For my final thesis in costume design, I took the first step toward what I hope will become a larger, ongoing critical exploration of costume as an art form.
Having worked professionally in costume departments before beginning my studies, I observed a recurring pattern: costume teams often struggle to be taken seriously by directors and upper management. This leads to dynamics that swing between excessive submissiveness and quiet aggression — neither of which fosters the creative environment that theater so deeply needs.
As I began to investigate the roots of this imbalance, I realized that costume has rarely been examined through a truly critical lens.

During the theater reforms of the early 21st century, much reflection and deconstruction took place across various disciplines — lighting, movement, stage design — yet costume was largely left untouched.
In my view, this neglect has contributed to a deep-rooted sense of marginalization within costume departments. Costume has often not been acknowledged as an independent art form, and this lack of recognition affects the way professionals in the field experience their roles.
With this work, I set out to deconstruct the very term “costume.” I wanted to dig beneath its most obvious element — the garment — and ask: What is costume, really?
 How much can be stripped away before the concept itself becomes unrecognizable?
To explore this, I created an immersive installation. The core of it was a simple black box — a space submerged in complete darkness. By removing the sense most associated with costume design (sight), I aimed to shift the audience's focus to other senses — hearing, touch, and spatial awareness.
As visitors moved through the darkened space, their presence triggered sounds based on proximity and movement. The intention was to make them feel the relationship between body and space — to become aware of themselves as actors in a room, where every movement has a consequence.
This inner black box was placed within a larger, outer black box — a transitional space equipped with a light and video installation. Here, people could wait, observe, and listen from the safe position of a spectator. From this vantage point, they could witness how different performers created different relationships between body, space, and audience.