tutu world.” I think this is probably true in most, if not all artistic endeavors. Those are the people doing their own homework, not simply trying to copy something done by someone else. We are constantly asked for the exact dimensions of scalloped edges of one certain tutu and the exact depth of each hand pleat on the top row of a tutu. Here is my answer: We use common sense so we don’t snip the end so deeply that it curls up and looks messy, or so shallow that the scallop doesn’t register. You should always do some samples in the beginning so you can practice and develop your own understanding and feel for what looks good. For those who don’t trust their own abilities yet, you can easily make a little template out of cardboard to the shape/size that appeals to your eye. No real need to purchase fancy rulers for this - a template cut out of cardboard will save you money that is probably better invested in decent fabrics and embellishments. You will never develop your own sense of style if you continually allow other people to dictate exactly what size and shape you should be doing. As to the pleats, they are one of our signatures - double hand pleats. Making them is like knitting or any other handwork. Each person has their own “hand.” Some people’s are tighter, some are looser. THAT is what makes this ART. NOT trying to measure and copy everything exactly. Of course, if you really want to know exact dimensions, you can always get out your own ruler and measure other people’s work....
in the end, YOU must find your own style and signatures to make a place for yourself in the tutu world. There are already too many copycats out there trying to use exact measurements to copy another persons uniqueness.
Back to taste....Math definitely has it’s place, as does symmetry/asymmetry. So does a personal sense of style. You serve your art much better by finding your own style and personality and NOT being led around by the nose by self-appointed divas.
So....HOW do you go about developing good taste and your own sense of style? You start by doing your homework, and that does not mean copying the work of others. How do you know what they are doing is even appropriate for various ballets if you:
1. Have never seen most or any of the ballets and don’t know the stories;
2. Have no knowledge of the history, original designers, choreographers, times that a ballet came from;
3. Have no background knowledge of the director and/or choreographer for whom you are making costumes;
4. Have no idea of what the set/backdrop looks like - colors, style, etc.
5. Have no working knowledge of dancers - the types of movements they have to do, what various movements are called, why certain costume styles do not work for certain movement types, etc, etc, etc.
6. The music....if, for example, you have never even listened to the Grand Pas music from The Nutcracker, HOW will you even know of the elegance, formality, ethereal qualities and positive exuberance all of which are demanded by that music and must be reflected in both the choreography and the costumes?
Here it is in a nutshell: some people appear to be born with good taste, but really it is more likely that they are born with common sense and an open mind. Because those two things, along with the three “P’s,” patience, perseverance and passion, are what it takes to do the actual work it takes to develop good taste no matter what style is called for. A personal sense of style develops very early in life, but good taste takes knowledge in order to be able to separate oneself enough from what needs to be done to be able to discern that there is a difference between your own creative sense of style and true good taste.
So….What exactly IS “good taste”? It is using everything that is available to you - knowledge, experience, materials, trims, etc - in the best possible way.
