See, Here's the Problem...

Thsi is a cute little show that Ramona let me design. It's called "A Toby Show," and this "Toby Show" is a variation on Cinderella. It's set in the early 1900s. The two girls in very frilly dresses are the ugly sisters, and the one in the white with black trim is the stepmother. Cinderella is, of course, the one in the maid's dress, and the prince is the flier on the right.

The guy on the left is the one I want to talk about. He is the prince's uncle, I think, and a very proper Edwardian gentleman. Look at his trousers. In the early 1900s, no gentleman would have gone out in public with his shirt showing below his waistcoat, never mind the pile of fabric his trousers make around his ankles.

This problem is caused by the fact that kids do not know where their waists are. The word "waist" means "the narrowest part." In practical terms, the waist is measured at or just above the navel. When you measure the inseam, you measure from the crotch to the ankle. We take those measurements and make alterations in the pants to fit the actor. When the actor pulls the waistband of the pants down to his hips, the pants become too long, resulting in the mess you see in this picture.

This modern fashion for dropped waistlines is just that; a modern fashion. Fleeting, I hope. Through most of the history of pants and skirts, they have hung from the narrowest part of the body, that is, the natural waist.

I don't care how weird it feels. If you are cast in a show set in almost any time period other than contemporary, your pants and skirts should have their waistband at your natural waist. Hanging them around your hips creates a look that is sloppy and not period. It pulls the attention of the audience out of the period you are trying to create, and back into the present. It makes you look really ignorant of the period you are supposed to portray. It makes your costume designer look ignorant, too.

So do a little research. Google Images is really good for finding pictures of historical periods. There are pictures all over the web of almost anything you want to see, so do a bit of looking.

Theater is all about the voluntary suspension of disbelief. It is very difficult to suspend disbelief when the costumes are being abused in this manner.

So stop it.