What is considered beautiful or fashionable in one society can be considered completely unfashionable and undesirable in another. In Cameroon and many other parts of Africa, obesity, especially in the buttocks, has been associated with abundance, erotic desirability, and fertility. Fat has been seen as a statement of well-being and has been frequently produced artificially through fattening processes. In a theatrical context, these differences in ideals, including extremes, can be created with the use of lines, scale, physicality of color, and the architecture and movement of the costume. Small and grand illusions can also be cleverly created through skillful use of accessories and makeup.
Research is very important to the design process.
The designer creates an environment that helps tell the story. An undergraduate alumna of UNM, Baca returned to New Mexico after twenty-five years in Los Angeles, first earning her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and then going on to decorate and costume the bodies of actors of stage, television, and film. Some of her credits as a designer include Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Major Dad, and Murder, She Wrote on television, and Bette Midler's character singing mermaid costume in the Divine Madness World Tour, for stage. There isn't a great deal known or documented on what was worn during this period, so the research has been both fascinating and difficult. With funding and support from the library, a costume history database is being generated at UNM's Bainbridge Bunting Memorial Slide Library to collect and classify images of clothing worn by people in New Mexico.