Han Feng: Madame Butterfly Opera Performance Costume

Brief Biography

Han Feng is a Chinese designer notable for her exceptional creation in various medium, one of which is her costume design for Puccini’s madame butterfly opera performance. Han Feng was raised in Nanjing and Hangzhou, where she also took her art education in China Academy of Art. After finishing her education, she moved to New York and launched her first ready-to-wear collection in 1993 (Feng, 2017). Besides her clothing design, she also creates multiple museum installation, exploring still life photography and a collector of contemporary Chinese art as well.

Fig. 1 Han Feng 

Madame Butterfly Opera Performance

Madama Butterfly was Feng’s debut into the opera industry. Madama butterfly premiered at the Met in 2006, narrating a romance story of a loyal geisha and a heartless naval officer who leaves a devastating ending. The setting took place in Japanese port city of Nagasaki during the American international expansion, where temporary marriage of foreign sailors was common at that time. The story shows a culture collision and the sexual aspect from imperialism that happened during the American colonization in Japan (Met Opera, 2024).

Fig. 2 Madame Butterfly 2016 
                                        

One of the aspects that contribute to the success of the performance is Feng’s fascinating costumes. Cited from Met Opera (2014), Han Feng is completely unfamiliar with the opera industry when she makes the agreement with Minghella to be the costume designer for Madama Butterfly. Started from Minghella's amusement of Feng’s clothing piece, he then arranges a meeting with Feng to discuss about the performance costume. 
What interesting is that, out of Feng’s unfamiliarity of the industry, she brought suitcases of finished costume to present her design to Minghella instead of demonstrating her ideas through design sketches like designer normally. However, because she’s not confident with her sketching skill, she decided to utilize fashion magazine as her medium and made a collage, which Minghella adore it very much (refer to fig. 3). “Costume designers usually make these amazing sketches of their ideas, and I couldn’t do that. But I thought about it, and I realized what I could do. I used fashion magazines as my colors and my brush, and I made collages to show my ideas at the next meeting” stated Feng (Met Opera, 2024). 

Fig. 3 Collage of the Chorus Women Costumes

 

 Purpose of the Artist Research

I was drawn to Han Feng’s Madame Butterfly costume for my artist research because of her creative and fascinating approach to reimagining the traditional Japanese kimono with a contemporary and western-influenced twist. As it was also closely related to my brief, I want to explore deeper on other designer’s take of combining national costume with today’s modern style. This also brings my focus to research on theatrical costume specifically in Asia, because they might have share similarities with Indonesian traditional clothing. Costume is an important part in Wayang performance in enhancing the Wayang character’s personality and role in the play. This also applies to Chinese opera play as stated by Carven Ong, a fashion designer who also did a Chinese opera-inspired collection, “The costumes definitely help reflect the characters we are portraying; they help us get into the character we are playing and enhance our performance. The costumes themselves tell a story on the characters” (Buro, 2022). 

 

Fig. 4 Carven Ong's Chinese Opera-Inspired Collection

Analysis of the Costume in Detail

The costume that I will be discussing further in this post is the chorus women attire (refer to fig. 5). It can be seen clearly that the floral and stripe print on the kimono are replicated from the collage (see fig. 3) that Feng made for her design sketches, perhaps the fabric was printed to recreate the unique pattern. I adore how she doesn’t rely on traditional method of designing, and instead she uses collage to present her ideas. The check pattern as the belt is a distinctive play of pattern that adds up the pops of color in the kimono. It’s interesting that Feng doesn’t use traditional floral pattern that appeared in most authentic Japanese kimono but rather twisting it with contemporary western style. 

Fig. 5 the Chorus Women Costumes

Not to mention that Bold and neon color combination is not usual for a kimono, which shows that Feng intention to bring kimono to a more modern style and freedom to improvise national clothing.   This was also the idea from Minghella for the costume to be bright and colorful. “Han Feng, I want to make everybody cry so much in the end. But before that, to give them so much hope, a beautiful dream.” Stated Minghella (Met Opera, 2024). Another interesting embellishment to point out is the paper hair and the origami hair piece (see fig.5). I think Han Feng was very creative to include origami which what Japan is also known for, into her costume embellishment.

Fig. 6 The making of the chorus women costumes

 

References:

Buro247 (2022). ‘Opera Opulence’: Fashion, costume design and the artistry of Chinese opera in Malaysia | BURO. [online] BURO247.my. Available at: https://www.buro247.my/culture/opera-opulence-carven-ong-chinese-opera.html [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Feng, H. (2021). Han Feng Art Space and Studio | Photography by Han Feng. [online] hanging.com. Available at: https://www.hanfeng.com/photography [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Met Opera (2024a). Butterfly Effect. [online] Metopera.org. Available at: https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/butterfly-effect/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Met Opera (2024b). Madama Butterfly. [online] Metopera.org. Available at: https://www.metopera.org/season/2025-26-season/madama-butterfly/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Image References:

Fig. 1, 2, 3 & 6: Feng, H. (2021b). Madame Butterfly Costume. [Online Image] hanfeng.com. Available at: https://www.hanfeng.com/about [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Fig. 4: Buro247 (2022b). Carven Ong Opera-Inspired Collection. [Online Image] buro247.my. Available at: https://www.buro247.my/culture/opera-opulence-carven-ong-chinese-opera.html [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Fig. 5: Chanteau, C. (2016). Madame Butterfly. [Online Image] independent.co.uk. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/madam-butterfly-eno-coliseum-opera-review-a-visual-feast-a7037966.html [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025]. 

Bibliography:

Guardian (2015). Costumes of complexity: From Nô to Mata Hari, 2,000 Years of Asian Theatre. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/costume-and-culture/2015/jun/19/paris-exhibit-asian-theatre-costumes [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].

Martha, M. (2024). Madama Butterfly: East Meets West. [online] costumeclosetcorture.wordpress.com. Available at: https://costumeclosetcouture.wordpress.com/2024/05/13/madama-butterfly-east-meets-west/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2025].