Costume design & wardrobe · Specialist

Distressing

Also called: ageing

ELI5

Techniques used to make clothing or objects appear worn, aged, dirty or damaged.

“The treatment should show the distressing clearly enough for the department to plan it.”

You may encounter “Distressing” in production design, locations, costume & hmu conversations or materials.

Why it matters: Explains how spaces, objects, clothes, hair and make-up create the physical world.

Sources & evidence · 3

Supporting source families. This entry is an editorial synthesis rather than a quotation from one canonical glossary.