Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1973 - 10

He served occasionally as a consultant and arranged several
significant exhibitions of the organization, now known as
the Costume I nstitute at the Metropol itan. Thus, Simonson's interest in costuming has helped to establish a
practical research laboratory for the study of costume as
well as a museum of fashion.
The sociological influences of modes of fashion, past
and present, seemed to hold a special interest for
Simonson during his lifetime and he wrote about these
influences on several occasions. I n one article, in the
New Republic (April 27, 1932), Simonsons rapier Wit
is brought to bear: in the thirties when the manufacturers
of ladies undergarments began seriously to promote the
"new foundation garments" for women through extensive advertising campaigns, he could not resist the
temptation to compare in caustic terms th is "new"
garment with the old-fashioned ladies corset in a hilariously satirical, yet sociologically val id observation.
humorously entitled "Stay Gentle Stays". I n a more
serious and penetrating mood is his historical and illuminating "Fashions and Democracy" in the Bulletin of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (November, 1944).
Simonson reflected about his experiences as a costume
designer, sometimes quite humorously, in his PART OF A
LIFETIME, but his most significant statements about
costume design appear in THE STAGE IS SET. These he
presents in his discussion of the contributions to modern
theatre production of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. In his
observations of the innovations and practices of the Duke,
Simonson sets down several principles about costume
design that are obviously his own precepts that have been
since assimilated and taught as elementary theory in all
costume courses today. The Duke, said Simonson, was
one of the first producers to realize how essential
authentic sources were as a basis for design and how much
these sources can contribute, indirectly, to the atmosphere and mood of a given play. Furthermore, Simonson
continued, the Duke realized how necessary it was for a
designer to use authentic construction in building a
costume, particularly for costumes used in historical

PLUTO (Ballet Intreludel School for Husbands, 1932.
Theatre Guild Production· Donald Oewslager Collection.

plays. Costumes must be constructed, Simonson concluded, so that they can be worn easily and comfortably
not only as costumes but as clothes on an actor in action.
The few designs reproduced here barely begin to reveal
to the layman and theatre specialist alike this most imaginative and creative facet of Lee Simonson's great talents as
an artist of the theatre.
Lee Simonson was a superb costume designer.
1The photograph of Simonson's design for the burned out
farmhouse, the fourth act setting for the Theatre Guild's production of Franz Wedel's Goat Song is probably one of

MRS. HENRY BELLINGHAM, The Rise of Silas Lapham,
Theatre Guild Production, 1919
Harvard Theatre Collection

Simonson's most often reporduced settings. However, very seldom,
if ever, are the other three settings for this production reproduced.
There is an obvious lack of style between them and in the case of
the setting for the synagogue, the principles of design are
obviously bad. Other similarities of uneveness in design are
easily discernable when all of the settings Simonson designed for
Liliom, The Adding Machine and Miracle at Verdun, (to name a
few), are studied.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY. 1973

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