Costumers at Work: The Collaborative Creativity, Emotional Labour, and Technical Skill of Costume Creation

Dr Madeline Taylor is both a creator and researcher of costume. A lecturer in Fashion at the Queensland University of Technology, her research focuses on contemporary costume practice, social engagement using clothing, and community-led circularity practices. This draws on two decades of experience in costuming for theatre, dance, opera, circus, contemporary performance, and film around Australia and the UK, and her creative practice as a co-director of Meanjin / Brisbane-based fashion and design group The Stitchery Collective. She has written about contemporary costume design, production and aesthetics, and alternative modes of engaging with, consuming, and displaying fashion and clothing in book chapters, conference proceedings and journal articles. These publications build on her diverse experience, including a 2010 research internship at the Victoria & Albert Museum under Research Fellow Donatella Barbieri and working as Australian Editor for World Scenography Project Vol II - 1990 - 2005. She is Book Reviews Editor for the international peer-reviewed journal Studies in Costume and Performance (Intellect), a co-director of TextileR, a QUT research group focused on circularity in fashion practice, and a 2024 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow.