Another Dress Code Nightmare
Yesterday Miss Mussel explored a tip of the orchestra dress code iceberg. Today’s thoughts centre around what conductors of the female persuasion are to wear. Essentially, it’s a trap, a wardrobe black hole of sorts.
The female equivalent of tails is an evening dress. Simple enough although likely anxiety causing for the conductress since most of these frocks are not made for gesticulations any more vigourous than sigalling the hor d’oeuvre waiter. A sleeveless gown, which at the best of times causes the wearer anxiety over the real possibility of its inadvertant voyage southward, is just asking for trouble.
A tuxedo, even one cut for a woman’s body tends to come across as dressing up in dad’s clothes or trying to hard too be one of the boys. Miss Mussel has played in orchestras where the conductor chose this path and it was a frightening sight, even from the back row.
The pantsuit is an old standby but the real problem is not the clothes but the fact that female conductors have to, in effect, neuter themselves on the podium. Even if the logistics of a gown could be sorted, would it do for the conductor to be feminine, or even sexy? Can one conduct Shostakovich or Bruckner in stilettos and a gown that accentuates the figure (as dresses are meant to do?) Female singers and instrumental soloists are free to express their femininity but somehow baton wielding ladies are in a different category.
Women are generally more confident and therefore powerful when they feel beautiful, so does the custom of wearing some boxy, vaguely mannish outfit result in poorer performances?
Let’s have your thoughts.
