This paper on designing circus performers’ costume, has been written based on a play in which animals costumes are used instead of the real animals in order to protect them. In this paper costume of five main characters has been designed creatively. They are: The Turtle, the about to extinct Salamander, the Ant, the plant and the circus chief. They have been characterized through costume designing. The circus chief character because of his dominant presence has been designed based on the circus games style and the plant character is a symbol of growth while the Ant completely evokes the image of knowledge. Water and fire are the essential elements of the circus therefore, in this descriptive-experimental paper Titanium Silicate and Zirconium have been used in order for the costumes to be both fire and water resistant enough to provide the performers with better comfort

Davodiroknabadi, Abolfazl

Dehbozorgi, Elham

Derakhshan, Seyedjavad

Sakenyandehkordi, Mehrnoosh

Zohoori, Salar

English

International Journal of Applied Arts Studies (IJAPAS)

 Available online at www.ijapas.org 
International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 
IJAPAS 4(3) (2019) 67–74 
 
 
Designing Costume for Circus Performers Considering the Special 
Capabilities of the Cloth 
Elham Dehbozorgia, Salar Zohooria, Abolfazl Davodiroknabadia, Seyedjavad 
Derakhshana, Mehrnoosh Sakenyandehkordib* 
aDepartment of Design and Clothing, Imam Javad University College, Yazd, Iran 
bDepartment of Graphic, Imam Javad University College, Yazd, Iran 
  
Received 14 January 2020; revised 04 February 2020; accepted 05 February 2020 
Abstract 
This paper on designing circus performers’ costume, has been written based on a play in which 
animals costumes are used instead of the real animals in order to protect them. In this paper 
costume of five main characters has been designed creatively. They are: The Turtle, the about to 
extinct Salamander, the Ant, the plant and the circus chief. They have been characterized through 
costume designing. The circus chief character because of his dominant presence has been designed 
based on the circus games style and the plant character is a symbol of growth while the Ant 
completely evokes the image of knowledge. Water and fire are the essential elements of the circus 
therefore, in this descriptive-experimental paper Titanium Silicate and Zirconium have been used 
in order for the costumes to be both fire and water resistant enough to provide the performers with 
better comfort. 
 
Keywords: Circus; Cloth; Costume Designing; Illustration  
1. Introduction 
The essence of the circus is intertwined with glamorous costumes. The acrobats, jugglers, 
illusionists, ropewalkers, the circus chief etc. all of them wear corona, highly happy color costumes. 
They mostly use red, golden and metallic in their costumes which catches the audience’s attention 
easily. (Cambridge dictionary, 1995) The circus would not be attractive enough without the 
costume and it would not be magical in that case. These costumes play an essential role also in 
terms of making the audience trust and applaud at the end of the show. 
 
 
* Corresponding author. Tel: +98-9173067942. 
E-mail address: mehrsa96@yahoo.com  
68 Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3) (2019) 67–74 
Nowadays there many different kind and forms of circus but in the past it was only circular and 
because of what this word means in English, it changed during the time to Circus which refers to a 
circular movement(Janet,2002) Ella Storm One of the successful circus performers says: 
As a circus artist I feel the power and magic of the circus when I wear my costume and this is so 
interesting and dramatic how the cloth, color, texture and its brilliance can so dramatically make me 
appear at the present moment and blossom. They invite me to make dreams and when I wear my 
costume I actually awaken a different part of myself which completely changes my mental attitude 
and even leads my focus towards the stage. George Speaight in the history of circus writes “the 
history of circus is a story of physical capabilities of human beings and instructing the animals 
happening in a circle (Ring) as big as 13 meters square with the audience seated around this ring. 
This ring is of course bigger than 13 these days” (Speaight, 1980; Antony, 1956). 
This popular circus which we know today was performed in England for the first time including 
some performative movements by animals like horses. These trained animals together with men, 
used to travel from town to town for amusing people. The advent of modern circus was almost 
earliest days of the twentieth century. Many people used to enjoy amazing shows including lots of 
animals on the stage while they did not think of the backstage. Misbehavior with the animals and 
bad, low-standard care was among the usual things. They used to get injured during the show or 
training and while their health was in danger, their wounds was so risky for the people around them 
too. Poor animals which used to spend 96% of their lives in chain and shackle and cage. They used 
to travel eleven months of the year while being kept in boxes and cages with no fresh air or enough 
sleep and good food. Animal rights protection organizations finally could change this and removed 
them from the circus shows (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014; Michael, 1997; Oana, 2017). 
Now based on these findings, researchers have demanded more distinct rules of better comfort 
for animals in circus. Government of the Netherlands in 2012 banned using animals in circus and 
all other countries did the same after from then on.  
During the twentieth century circus costumes have rapidly altered from form-fitting designs to 
forms that had considered the new banning rules. That is to say, before the twentieth century form, 
shape and color were the only considered elements but after twentieth century they start to design 
more practical costumes. Safer, more comfort costumes based on the characteristics of every single 
show. One of the most amazing costumes were of Leotard (Stoddart, 2000). 
Jules Leotard was a French gymnastics who in 1859 characterized this costume for the first time 
and performed his movements on the stage while wearing this costume. Women’s clothing was at 
the same time being changed like men’s clothing during the twentieth century. They start to become 
more tight-fitting especially the costume of the realists and acrobats which had made them freer in 
action and more practical. Plastic, tight clothes which let women to do the movements much easier. 
Nowadays, Leotard’s costumes are considered as a revolution in the fashion world because they 
became a pattern for clothes such as swimming suits, ballet and thousands of others though it all 
started from circus (Peta, 2010; Parker, 2011). 
In this paper, a play was selected and costumes were designed for its characters. 
Cotton is the most plentiful and popular biopolymer in the world. It is the most valuable raw 
material in the world of textile industry. Cotton fibers and fabrics have been used from ancient 
periods. Owing to its plenty, biodegradability and some physical properties such as high humidity 
absorption, glossy, high stability, alkaline resistance and amorphous structure, cotton is an 
extremely great renewable resource for the improvement of environment friendly, exactly separate 
from its traditional and great use in paper manufacturing and textile industry (Yadav, 2006; 
Yuranova, 2006). Cotton fibers present a symmetric surface intercommunicated with the 
                      Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3)  (2019) 67–74                               69 
hydroxylated nature of the organizing anhydroglucose units. This property caused to high 
hydrophilicity of cotton, provide the formation of powerful hydrogen bonding between cotton 
fibers and the organization of three-dimensional fiber-based structures (Goncalves, 2009; 
Subramanian, 2009; Li, 2006). In this paper we use cotton fabric in order to designing circus 
clothes. 
2. Materials and Discussion 
The clothes were first washed in distilled water and then were immersed in Silicate Titanium / 
Zirconium solution for 12 hours and then the processed clothes were dried at ambient temperature. 
Considering the removal of animals from circus around the world there are many factors that should 
be noticed including the artistic design. Most of the today’s modern circuses perform their shows 
with a dominant focus on: Play writing, stage designing and the performance therefore, a surreal 
play has been written based on this notion to design the characters and costumes. Below you will 
read a summary of the play: 
An extra-terrestrial creature comes to a mysterious planet named Earth by accident through a 
magical clothe which is in a memories-box and gets involved in the animals of the planet’s 
adventures. Sahrook the antagonist of the play, who is also the circus chief using the black magic 
has made some of the animals to work in the circus. Two of these animals are of endangered 
species, Eagle-snout Turtle (Olaku) and the Lorestan Salamander (Machkul) whom Shrook has 
used their power to spell the other animals. The extraterrestrial character with the help of a wise ant 
named Mirizh and a magical tree named Titi starts a battle with Sahrook and etc.  
There are two reasons for applying different dialects from around Iran in this play: 1) to make 
the audience feel an emotional bond with the story. 2) to make the people know this heritage to help 
protect it. 
The designer’s first task is to create the antagonist since there won’t be any drama without it and 
any protagonist needs an antagonist in other words, there’s no meaning for the evil without the 
good. The character is an essential building block of a story who is like a real human being. It is a 
model of his / her society. The character of Sahrook is based on the inspiration from real people in 
society who are eager for power such as the dictator, the mean or animal-torturer. 
For designing Sahrook, the anatomy of an octopus has been a source of inspiration who’s always 
been shown as the scariest marine creature in animations or the insidious, evil, greedy character of 
the science fictions. They are mysterious creatures who are able to do color-shifting. In the face of 
this character the antichrist’s eye has been used which is known as a part of talismans, fortune 
telling rituals and … the mustache has been used to make it look even meaner though some people 
think it make one to look mysterious. In order to make Sahrook look like a mysterious dictator an 
overcoat and a top-hat have been applied. Black and purple have been applied as colors for the 
body and costumes.  The purple color which is a mixture of red and blue is neither warm nor cold 
and it is the first secondary color made by human being. This color has got a selfish, ambitious, 
leader characteristic. It has got power and has been used usually as a symbol of the magic, wealth 
or the magical rituals. This character’s eyes have been designed in green to imply its seductive, 
hypnotic characteristic to make it complete. An Octopus arms have been used as a model to design 
Sahrook’s hands and legs with a bit of a touch of exaggeration to intensify him being an animal-
torturer; hands that look like a lash and can harm animals. 
 
 
70 Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3) (2019) 67–74 
Table 1 Characteristics of the leading and supporting roles of the play 
 Characteristics of the first role Characteristics of the second role 
Name Sahrook Machkul 
Meaning of the name The chief (Kurdish) Salamander (Mazandarani dialect) 
Character The antagonist One of the main characters 
Applied technique Hand-drawing & sculpture Hand-drawing & pasty sculpture 
Used colors Black  purple  green Yellowish orange  black 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 1 Sahrook 
The designer has applied two animalistic characters for designing the supporting role in order to 
imply echological concerns, one of which is the Lorestani Salamander. The close relationship 
between man and animals comes from the old ages which we can see its trace as drawings in pre-
historic caves. Animals have always been important and vital for human beings and for this they are 
the best tool to make the audience involved. The animal’s basic structure and anatomy has been 
kept intact while at the same time its face and appearance has been altered surrealistically to be both 
attractive and sympathetic thus, some wrinkles are on his face and a bit of a bent in his waist to 
make him look a bit sad and depressed while his big black eyes refer to a high intelligence though 
they are full of silence and sadness at the same time. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 2 Machkul 
One of the other characters is the turtle. Here the theme has been its fatigue and desperation 
because of cruelty human beings. For this reason, its body and shell have been designed separately. 
This turtle leaves his shell and stops trying for survival. Hear again, big wide eyes have been 
                      Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3)  (2019) 67–74                               71 
applied to show the fatigue and sadness of the character. Olaku the turtle has been personified 
through hung eyelids, forehead wrinkles and a bent spine. Blue is cold, passive and introvert as a 
color therefore, it has been used for this character based on his temper. 
 
Fig 3 Olako 
Table 3 The characteristics of the third to fifth roles of the play 
 Characteristics of the 
Third Role 
Characteristics of the 
Forth Role 
Characteristics of the 
Fifth Role 
Name Olaku Mirizh Titi 
Name meaning  Turtle (Gilaki Dialect) Ant (Lori Dialect) 
Blossom (Gilaki 
Dialect) 
Character 
One of the main 
characters 
The Protagonist’s 
Assistant 
Tree, Magic Mushroom 
Technique applied 
Hand-drawing and 
Sculpture 
Hand-drawing and 
Sculpture 
Hand-drawing and 
Pasty Sculpture 
Colors used Blue, Brown Black, Blue 
Light Green, Orange, 
Blue 
 
The protagonist’s assistant is a wise, smart, determined, knowledgeable and sharp person with a 
tiny body. Ants are among the oldest creatures on earth which date back to 110 to 130 million years 
ago, the age of dinosaurs. They are one of the most interesting mysterious creatures on planet earth. 
On an ant’s head there are two antennas which move on a constant basis to detect smells, tastes and 
even sounds. These antennas and the ant’s anatomy have been applied in an exaggerated manner to 
make the character look somehow like a satellite receiver. This makes the character to find a 
solution for any issue at any moment just like the internet. The ants’ society is run based on team-
work, interaction between the members and the complex problems solving-abilities. 
 
 
 
72 Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3) (2019) 67–74 
 
Fig 4 Mirizh 
The designer has applied a magical plant for the fifth character to be both simple and 
imaginatively evocative. Mushrooms are among the oldest plants on earth dating back to 3.1 billion 
years ago. There are many different kinds of them and they have been always a part of magical 
rituals like the Portobello mushroom (magic mushroom) thus, it is an appropriate choice to imply 
magical powers of the character. 
There have been two reasons for designing a tree-like trunk for the character. First, in some 
mythological anecdotes the tree is considered as a magical plant which is the cause of immortality, 
healing, renewal of the youth power or achieving wisdom and knowledge through eating its fruit. In 
designing the character of Titi wisdom and magical knowledge have been considered. 
Second, a rectangle-like shape has been applied for designing his body as a symbol of order, 
intellect, safety and strength and also to make it easier to be worn. The mushroom’s stalks have 
been designed in a moving vertical form to imply the essence of being dynamic. 
Titi has got a young, kind, gracious, helper and wise character therefore, its color is green which 
reminds us of nature, wisdom and knowledge, peace and friendship and kindness while the light 
green implies hope, youth and joy. For mushrooms, orange which is a secondary warm color has 
been applied and the blue parts are a sign of power and knowledge. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 5 Titi 
                      Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3)  (2019) 67–74                               73 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 6 Olako, Mirizh, Machkul, Titi and Sahrook in circus 
3. Conclusion 
In this paper, a play related to circus animals was written and costume designing was done for its 
five main characters. We tried to design costumes based on the pre-determined traits of the 
characters to make them effective enough to influence the audience. We also tried to consider 
ecological environment protection and the endangered animals. The two characters of Salamander 
and turtle have been designed based on the color and design principles in a way that clearly shows 
them being endangered. The chief is fully based on the circus games considering his dominant 
character and the plant character which is the symbol of growth. The ant also has been designed in a 
way to imply the characteristic of being wise and finally, the cloth used for the costumes could be 
of the kinds which based on the scientific experiments are resistant against water and fire which are 
the two essential elements of circus, this way they will be comfortable and safe enough for the 
performers. 
References 
Antony, D., & Hippisley, C. (1956). The History of Circus. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 
104(4975), 414-417. 
Cambridge dictionary, 1995. 
Davis, J. (2002). The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top. The 
University of North Carolina Press. 
Encyclopedia Britannica, (2007). Smith, RaeLeann. "Circus Animals: Abused and Dangerous." 
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 
74 Elham Dehbozorgi et al. / International Journal of Applied Arts Studies 4(3) (2019) 67–74 
Goncalves, G., Marques, P. A. A. P., Pinto, R. J. B., Trindade, T., & Neto, C. P. (2009). 
Composites Science and Technology, 69, 1051. 
Li, Q., Chen, S. L., & Jiang, W. C. (2006). Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 103, 412. 
Michael, J., & Hanes, M. (1997). Utilizing the circus phenomenon as a drawing theme in art 
therapy. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 24(4), 375-384. 
Oana, I. (2017). Circus animals - how much is ‘unfair’. Eubios Journal of Asian and International 
Bioethics, 27. 
Parker, M. (2011). Organizing the Circus: The Engineering of Miracles, Organization Studies, 
SAGE publisher. 
Peta.org. Circuses, Three Rings of Abuse". Archived from the original on 2010-07-26. Retrieved 
2012-04-20 
Speaight, G. (1985). A History of the Circus. London: The Tantiuy Press. p. 11 ISBN 978-
0498024702. 
Stoddart, H. (2000). Rings of Desire: Circus History and Representation. Manchester: Manchester 
University Press. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-0719052347. 
Subramanian, K., D'Souza, L., & Dhurai, B. (2009). A Study on Functional Finishing of Cotton 
Fabrics Using Nano-particles of Zinc Oxide. 
Yadav, A., Prasad, V., Kathe, A. A., Raj, S., Yadav, D., Sundaramoorthy, C., & Vigneshwaran, N. 
(2006). Bulletin of Materials Science, 29, 641. 
Yuranova, T., Mosteco, R., Bandara, J., Laub, D., & Kiwi, J. (2006). Self-Cleaning cotton textiles 
surfaces modified by photoactive SiO2/TiO2 coating. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: 
Chemical, 244(1–2), 160-167. 
 


Designing Costume for Circus Performers Considering the Special Capabilities of the Cloth

http://ijapas.org/index.php/ijapas/article/download/268/106

Designing Costume for Circus Performers Considering the Special Capabilities of the Cloth

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

International Journal of Applied Arts Studies (IJAPAS)