As a costume designer I am interested in exploring the beauty between commercial representations of beauty and narrative design. As a working professional I struggle between making people feel beautiful or appropriately costumed, and showcasing an genuine cohesive design. Are visible platforms like Broadway stages and blockbuster films our tool of measure for the entertainment industry? If so, I question how much responsibility a costume designer has in presenting authenticity over polish and the weight of their designs contributing to the social consumption and hierarchy of beauty standards. For my thesis I developed a series of portraits based on personal expression through narrative design. My thesis displays the process of painted portraiture based on modern reinterpretations of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Each of the following portraits developed from design collaborations around power and beauty. This was an effort to reexamine a popular and influential icon of a classical western representation of beauty by exploring personalization in presentation through costume design.Theatre and Danc
