Best costumes in a period movie 3/10

GONE WITH THE WIND

Walter Plunkett was the well known authority on period costumes in Hollywood during his time. He liked it because the directors who normally didn't know anything about period costumes let him do as he pleased without any argument. 
Walter first got the idea that he wanted to do the costume design for Gone With The Wind after Katherine Hepburn gave him the book to read because she too was interested in being apart of the movie as Scarlet O'Hara. After reading the book Plunkett got his agents to write to the producer David Selznick suggesting him as the costume designer.  
He was hired on the spot and started his research on the costumes. During preproduction the costumes he was creating were good for the smaller roles but Selznick didn't think they were sensational enough for Scarlet to wear in this costume epic. At this point Selznick contacted other costume designers including Murial King, G.E Calthrop, Ladislaw Czettel, and Adrian since Walter wasn't giving him the designs he wanted. King brought Selznick amazing designs but she only wanted to work on Scarlet's costumes and not the extras, as did many of the other designers. 
Walter was brought back to the project with new designs and they were exactly what Selznick was looking for. 
Since shooting with Technicolor was still a new process being used, Selznick really wanted the costumes in his costume epic to stand out and be the focus of the film. And with Walter Plunkett being so used to not being told what to do, I bet working on this movie has shown him that costumes are a very important part of a movie and even though he was the main authority on period costumes, it is the designers responsibility to do what the director wants and go in the direction that the director wants to go in in terms of costumes. 
Since the color of the costumes were extremely important I put a black and white photo next to some of the color photos to show just how important the color was to the movie and how much more of an impact the colors created in the story these costumes told. 

 Photo credit for the picture above

     Info credit 

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/gwtw/wardrobe/plunkett/plunkett.html

Also while looking up information about the movie I came across this awesome Gone With The Wind blog!! http://gwtwscrapbook.blogspot.com/

Best costumes in a period movie 2/10

MARIE ANTOINETTE 

Sophia Coppola, daughter of the well known Francis Ford Coppola, is no stranger to directing movies much like her father. During preproduction of Marie Antoinette, Sophia approached costume designer Milena Canonero with a box of macarons from the Laduree pastry shop saying how much she liked the colors of the macarons. Other than the macarons acting as her color pallet Canonero pretty much had free range of the costumes.

Not going to lie, once I looked up the macarons I totally saw a resemblance, this is why I added a photo of the colorful sweets. 

     

Milena started by throwing different colored and patterned materials at Kirsten Dunst to see what looked good on her (not sure if it was legit throwing but I wouldn't be surprised). She also didn't bother putting wigs on Kirsten because they weren't right for her (which means the ginormous hairstyles were her real hair which is amazing!). Since Milena didn't have as much time for the costumes, she wasn't able to go as exaggerated and crazy as she had originally intended. Since the story is about the growing of a young innocent girl the costumes start off innocent and end up more and more extravagant and scandalous as the movie continues. Milena definitely took a fashionable path while creating the costumes because Marie Antoinette was a large fashion icon back during her time. She was a trend setter and whatever she wore everyone else wanted to dress just like her. Kirsten Dunst had 60 different dresses throughout the making of Marie Antoinette, below are just a few that I found as well as my favorite one :) the black masquerade ball gown with her mask. 

       

Not only were the costumes gorgeous and I want every single one! but they were a major symbol in the movie. They portrayed what kind of woman young innocent Marie grew up to be, which was a spoiled materialistic queen who cared about nothing but shopping and being a fashion icon. Below is a link to an analysis I found going into more detail about these costumes as symbols and I thought it was very enlightening and interesting and suggest anyone read it if they have the time. It has opened my eyes to a new appreciation for the movie and what these beautiful costumes represent. 

http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v3/a09/cu11v3a9.pdf

Best costumes in a period movie 1/10

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

 Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite movies and books and Jane Austen is my favorite author, her stories of love and relationships are timeless and there is nothing I enjoy more than seeing a new adaption of her stories through movies, series', or books. I don't just love the movie because of the costumes, the acting and the screenplay, the story and the cinematography is all beautifully done by the amazing director Joe Wright. Wright thought the high waistline was very unflattering for women so when he knew that even though Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, the novel was actually set in 1796. The Empire waist wasn't popular until after the 1790's. This is why in the movie you see Caroline Bingley wearing the Empire waist dresses because they are the latest fashion in London at the time.

 Jacqueline Durran who was the costume designer Wanted Lizzie to be the Tom boy of the sisters, she wanted her to wear more earthy colors and tones because of her love of the outdoors.

As for her sister Jane, Durran wanted Jane Bennet to look elegant and worthy of any wealthy man while still portraying the look of poverty because as we all know the Bennet family was not the wealthiest family in town. 

Lydia and Kitty were like 2 peas in a pod, Where ever Lydia went Kitty wanted to go as well. Jacqueline wanted them to look similar whenever they were on screen together. If Lydia was wearing a color then Kitty had to be wearing that color as well. 

 Lastly we have Mr. Darcy, Durran wanted his clothes to get more loose and open and relaxed as the movie went on. So when you first see him he is stiff and difficult but by the end and he and Elizabeth are together he becomes the man we know and love.

You're Welcome :)

The Hobbit

In honor of purchasing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and in honor of Luke Even's birthday :D, I need to talk about the costumes for this movie. First of all this movie is all kinda of amazing, I love how Peter Jackson stays true to the book while adding information to help tie the Hobbit back to Lord of the Rings. I also respect the fact that Jackson isn't afraid to make his movies as long as he likes just to add every scene and detail is noteworthy because its not how long a movie is, it's how the director uses the length to his benefit and I think he is amazing for that.

 Radagast Concept Art Source Credit

 Thorin Concept Art Source Credit

    Thror Concept Art Source Credit

 Ann Maskrey shows her amazing talent as a costume designer as one of the costume designers for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. She has beautifully captured the elegance of the elves and the strength of the dwarves. I love Thranduil's costume because of the powerful and intimidating look of the outfit as well as how well Lee Pace acts in them. No matter how good a costume looks the actor needs to know how to move, the costume and the actor have to work as one in order for costumes to be a successful part of any movie. This cast is amazing and all of them know their character so well and know how to move and act in their costumes. Ann Maskrey has a true talent for the cinema world and I cant wait to see what other movies and costumes she has the opportunity to work on and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for her work. Below is a video of some behind the scenes work on Thranduil's and the other elves costumes.

     

Fall/Winter 2014 trends

I researched the trends for fall and winter of this year for my class and I created some look books of wearable fashion for 3 of the trends. Here are the look books for both men and women and ill post my prezi link for names of the trends and color schemes as well as runway looks.
http://prezi.com/rqqxah-d4klm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Maleficent

Not much has been revealed of the new Disney movie Maleficent directed by Robert Stromberg except costume reveals. From what I've read on IMDB, this will be his first movie he directs. His past experience has been visual effects on multiple movies including Life of Pi, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, and Pans Labyrinth. He has also done special effects for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and John Adams. He has won 14 awards for his work in art direction and visual effects. He has plenty of experience in visual effects but none in directing so it will be interesting what kind of movie he makes.
From the released photos, the costumes look like they will be promising.

     Like the past live action Disney movies including Mirror Mirror and Alice in Wonderand, the costume direction was bright and friendly. Maleficent will be the first of the live action Disney movies to take a dark turn with their costumes as well as cinematography. Which is befitting because the movie tells the tale of the villain instead of the princess. Ann Maskrey is the costume designer for Maleficent and what shes created so far is amazing.

She has captured the essence of the original artwork of Maleficent and turned it into a more modern dark and grim look. The Grim Disney trend is becoming more popular and we will start to see a lot more of it. Joe Wright has a grim and dark Little Mermaid remake planned within the years to come and now a Peter Pan remake but i'm not sure its going to follow the grim trend.    

Game Of Thrones Megatrend

For my Retail Lab class, we had an assignment to create our own megatrend. First I took a movie approach but of course there was too much to talk about from cosplay, to graphic tees and to every other type of fashion that is influenced socially by a show. So my professor gave me the idea to just stick to Game of Thrones, which at first I thought would be difficult considering that I only knew the people cosplay the characters from the popular series, but once I did some digging I realized for that past few years this show really has influenced fashion.
 http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/game-of-thrones-fashion
In this article I read that the costume designer for the show has a background in the fashion industry. She looks at contemporary fashion and art to help create her characters collections. Not only do the costumes have a modern twist to them but her designs have inspired lines and collections by designers on the run way.
But for my project I stuck to cosplay, outfit creators like Polyvore, graphic tees, and a new Game of Thrones collection just released by Black Milk Clothing. My color scheme was mostly different shades of blue because the GOT article in Vanity Fair showed the shows new dark blue costumes and i thought they were beautiful.
Here is the finished product