Final Fantasy franchise.
Charac- ness may be abstracted into a
terized by a maximalist aesthet-
ic, Aldo wanted to capture Ama-
no’s “mess of beads and tassels
andfringe”, and chase that feel-
ing of color, texture, and pattern
in order to communicate the
opulence of royalty.
ON QUEER FASHION, THE
BINDING MOTIF
In its reexamination of Hans
Christian Andersen’s The Little
Mermaid, the play overturns tra-
ditional expectations of gender
roles and brings meaningful
explorations on the topic of
obsessive and unrequited love.
Aldo finds joy in being able to
visually represent these ideas:
“It’s very subversive on all
levels at once. The play, it’s very
not Disney. It breaks away from
the heteronormative tropes that
you come to expect with these
kinds of stories. And that I
enjoy, it’s a lot of fun to take
these ideas on as a designer”.
Queer philosophy has been the
binding motif which has guided
Aldo’s designs for the show.
Taking great inspiration from the
words of art historian David J.
Getsy and the works of perfor-
mance artist Stephen Varble,
both of whom have proactively
pushed forward the stories of the
LGBTQIA+ community, Aldo
has strived to create a thoughtful
and interactive experience for
the audience.
In an essay titled “Queer Rela-
tions,” Getsy writes that “there
is nothing intrinsically queer
about form. Rather, queer capac-
ities are engendered by activat-
ing relations—between forms,
against an opposition or context,
or (in the case of complex forms)
among the internal dynamics of
their components…After all, one
cannot be queer alone”. Queer-
exposes the characters’ oblivi-
navigation of forms and aesthet-
ics used as survival tactics
against the enforced normative
which opposes them.
This strive for survival bears a
do-it-yourself ethos within the
queer community, manifesting
installations out of elements
which, out of context of the
respective work, are otherwise
seen as fruitless. Aldo names
Stephen Varble as a great source
of inspiration for the DIY
approach.
Varble was a notorious figure of
the New York art scene who
provocatively challenged main-
stream conceptions of gender
and materialism in guerilla-style
public settings. The performer
would often make costumes out
of trash or other typically
discarded items, i.e. a robe made
of chicken bones, tea bags, and
six-pack holders. This glamor-
ized reinvention of materials
reflects the prevailing spirit of
LGBTQIA+ community, inspir-
ing pride in those whose dignity
has historically been disregarded
by mainstream society.
Aldo makes frequent use of the
self-crafted approach in his
designs, two examples of which
can be found in observation of
Midi’s “cord-igan” and Edvard’s
disguise overcoat. Enthusiasti-
cally noting the cord-igan to be
the favorite of his designs, Aldo
found it fitting to have Midi, a
character endlessly consumed by
the stresses of her work, dressed
in a cardigan quite literally
interwoven with thrifted tele-
phone wires and ornament
strings.
Edvard’s disguise overcoat,
dotted with colors and patterns
of various fabric patches
(sourced from leftover fabrics in
the costume shop), visually
ous impression of what he
believes the commoners of his
kingdom are dressed in. He is
wearing all the fabrics, as if to
ask, is this what all the peasants
wear?
Aldo expresses that “there was
this idea of queer metamophosis
where you’re taking something
that other people don’t under-
stand that get’s discarded ito the
trash, or its going into the gutter,
it’s ugly and gross and uncared
for, and then taking it and trans-
forming it into something beau-
tiful. That speaks to me. There’s
a queerness in that that I wanted
to bring”.
Another core concept which
Aldo explored in his designs for
the show has been relational
aesthetics. A term first coined by
curator Nicolas Bourriad, rela-
tional aesthetics refers to works
designed to facilitate community
and interaction among partici-
pants (artists and viewers).
Within the artwork itself, vari-
ous elements may be observed as
“speaking” to each other in order
to create a chorus which makes
up the whole of the art. In queer
relational aesthetics, elements
may oppose or work together to
challengese a normative expec-
tation. Keeping the conversating
elements of the artwork in mind,
audiences are encouraged to
explore that context, ultimately
creating a dynamic installa-
tion-viewer setting which
inspires thought and reaction.
In regard to his own work for the
play, Aldo frequently asked him-
self “How do these items of
clothing talk to each other? How
do they mix?”
In designing the costumes for
Ralmond and Midi. Aldo consid-
ered one of Midi’s later lines in
the play regarding their relation-
ship:``You love like water flows
and I love like grass grows”.
There is this acknowledgement
that the two cannot quite find
themselves on the same wave-
length, but in those differences,
they find a sort of nourishing
relationship evolved out of the
contrarieties.
In the couple’s first apartment
scene, Midi comes home dressed
in a beaded trench coat and
drenched in rain, still very much
in her day and with her mind
going at a million miles an hour.
Contrasting Midi’s pressured
state is Ralmond, trying to get his
partner to simmer down as he has
prepared a warm dinner for her.
When Ralmond goes to take off
Midi’s trench coat, a green floral
top appears.
“There’s that moment of taking
off the jacket, being home, and
being present. There was an
importance with having this
moment where water [Ralmond]
meets dry earth [Midi] and flow-
ers appear - it’s math, it’s
science, it’s perfect, it’s all
designed out. I wanted that
moment to shine through”.
Relational aesthetics also extend
into how Aldo went about visual-
ly representing the multiple
layers of character states and
identities in the play. “How can I
find some commonality between
these two states, that can make
sense in either, but can read
differently depending on what
other items of clothing are pres-
ent”. With Ralmond’s transfor-
mation, the base layer of clothing
is a houndstooth patterned pants.
For Ralmond’s “normal” apart-
ments clothes, the pants give off
the image of T.V. static, fitting
for the visual of a middle school
English teacher. Then, when
Ralmond transforms into a Rain
Cloud and is dressed into a cloud see anywhere else. To honor the
jacket, the pattern of the hound- everyday garments and clothing
stooth pants gives off the effect styles and materials that get
of rain droplets. taken for granted or ignored. I
want the show to be a visual
A third point of queer reference reminder to people that we’ve not
in Aldo’s designs can be found in yet run out of possibilities. There
a prevailing allusion to the are ways of pushing it. There are
grunge scene of Seattle in the ways to interact with it in a new
late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The way. Reevaluate your relation-
word grunge literally translates ships with things, because you
from the words, grime or dirt. can always find new stuff”.
Fashion associated with the
movement consists of garments
which are found and worn time-
lessly, durably. In explaining the
Seattle grunge scene, Aldo adds
that “It’s dirt poor lesbians in the
Pacific Northwest. Ripped jeans
and flannels it is, because that’s
what you would find in the thrift
stores. Then you have Kurt
Cobain starting to dress like
Courtney Love’s friends and the
rest is history”.
Tracing the thrifted ideology of
Seattle grunge down to its roots
was Aldo’s main inspiration in
Ralmond’s apartment attire.
“What can I find in a Goodwill
that just looks terrible and how
can I make it work?” And out of
this ethos comes the large blazer,
a tie dye t-shirt, houndstooth and
patched pants, and a very loud
“kiss the cook” apron. Aldo
explains that the goal was not
necessarily to have something References...
fitted, but something that’s
off-fitted in an interesting way. “A Guide to Relational Aesthetics”
Yes, the clothes are a bit ragged an article produced by Something
and falling apart, but they remain Curated.
maintained and well loved.
“Queer Relations” an essay by
When I has asked Aldo what he David J. Getsy.
had hoped most for in his
designs, he thought carefully “Rubbish and Dreams: The gender-
before expressing “I hope I’ve queer performance art of Stephen
been able to honor queer fashion Varble” an essay David J. Getsy.
and it’s various forms. I hope I've
been able to take forms of cloth- “Stephen Varble: The Street Was His
ing styles, material, etc, and put Stage, the Dress Was His Weapon”
them together in a way that’s new by Holland Cotter for the New York
and that you wouldn’t necessarily Times.