09 Metamorphoses Costume

Psyche enters the scene holding a candelabra in the script. It is an implication of her curious and truth-seeking personality. Eros forbids Psyche to look at him as a test of Psyche’s trust in him but this does not stop Psyche’s doubts and curiosity. This shows that at the beginning of the play, Psyche has little to no trust in Eros. Regarding Psyche’s physical appearance, there was no direct descrip- tion other than that she is extremely beautiful.

 

The vague description allowed more creativity in generating the costume design. She is also described as young which I associated with words such as innocent, naive, pure and untainted. From those words, I further derived descriptive words like frilly, puffy, simple, and white. I chose a white fabric for the outside of the petals to imply Psy- che’s innocence and rationality at the start.

 

The material would be cotton or another matt tex- tured textile to emphasise the reserved attitude she had towards Eros. The inside has a pink ombre to represent her love, passion, and trust towards Eros which gradually shows throughout the play. The inside of the fabric would be silk or satin to show how she becomes more outwardly emotional and open up to love.

 

Psyche suspects that Eros is a monster as she was easily persuaded by her sisters. This further shows how she does not trust him. Although, her curiosity also encourages her to find out the truth herself. This symbolises how she is governed by logic rather than emotions at this stage of the play. After the climax of Psyche discovering Eros’ true appearance and through the challenges from Aphrodite, Psyche slowly opens up to Eros. This is the main transformation phase of her character. She learns how to trust her emotions, heart, and Eros.

 

I chose a flower shape to base the costume on because of its versatility in forms. The costume starts with the petals be- ing closed, covering the body and vision of the actor. This represents how Psyche was forbidden to look at Eros at the start of the play. The way that the actor can peek through the petals also allows Psyche’s curiosity to come through. The covering of the skin also symbolises how Psyche did not open up to Eros. The petals of the costume can then be pushed down throughout the play to symbolise how Psyche slowly trusts Eros and shows her love for him. Hence, the moving quality of the costume shows the transformation of Psyche’s character. The transformation implies the theme of choosing emotions over logic and heart over mind.

 

With Q and A saying how “whoev- er our love goes there we find our soul”, the ‘love’ in the quote refers to Eros and the ‘soul’ refers to Psyche. Thus, Eros’ costume would be designed to represent leaves or something similar to show the pairing between the characters. Lastly, The pink and glittery makeup highlights Psyche’s beauty and the love she has for Eros which is not explicit at the start of the play as hidden by the costume petals.