T-shirts and Loose Pants

Abstract This chapter considers the combination of T-shirts (short- or long-sleeved) and cotton drawstring pants (sometimes jeans) that became representative costumes of postmodern dance during the 1960s and 1970s. The focus is on dancers Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, and Trisha Brown, who were members of Grand Union, as well as Brown’s independent career as a choreographer. Beginning with found clothing and uniforms borrowed from Aikido, their choices were at once conceptual and beautiful as much as they were deceptively ordinary. In their everyday character, they reflected the transformation of American cities from the industrial to the postindustrial. Brown also commissioned designers as artistic collaborators and led the transformation of loose cotton clothing towards the transparent, fluid costumes often visible in minimalist choreography.