Professor Sofia Pantouvaki
Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film and Editor of Studies in Costume and Performance at Aalto University.
Sofia Pantouvaki is Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film and Editor of Studies in Costume and Performance at Aalto University, Finland. She holds a PhD in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, UAL (2008), and specialised in design for opera and ballet at La Scala, Milan (1996). Her credits include over 80 designs for theatre, film, opera and dance productions in Europe for major institutions including the Greek National Opera, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, Athens Festival and Music Centre Helsinki, and has collaborated with the National Theatre of Greece, Megaron-Athens Concert Hall, Cairo Opera House, Epidaurus Festival and La Scala. She has curated and designed numerous exhibition projects. Her work has been exhibited in three continents, including at World Stage Design 2017.
Sofia is Editor of the academic journal Studies in Costume and Performance; Vice-Head for Research, OISTAT/Costume; Founding Convener and Co-Chair of Critical Costume and Co-Convener of the IFTR Scenography WG. She conceived and led Performance: Visual Aspects of Performance Practice (Inter-Disciplinary.Net, 2010-2015). She was Co-Curator of the costume programme for WSD2017, Costume Curator for the WSD2013 exhibition, and Associate Curator for Costume in Action (WSD2013). She co-curated the Finnish Student exhibit, winner of the Gold Medal PQ 2015 for the Best Exposition in the Student Section. Co-author, History of Dress – The Western World and Greece (2010); editor, Yannis Metsis – Athens Experimental Ballet (2011); co-editor, Presence and Absence: The Performing Body (2014), Dress and Politics (2015) and The Tribes – A Walking Exhibition (2017).
In 2013, Sofia founded Costume in Focus, the first research group on performance costume, currently based at Aalto University, and leads a research project on Costume Methodologies (2014-2018) funded by the Academy of Finland. Her research focuses on the theory and practice of performance costume, costume curation, and clothing in the concentration camps of World War Two. She lectures, supervises PhDs and publishes internationally