Costume Critique: Mormon Tabernacle Choir

For this week's Costume Critique, I decided to take a break from watching Keira Knightley's films and watch instead one of the major events in the Mormon community which is... surprise! surprise! The 184th General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And what better "costume" is there to review on than what the Mormon Tabernacle choir wore? That's right, there is none! So, for this entry, I'll be critiquing the Sunday afternoon session "costume" of the MormonTab.

Starting with the men's "costume", they wore black suits that are appropriate for the event. Although I am not a fan of the fit of their suits, it does not really matter because they were not trying to look fashionable. They were aiming, however, to look dignified and respectable, which they clearly achieved. In terms of their neck ties, I am sure that they could have chosen a better one. The colour definitely stands out, but it would have been lovelier is they chose to match the colour of the women's dresses. Also, the print of the neck ties are very old-fashioned.

The women's "costume" were amazing, I liked how the dresses looked "flowy" (I just realized that flowy is not a real word, but I couldn't think of a better word right now) and appeared to be light and elegant. The colour is also stunning. Blue symbolizes peace, rest and comfort—words that perfectly describe the feeling one can have while listening to the choir sing.

The necklaces were simple, yet appealing. I also realized that they have matching glass earrings which I find very beautiful. Clearly, the women's "costumes" were well-thought of and designed.

I think it is also note-worthy to mention what the choir conductor wore. Similar to the men in the choir, he also wore a black suit. His neck tie, however, looked better because it matched the colour of the women's dresses. He could have chosen a slimmer neck tie, though. But all in all, he looked good.

Costume Spotlight: Will Turner

This weekend I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I pretty much grew up on these movies, could probably recite every word of the first three, and frequently make references in daily conversation quoting them. Oh, and if you've read my Legolas Costume Critique, you know I might have a small thing for Orlando Bloom...might.

The costume designer for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is Penny Rose. Here's a cool quote from an interview with her, "For young professionals and students of Costume Design, Rose advises the importance of a lifetime commitment to studying one’s craft, as well as recognizing and valuing the multi-faceted nature of the job."

This video is for Keith Richard's costume, but I thought it was so interesting! I'd love to be those ladies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_RAuDY-RC8
 

Orlando Bloom plays Will Turner, a blacksmith-turned-pirate looking to free his father from the crew of Davey Jones. For the third installment of the series, Will trades his white, flowy pirate shirt and detailed vest for darker colors. He still wears a jacket with many buttons, a belt around his waist, and another belt around his chest with a large buckle. He also keeps his shirt opened, and wears the same necklace. While these pieces are similar or even the same from previous movies, they are made of different fabrics and less detailed than before. For this movie he wears a burgundy shirt, and occasional leather vest, high boots with the tops rolled down, and sports a new earring? He wears less pieces of clothing than before and seems like he has officially settled into his new life as a pirate. The choice of darker fabrics makes him seem less of the good-guy-blacksmith he once was, and more of a swashbuckler. And who doesn't love the new addition of a bandana after he shows back up as the new captain of The Flying Dutchman???? Penny Rose, I totally approve.

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Costume Critique: The Duchess

Since I already declared my deep love for Keira Knightley on my previous post, I do not think it would come as a surprise if I choose to give another costume critique on a film where she starred in. This time, however, the film is not based on a novel, but on a real-life biography of a wealthy and aristocratic woman, known for her beauty and fashion sense—Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire.

The movie is set in the late 18th century when women were expected to wear very tight corsets and have lavish and gigantic hair. Being the Duchess, Georgiana wears rich, heavy and elaborate costumes that helps distinguish her rank against the other women in the film. Michael O'Connor, the film's costume designer, mentioned in an interview that he had to create 30 different gowns for Georgiana. He and the movie director, Saul Dibb, decided that Georgiana's costume must be divided into three periods—the new Duchess, the celebrity and the betrayed wife.

In one scene, Georgiana wears her hair high above her head, about three feet tall. Although it may look unrealistic for some, Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana's biography which is the film's basis, commented that Georgiana loved wearing her hair high, decorating it with feathers and horse hair, sometimes even waxed fruits. Evidently, Georgiana has an exotic and extravagant taste when it comes to fashion and style.

Other scenes show Georgiana's luxurious choices for her clothes. For her labor scene, she wears an ice blue jacquard gown with enormous crystal embellishments. In a secret rendezvous with her lover, she wears a dramatic velvet cloak. These clothes very well tell of the true personality of the Duchess—always ready to spend fortunes to look classy and fashionable.

Costume Spotlight: Australia

My costume critique for this week is on Lady Sarah Ashley, the lead female role played by Nicole Kidman, in the movie Australia. This movie is basically an Australian Western that takes place during World War II. Lady Ashley is the wife of a cattle station owner, and when her husband gets killed, she inherits the station in Australia. She leaves her home in England, and after discovering the death of her husband, she stays on the cattle station.

In the beginning of the film, Lady Ashley is very much an English woman. She arrives in Australia with many bags of luggage filled with clothes, and her own costume is very fitted with many buttons; she wears gloves, a skirt, and carries an umbrella.  Throughout the beginning, she continues to dress this way, but once she begins to help drive the cattle, her appearance changes. She starts to wear more earth-colored clothing, button-up shirts, pants, and she trades her girly hat for more of a cowboy hat. She continues to wear well-fitted clothing, but looks more like the owner of a cattle station instead of a woman from England. While she continues to fix her hair nicely, she does have some days while she's helping with the cattle where her hair is messy, she's dirty, and seems like a completely different person. Towards the end of the film with World War II approaching Australia, Lady Ashley begins to work answering the telephone/radio calls and wears an army green button up shirt and a dark green pencil skirt. The last costume she is seen in is a short-sleeved, button-up, floral blouse, along with a beige pencil skirt.

It's interesting to see how her costume changes reflect the changes in her personality. She starts out as a English woman with many clothes, trades those things to be a cattle driver, becomes part of the war efforts, and then returns to her lady-like clothing but without all of the over-the-top outfits. At the end of the film, she's still a lady, but her clothing is more breathable, comfortable, and less uptight. She has many experiences throughout the movie that change her personality in the same way.
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Costume Critique: The Atonement

Following my last week critique's on the costumes in Anna Karenina, I decided that the next best film to critique is Atonement. Although one may say that I am only doing this because I am deeply in love with Keira Knightley (which is true, actually), I am more intrigued by the popularity of Cecilia's (Knightley) green dress. In fact, that dress was voted as the "Best Costume of All Time" by Sky Movies and readers of In Style.

Atonement is a film adaptation of Ian McEwan's 2001 novel of the same name. Set in 1935, the film includes several outstanding period costumes. However, Cecilia's green dress stands out the most and reviewed by many fashion experts. Jacqueline Durran, the same costume designer for Anna Karenina, was reported to create the green dress from scratch. She apprently wanted to make a dress that would both show off Cecilia's social status and elegance. The color, which is specifically "rich emerald green", was chosen by Joe Wright, the film's director. Although the dress was supposed to look like a "period piece", it had a modern style that attracts the fashion taste of the audience.

Cecilia's green dress also reveals the over-all mood of the film — mysterious. For some reasons that I cannot perfectly put into words, the elegance that Cecilia had while wearing the dress brings mystery to the movie. It resembles the color of a forbidden forest that houses secrets and hidden wonders. Evidently, one costume can do so much to help a film achieve the mood it needs to have.

Freaky Friday Costume Critique

This weekend I decided to watch Freaky Friday. I paid particular attention to the mom's costume progression throughout the movie. In the beginning she of course dresses professional, but when the bodies switch that changes. The first morning, she wears what she can find in the closet, so she looks professional. She goes shopping and completely changes her look.

Imagine being a rebellious teenager stuck in the body of your mother. I would probably want to make a few changes as well. The costume designer portrayer this very well in my opinion. She gets a pixi cut and spikes her hair which gives her the rebellious sort of look. She has an earing put at the top of one of her ears that also gives the less professional, younger, almost rebellious look. The dress she wears is low cut and flows freely in the wind. It is boldly colored with a bohemian type of print on it. It is polar opposite from anything the mom would wear normally, but fits perfectly with what the daughter might wear. Essentially, what the costume designer did was think of what the younger daughter might wear that a grown woman could also possibly get way with and then put the mom in that. I would have done the same thing. She also is wearing some things that the daughter would not get away with so easily, but would have probably loved to wear like the high heeled, black, knee length boots or the new ear piercing. IT helps to convey the idea that the teenager now feels a bit of freedom as everyone else sees her as an adult and adults make their own decisions. At the rehearsal dinner She has to dress more formal since it is a formal event, so she is in a dress that the mom may have chosen when she was still the mom. Its sleek, but not form fitting, professional, and nice. I may have put her in something slightly more formal as it is the scene of the rehearsal dinner for the mom's wedding, but then again I don't think it was a bad choice as the costume designer's job it to present both a grown woman and a teenage girl in the same person. I think she did this very well throughout the whole movie.

Costume Spotlight: Divergent

For this Costume Spotlight, I will be discussing the costumes for the movie Divergent.  This movie, based on the book by Veronica Roth, takes place in a futuristic Chicago where the population has been divided into 5 factions.  These factions include Erudite, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation, each with their own qualities, skills, and distinct costumes. Carlo Poggioli was the designer for this film and created thousands of costumes to reflect the factions. Instead of choosing one costume to critique, I'd like to talk about the costumes for each faction as a whole.

Erudite: Based on intellect and science, members of erudite wear clean-cut, lab coat inspired attire. Blue was chosen as it represents intelligence and success. They wear lots of business suits, including the women. These costumes have a lot of sharp details and fit very close to the body, but they aren't extravagant; they have a sense of sophistication and minimalism. The minimalist qualities of their costumes can be reflected in their countenance.  Minimalism is something that I think comes from having a foot in the world of science. Science is more rooted in research, learning, and facts than creativity.

Amity: These people are the peace makers; they farm and help others. The colors chosen for their costumes (which were actually all hand dyed according to Poggioli) represent nature and are all very earthy tones. The style of the costumes are very simple and plain. The actors wear a lot of long skirts, sweaters, and vests. They are a down to earth people...literally.

Candor: Candor represents honesty; they are dressed in black and white to symbolize the difference between telling the truth and being dishonest. Their costumes are a little more futuristic with lots of detailing with various cuts and lengths.


Dauntless: Members of dauntless are the protectors of the city. They are brave, edgy, and dress in mostly all black. Their clothes are tight and stretchy to allow for movement. They have the appearance of leather, but are only made to seem that way


Abnegation: These members are selfless and modest. They are dressed in costumes lacking shape with various shades of gray. There costumes are fairly plain, but they all have different appearances. Females always keep their hair pulled back probably to appear less vain.

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Costume Critique: Snow White in the forest

Once Upon A Time is a television show about fairy-tale characters that get trapped in the real world. Snow White is one of the main characters. For this critique I am going to focus on Snow White's forest costume. 

 While in the forest  Snow would have to be able to camouflage to hide from the Evil Queen, so she wears a lot of browns and greens. In the scenes where she is in the forest it is often cooler which I think is why the costume designer put her in different leathers and furs. Her clothes are tight fitting and made of material that she can easily move around in and she has leather boots to keep her feet dry while trudging through the dewy wet forest.  The belt around her middle helps accentuate her features and gives her the hourglass figure. There are a lot of stitches visible on her costume which really helps to give I that old-timey-fairy-tale-era feel. Her gloves, also made of leather, are good to keep her hands from getting all scraped up while climbing trees and over logs and boulders. Lastly, her cape is a deep forest green that blends well with her surroundings. It has a very simple trim, such as a peasant would have, and comes only to her knees as to keep it from dragging on the ground and leaving a trail. Her cape has a large hood that Snow uses to conceal her identity when needed.

Snow's hair is usually down with some slight messy curls in it and pulled partly back to keep it out of her face. It looks just as I would imagine an outcast princesses hair might look like. Her make-up is also very basic. Neutral tones help to show her raw beauty as she is "the fairest of them all." I think this costume was done very well with attention paid to every little detail.

 

Costume Critique: Anna Karenina

Jacqueline Durran's aesthetic as a costume designer extraordinaire is clearly evident by the costumes she created for the 2012 film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Through the effective ways of using fabrics, colors and silhouettes, Durran was able to capture the sense of what it was like to live in Anna's time.

Although the original novel was published in 1877, Durran chose the 1950's era as an inspiration for the lead characters' clothes. In fact, Durran said in an interview that it was actually Dior's 1950's couture that inspired her because it had a "stark, architectural approach"  and has a "kind of romanticism" to it (fashionista.com). Her decision was undoubtedly correct, allowing the audience to understand better the characters' personalities and social status through their clothes.

The costumes for the film were also used as a means of storytelling. In one scene, Anna was wearing a red gown that signifies the beginning of her liaison with Count Vronsky. Kitty, on the other hand, was wearing a white dress that was trimmed with pink rosettes, symbolizing her childlike character and innocence that is opposite to Anna's sophistication. Even Karenin's personality was shown through his severe-looking costumes that were filled with stiff and strict lines.

Anna's luxurious Chanel jewelry also helped in making her stand-out among all the other female characters. Although some critics react to it, commenting that Chanel was not even born yet during the publication of the book, Durran's choice for the jewelry was undoubtedly spot on and made Anna look more elegant and polished.

All in all, I must say that the costumes in Anna Karenina are remarkably done. The Academy Award that Durran received for her designs is truly well-deserved.

Costume Spotlight: Legolas

This weekend I decided to redbox The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This is the second film in The Hobbit trilogy, all based on the novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien. Taking place in Middle Earth, a world familiar to fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, this particular part of the story involves a company of dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard continuing their quest to the Lonely Mountain. The Lonely Mountain is the previous home of the dwarves which is currently guarded by a dragon known as Smaug. Hiding in this mountain is the arkenstone, the only thing that will unite the dwarf armies so they can take back their homeland. Along the way, this band of adventurers meet many new people, including the elves of Mirkwood. One of these elves is known as Legolas, the son of the King Thranduil, my costume spotlight for this week, and not to mention my Middle Earth crush since 4th grade. ;)

Ann Maskrey designed the costumes for this film, and I'd like to briefly discuss her work and hypothesize about her thought process while designing and creating a costume for Legolas.

Elves seem to be very sophisticated beings; they are also very mobile, so they need clothing with class and utility. Legolas is dressed in very form-fitted clothing which means he can move around freely and also appear elegant (in a manly way?). His boots also show that he will be moving around a lot. He is a prince, so his clothing would be made of nice fabric, and have great attention to detail.  His outer coat has a lot of detail with obvious seams connecting different shapes; the sleeves on this jacket also go to a point over his hands. Under this coat, Legolas has chain mail, and another shirt made from a lighter-gray material. Both his coat and undershirt have a unique collar (maybe similar to a Chinese collar). He also wears a belt to hold a small sword. This belt seems to be made from the same leathery material as his arm guards, with similar style detailing. His arm guards would be necessary for archery as he keeps his quiver with arrows strapped to his back.  He keeps two small swords strapped on his back as well. It makes sense for all of the elves of the Woodland Realm to wear colors that can be found in nature. Legolas wears a lot of gray-greens. He can also be seen with armor in the film; the armor is very detailed and made of small pieces, each very pointy. The hairpiece for Legolas was done very well; the braids on the sides show a hint of detail, and having his hair pulled back halfway would keep it out of the way when in combat. His wig could probably pass for Orlando Bloom's real hair minus the fact that I've always thought they should've lightened his eyebrows just a tad.

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