Costume Critique: TANGLED

RAPUNZEL: Rapunzel's costume is a light purple to show her light and fun personality. The length of her dress is just to her shins. The length is important. It is not so long as to look grow up and proper, but not too short either. The length gives you the idea of her still being childish and sheltered. She has a corset around her middle to help set the time period and feel of kings and queens, princes and princesses, and magic. Her sleeves are puffy on the shoulder and then fit along the skin to a three quarters length. The length of the sleeves also helps to give the feel of her being young and innocent. Another important detail is that she does not wear shoe. Her bare feet help to give her that playful, innocent,  girly look. I think the costumer did a good job with Rapunzel.

Costume Critique: The Middle - Sue Heck

Sue Heck is a character in the show "The Middle." She plays a super awkward, always happy, energetic teenage girl who's family just gets by with what they happen to have.


Wearer of turtle necks, sweater vests, and piggy tails -- Sue heck! Giving her all three while clashing the colors she wears gives her the ultimate nerdy, awkward teenage girl look.

 

One of her few down moments. I think its great that she says nothing about clothing. Stripes and argyle should never go together unless the look you are trying to get is that of an oblivious middle school nerd such as Sue.
 





Once sue reaches high school se tries out for just about everything and does not make a single team, so she creates her own -- the wrestleretts. They were like cheerleaders for the wrestlers. The unattractive, ill-fitting uniforms only help with her awkward image.

 

This last picture I think just really shows her upbeat and hopeful attitude about everything.

Costume Critique: Thumbelina

One of my favorite "princess" movies as a kid was Thumbelina. It is a fun fairy tail that has fairies, adventures, love, friendship and a beautiful little girl the size of a thumb.

 Thumbelina wears a flowing blue skirt. I think this helps show her as free and somewhat elegant. The top helps portray her social status as the daughter of a widow and also gives her a young, girly look. The head band with flowers also helps with the you, sweet, girly image. This is her first and main costume. It really shows her personality.

 





As Thumbelina goes through the story one of the big events is that, when she believes her true love to be dead, she gives into the pressures of others and agrees to marry the mole. Her wedding dress here shows more of the personalities of the mole and those that pushed her to marry him than her own. The thing on her neck and her hair, no longer free flowing, show her restriction and uncomfortability with this decision. (Spoiler: she does not go through with it)


 



At the end of the movie, Thumbelina finds Cornelius and earns her wings. In a sense, she grew up. Her wedding dress shows her elegance and beauty and makes her look more womanly than girly. The pieces of free-flowing material attached to the dress keep her free and unique personality. 

Costume Critique: Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Paul Feig, starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolp, Rose Byrne and Chris O'Dowd. The plot centers on Annie (Wigg) who experienced an extreme series of misfortune after agreeing to become the maid of honor for her best friend's wedding. The film successfully grossed $288 million worldwide and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Leesa Evans was the lead costume designer for the film. She also designed the costumes for other blockbuster comedy movies such as American Pie (1999), Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), In picking out the right clothes for the six women in Bridesmaids, she said that her secret was to "not oversell the humor."

Evans chose clothes for Annie that were colorful and playful. She saw Annie as someone who does not like to be too sexy, but is not afraid to look good. Evans also added that she saw her as "humble and sweet", and the kind of woman who wants to be cool. "Anything ranging from Urban Outfitters to Forever21" will look good on her.

Helen was the epitome of what a "Stepford wife" looks like. For her, Evans decided to make her wear all kinds of designer dresses and shoes. She also had designer bags and accessories with her, showcasing her wealth and class. Evans added that Helen "is that girl who buys clothes in outfit form, head to tow directly from the fashion magazines."

Becca's costumes were also fun to see. She was the conservative newly wed so all of her costumes (except the bridesmaid dress) were modest and fun. She wore very youthful, pastel-colored dresses, showing her innocence and femininity. She also wore lots florals and paisley.

Costume Critique: (500) Days of Summer

When people ask me what my favorite film is, I hate to admit that my answer changes every time depending on my mood and the person who is asking. However, my answer is basically limited to three movies—My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), American Beauty (1999), and (500) Days of Summer (2009). For this week's costume critique, I'll be talking about the one that broke my heart into pieces.

(500) Days of Summer is an American romantic comedy-drama film, directed by Marc Webb, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The story is based upon Tom's (Levitt) love for Summer (Deschanel) who does not believe that true love exists.

Hope Hanafin was the costume designer for the movie. During her meeting with Marc Webb, she was told that Deschanel has to wear blue throughout the entire film to highlight the actress' most amazing blue eyes. More importantly, Webb added, "nobody else does." And that is exactly what happened.

"It was for her eyes, but it was also the romance from a male point of view. Even when you first see her, she has on a white shirt, but still has a blue butterfly. So it tracks all the way through. I just wanted there to be a way to make her stand out. Because she is such the object of desire that in a crowded room the audience and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) would immediately be drawn to her. She becomes a magnet."

—Hope Hanafin

The only scene where blue was used for the other characters' costumes was during Tom's dance sequence. Because the scene tells that Tom will forever have Summer in the center of his life, in Tom's perspective, everyone is a reflection of Summer.

Tom's costume, on the other hand, tells of the story of an underachiever guy who works for a greeting card company. His style is relaxed, something that any ordinary office guy will prefer to wear (in fact, even I will wear his clothes any time). At the end of the film, however, he became more sleeked and formal, dressing as the trained architect that he was.


"Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) isn’t the quintessential hipster that you might see if you spend about, say, 10 seconds in Brooklyn, but that doesn’t make him any less of one. He’s just more subtle about it."

—complex.com

Costume Critique: Cinderella

Cinderella is perhaps the most classic of fairy tales. From watching the previews, I have been so far impressed with the costume they have chosen for Cinderella's ball gown.

The classic look from the old Disney movie is kept by the giant dress and the almost-off-the-shoulder puffy sleeves. I also like that they are keeping the dress blue, but they are making it a deeper shade. I personally think it will help to make her "pop" and stand out fro the crowd which is why the prince notices her. I am disappointed to see that her hair is not in the Cinderella bun though. Well, at lest they got the glass slipper! I am very excited for this movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McQ_cCBaiac

Costume Spotlight: Jurassic World Trailer

I have always been completely TERRIFIED of Jurassic Park...so why not do a costume critique on the trailer for the new movie coming out?
Here is the link if you'd like to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFinNxS5KN4

I wanted to look at the two main characters. Chris Pratt's character seems like an adventurous guy who is actually against all of the dinosaur creation experiments. Even though he doesn't really like it, he still stays around to protect the place and is kind of the hero figure. He wears a blue button-up shirt, and a brown, leathery vest. I think these clothes portray him as a somewhat tour guide, wilderness expert. He seems like the normal, safari guy that ends up saving the day.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays a scientist who has a lot of knowledge about the experimentation and
seems very proud of her work. To her, creating dinosaurs is something to be happy about; she isn't the bad guy. Bryce is dressed in very light colors. One specific costume resembles a lab coat, but is more of a white, flowy dress with a collar. As her character progresses through the trailer, her costumes are a little less put together, and more gray in color, as she realizes she might have made a mistake in the lab and needs to help fix it.

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Costume Critique: Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer (2013) is a South Korean science fiction film based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige. This is the first English-language film that director Bong Joon-ho worked on, having approximately 80% of the film shot in English. It stars Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, and Tilda Swinton.

Catherine George was hired as the costume designer of the film after Bong Joon-ho saw her designs for the Cannes film We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011).

The film is set in 2013 inside a massive train that travels on a globe-spanning track. The train is divided into three major sections—the tail where all the poor people live, the middle section where kids go to school, and the front where the wealthy people reside. In each section, the costume designer carefully chose the colors and fabrics that the characters wore to show their socio-economic status and background story.

For people in the tail section, George had the actors wear grey-colored clothes that will appear rugged, showing off filth and poverty. Most of the characters also wore heavy clothing which were made by piecing together different fabrics. Curtis (Evans) wore a coat that had layers upon layers of repair on it. Other characters like Nam and Yona had to wear darker clothes made from intense black fabrics to show a progression from the tail section to the prison section of the train.

For the school section of the train, the kids wore bright red blouses and dark green skirts. This is a direct contrast to the dull-colored clothes that the poor people from the Tail section wore. The uniforms complimented the color of the room where they studied, showing off their wealth and comfortable social status.

The people on the front of the train wore luxe fabrics that sends off the message that they were the wealthiest and care-free group. They were the party-goers so George decided to play with their costumes using images from the fashion perspective of contemporary night club goers.

Costume Critique for the Week

This week all I think about was princesses because I was looking for ideas to help me with my project. I have decided to use what we have at the shop but I will make my own changes into it. I'm excited but at the same time I just need to get it done so I won't regret not finishing them on time for finals which is my biggest fear in which I don't really pay too much attention to it but just making sure to get it done with the best of my ability.The dress in this cover though I love it so much :)

I just love this costume, the color its perfect since we are close for Christmas. I'm also thrill with the design, we can see that it fits with the character. Just by looking at it, it looks like it is kinda complicated to sew the dress but I think if I were to cut and follow the instructions on the pattern envelope than there would be no problem, I would love to learn to sew dress like this :)

This was the last costume in the movie that I love, it matches the theme and the title of the movie. I was thinking that, in this cartoon its easy to say how pretty it is and I wonder if its hard to  actually sew a dress like it. Love it!

Costume Critique

After working on a class presentation on Dorothy Jeakins a costume designer, I have decided to watch one of the movie which she happen to be the person to design all the costume on that film which is "The Sound of Music".

 Dorothy Jeakins: Costume Designer

Born: San Diego, CA in January 11, 1914

Education: Otis College of Art and Design (1934-1934). 

Awards: She was awarded for the best Costume Design and are nominated by Tony Award for Best Costume Design. 

Died: November 21, 1995 in Santa Barbara, CA. 

1. 

   Maria's wedding gown, dress fits her attitude and the kind
   person that she is, I can totally
   wear this if its my wedding dress. .
   love it!

cutest dress ever.. I will totally wear
it nowadays, very modest and love
the color.

The Sound of Music - The family von trap singing, costume designed fits perfectly on each one.
Very modesty, neat and well designed.

Note: If you notice at this movie, Dorothy Jeakins costumes on this film was all very modest and I loved it so much, All of those costume can be worn nowadays and I would wear what she made for this movie. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. 

Costume Critique: Mocking Jay - Part 1

This week, I watched the third installment of the Hunger Games series, Mocking Jay - Part 1. Like the first two films, it did not disappoint. It was intense! Absolutely amazing! I am actually glad that I have not read the book yet because if I had, I wouldn't feel as ecstatic about it as I am right now. I just really do not like it when my favorite novels are adapted into films (like what they did with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Harry Potter series). But anyway, the movie was full of thrilling actions and wonderful CGIs. I also like the cinematography and the flow of the scenes. And of course, Jennifer Lawrence was just stunning. She's truly one of the best actresses today.

Now, it's time to give my opinions about the costumes and here you go...





First, let's start with Peeta's white Capitol costume. The color and style definitely stands out and gives the impression of class and wealth—two characteristics that people from Capitol possess. I also like the collar of his shirt, adding elegance to his outfit. The fit of his clothes is also nicely done and the pants look very modern—not too fit, but fit enough. His shoes on the picture on the right are gorgeous. Clearly, with his entire outfit/costume, he looks like an educated, wealthy, and dignified person from Capitol.

The costume of those who are in District 13 are nicely done as well. Effie's costume still shows her class and poise that she has being a person who grew up in the fashion-conscious Capitol. Coin's costume also makes her stands out and tells of her powerful position as the President of District 13. I also like Haymitch's costume because it shows his character as a recovering drunkard, but still has the "hobo" image attached in him, evident from his jacket and beanie.


I like the color scheme that they chose for the people in District 13. It tells of the kind of life they have living in a prison-like environment. Truly, the costume designer for Mocking Jay Part 1 knew what he/she was doing.

Critique of the Week: Vampire Diaries

I've surprised myself a lot this semester with the shows and movies I've watched for my critiques. I typically don't go for the super girly, full of drama and hot guys kind of shows, but I'm running out of options on Netflix, and my sister & brother-in-law insisted I watch, so Vampire Diaries it is! (and I can actually get my husband to watch this one with me xD)

The first thing I noticed about the costumes for Season 1 of this show is that it was DEFINITELY filmed in 2009. The costumes are very typical '09 high school student. At the time they would have been modern, and there are many fads that jog my high school memory (at least for the female characters).

The girls wear basically normal clothes; the main character Elena wears lots of shirts with colored camisoles underneath, something I remember being "in" in high school. She also layers a lot, using jackets. The main thing I noticed was her pants! This is the time when skinny jeans were making a come back but not EVERYONE wore them. She actually wears a lot of flared-leg pants with the horrible embellished butt-pockets (I guess they don't look as bad when you have a tiny butt). I did notice one of her friends wearing colored boot-cut jeans. It's just kind of interesting that in 2014 I view their clothing as costumes, when if I was watching this show in 2009, their clothes would have just been normal to me.

There were also a few flashbacks of Damon and Stephen from when they lived in the 1800's. I thought their costumes were done well with the open, flowy shirts and suspenders. I would probably say the costuming for these parts of the show is just okay. The present day clothing helps with the story, but their flashback attire occasionally looks a little cheesy and like they're playing dress-up....not super believable.
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Costume Critique: Baler

Baler is a 2008 Filipino movie about the forbidden love story of a mestizo (half-Filipino, half-European) soldier and a native Filipina during the Siege of Baler in 1989.

Celso (Jericho Rosales) mostly wore his uniform throughout the film. The choice of fabric and pattern that was used for his costume was perfect. His uniform correctly showed what Spaniards wore during the time they colonized the Philippines. Since the film followed the 337 days of battle between the Filipinos and the Spaniards, Celso's costume slowly faded and became worn out at the end of the film, allowing the audience to tell that time had passed.

Feliza (Anne Curtis) wore native kimona costumes that most Filipinas wore during that time. A kimona is composed of a baro (shirt) and a saya (shirt), casual enough for women to wear during their labors. The patterns and colors of her saya were beautiful, always accentuating her skin tone.

All the other minor characters also wore traditional Filipino costumes. Some of the men wore Barong Tagalog that were made of pineapple cloth, while some wore a more casual camisa de chino shirts with long, earth-colored pants.

The costumes of the Filipino characters greatly defined who they were and their class level.

Costume Spotlight: Public Enemies

FALSE ADVERTISING!

I decided to watch Public Enemies, costumed by Colleen Atwood! I really loved the 30's period costumes and wanted to do my costume critique on the character Billie. She was the love interest of the main character and infamous bank robber, John Dillinger. Judging by her movie poster, I figured her costumes would be very extravagant, but she actually dressed a lot more simple and elegant.




The first time we see Billie, she is wearing a red dress. The knot/ruching on the front of her dress and the sleeves looked very 1930's. I thought her dress looked pretty classy, she later reveals that it only cost $3. I figured she would transform into the movie star in the promotion poster later in the film, but all of her remaining costumes were very simple.

I really liked this costume. The long, white collar in the front, and buttons on her under shirt fit the period well. She looks very business-like, but also sophisticated.

Her costumes fit her personality well. The fur shawl she wore was actually a gift from John Dillinger. When she wore it, there was a contrast between her new, expensive fur piece (her life with a rich bank robber) and her usually plain dresses (her normal life; her father was French and her mother an Indian, so she was low on the status meter).

Billie's character was extremely important for John's character development, but I wish they would have given her more screen time so she could have developed more as a character herself. Overall, it wasn't a terrible movie.

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Costume Spotlight: Interstellar (Trailer)

I wasn't planning on ever critiquing a trailer, but when I watched this one for Interstellar there were things I noticed just from this short clip that I could blog about!

Here is the trailer:

I main character I noticed was the daughter, Murph. Her costume as her younger self was very tomboy-like, she wore a lot of baggy t-shirts and a wind breaker. She wore her hair up, which is what made me notice her future self further along in the trailer. At 1:35 another woman appears (who I assumed was Murph, and after IMDbing it, her character does have multiple actresses). The older Murph also has her hair pulled back, but one key costume change is that she appears to be wearing her father's brown jacket pictured earlier in the trailer!!! Assuming from the trailer, her father has been gone for a LONG time so of course she would hold on to something he left behind.
After watching the trailer again, I didn't noticed a mother figure or even a stable love interest for Murph's father. This could explain why Murph doesn't dress very girly, and even wears clothes similar to her brother. All of their costumes are very simple, they don't distract from the plot, and help tell the story very well. I kind of want to watch the whole movie now :)

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