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olde_fashionedPart 2 of what will by three posts about the movie costume exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California.
Once again all images are courtesy of here, here, and here.
Part one of this series, which covers The Spirit (very briefly) and The Dark Knight in great detail, may be viewed HERE. Since then I've also discovered two new promo pics that show the sideviews of both the Batsuit and Rachel's dress (the latter has been lightened to show detail), and I've edited to add them to my first post. A kind commenter pointed out this article on the TDK costumes as well.
One movie I had (and still have) no interest in seeing, but was incredibly impressed with the costumes, was The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. While I have no idea if they're even remotely historically accurate (judging from the other two films in the franchise that I've seen, I seriously doubt it) but they looked good as far as aesthetic appeal.
The skirt on this one was my favourite part of yellowish outfit. It looked like it was silk, with the entire skirt pleated in little tiny pleats. The color is almost hideous, but it worked in a lavish, opulent sort of way. It looks like it would have been a lot of fun to wear. ;-)
Then there was this outfit.
Pretty straight forward, huh? Look a little closer...
Again, the main fabric appeared to be of a black silk with a tiny lighter colored woven design. The frogs were also black with tiny flecks of gold, and the facings, instead of another fabric, were made with the wrong side of the garment silk for a different yet perfectly matched contrast with more of the gold-looking threads showing through. I thought this was really clever. ;-D
The embroidery on the black Asian outfit was beautiful at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you notice that it's incredibly three-dimensional and realistic looking. That's because it's chenille! I really hope whoever made this got to use a machine, because I can't imagine having to do all that work by hand! It really was exquisite, though, and the fuzzy-looking nature of the flowers made me long to touch the rich crimsons, golden ochres, blush pinks and corals, and the mossy greens. ;-)
A lesser-known-fact might be that I'm in love with the color turquoise, so of course I have to talk about this beauty here:
At first it kinda looks like a fancy bathrobe or negligee, but once again, there are tons of delicious details just waiting to be discovered, if you only look. ;-)
I'm not sure if any ancient emperors had turquoise fabric dyed quite this bright, lol, but who cares? Mummies don't get up and walk around Cairo, either. Made of a plush velvety fabric that just begs to be touched (again...but I didn't), the sleeves looked like they were stamped with emblems made of golden paint, and adorned with gold "thingies" scattered about.
I got a big kick out of how they made the necklace. It's just regular old rattail cord, in turquoise, with Bali-type golden beads strung intermittantly. This wouldn't be that hard to make, the pendants would prove the greatest challenge, but Fimo clay might work, if one had the patience.
And I didn't notice these in the exhibit, but get a load of these shoes! Ankle breakers!!
On to the next, right? Um...no. Not quite yet. I haven't done the men's costumes! I'll confess that I mostly liked those because they reminded me of Ngila Dickson's masterpieces in The Last Samurai (yes, I know those are Japanese, and these are supposed to be Chinese...) and watching the documentary on how they made all the armor with all the teeny little overlapping plates, chainmail, and whatnot...talk about labor-intensive. It looks like these costumes were done in a similar style, so it was neat to get to see them up close.
I couldn't help but think that all those little rectangles looked an awful lot like Mahjong tiles...really detailed, distressed and battle-worn jade-type Mahjong tiles...each one individual and moving free, fastened to the others by little gold X's.
More Mahjong! And some gold chainmail on his wrists, with some nasty looking face-smashers on the backs of his knuckles. These look much more painful than the ones on Batman's gloves.
Next in line was another cinematic costuming surprise, this time from Appaloosa. The only serious attention I paid to this film's costumes previously was squinting at the stripes on Renee Zellwegger's outfit on the poster while waiting to leave the theater after seeing The Dark Knight, lol. That'll teach me. They were very nice. So nice, in fact, that I quite forgot to inspect the cowboy costumes worn by the male manniquins behind the ladies, lol!
I love the color combination on this. Light blue and saddle brown, such an unexpected and unusual pairing, yet it looks authentic, too, at least IMO. I think the fabric is moire, and the parasol has delicate knotted fringe.
My favourite element of this outfit has to be the skirt, and apron front with the blue silk "ribbon" applique. It appears everywhere, not just in front, but also along the sides of the apron front, which are also scalloped. Nice touch.
I also love the sheer pleated trimming along the edges, and the ruched satin on the bodice and at the wrists.
Another little-known-fact, I have a thing for stripey bustle dresses, but after seeing the dress diaries of a few other costumers, I know I'm not alone in that one. ;-P
I'm not exactly sure how to go about describing this one. The yellow fabric is striped and I would guess it to be silk, but I'm not as sure about that as I am about some of the others. The blue accents on the bodice are velvet, and the blue ruffles on the underskirt look like satin.
The lighter blue accents (most noticeable on the wrists) also appear to be a silk satin, and the tiny buttons are covered buttons, with what I suspect to be wood inside. I squealed when I noticed this!
All those little things down the front of the skirt are buttons...covered buttons...alllll they way down to the hem...
One of the things that stuck in my mind the most would have also been easy to miss. This trim looks almost like it was scalloped or cut with a series of notches to prevent it from ravelling away entirely, but was left raw-edged after it was inserted in the seam. On the portions of the gown where the actress' hands would have rubbed up against the skirt more often (the front, the right side, etc.) it was significantly more damaged and worn than in other areas out of reach, such as the back and skirt area.
But my favourite part of this dress had to be the lace jabot/bow thingie at the neckline. I'm convinced it's Vintage, and there is even some lurking upstairs in The Fabric Stash that looks very like it. I love it when normal, easily-found things are used in movie costumes! Silk brocades that are $98 a yard are all very nice, but it's also nice to see some inexpensive but good quality things, too. ;-)
I think the "base" of the bow-shaped thingie (I wish I knew the proper name for it) is made of two layers of Vintage lace, sewn together to form almost a larger piece of lace "fabric" in the shape desired, then edged with another lace ruffle along the edge. The "jet" (I think it was fake) brooch didn't match at all, IMO, and looks totally random.
And I'm sorry, but I thought this dress was just absolutely hideous.
It looked like someone took an old silk hankie or nightgown, cut it up, then glued it all over an otherwise nice black gown. *facepalm* I didn't like it, and the crocheted flower motifs all over everywhere didn't help matters any, either.
Changeling was the only other movie in the exhibit that I'd already seen, and like TDK, it was one of my favourite displays. These were delightfully vintage looking, as if they might have been well-preserved historical originals rather than movie costumes. They were definitely Oscar-worthy, in my very humble opinion, as was Angelina Jolie's performance as Christine Collins. (I'm not a fan of hers, but this had to be a gut-wrenching movie to make, and she did one heckuva job.) But I digress.
The costume designer took the pains to actually make something that looked real, not bright and gaudy and tacky like half the other "historical" costumes on display. Here's a group shot, minus the two figures on the far right.
I'm not going to discuss the creepy dude's outfit, because, quite frankly, it gave me the heebie jeebies to look at it in person, but you can see it to the left in this next photo. (If you've seen the film you'll understand what I mean.)
I loved this brown ensemble. The coat, especially, had a wonderfully "old" look to it, and I love it when costumers use a lot of brown.
An article I read when the movie came out stated that they intentionally paid a lot of attention to Christine's brooches, because she was apparently fond of them in real life. I was especially charmed by the little ivory-colored brooch that looked like it had been made from bread dough clay!
The cuffs had rows of stitching by way of decoration...
...aaaand the shoes were delightful. ;-P This movie had the most fabulous shoes, and you hardly ever get to see them onscreen! Nevermind, I more than made up for that bydrooling over staring at them in person, ha ha ha.
This next green dress is my very favourite of all the costumes in the movie, and one of a handful out of the entire exhibit. So seemingly simple, and yet there's a great deal of attention paid to detail, too.
There were what looked like crocheted motifs at the hip and along the hemline.
I wonder if they cut up some vintage textile, or made the decorations especially?
I adore this cloche hat, and it makes me want to whack off all my hair into a 20's bob! *sigh* It looked to be shaped from a creamy buttercup yellow wool felt, with velvety flowers and a rust-colored ribbon. I forget if it was satin or grosgrain. :-/
The accompanying shoes.
Another fabulous costume that I loved, once again in green. Has anyone noticed a pattern here? LOL
I don't know if it really is tweed, but it's delightfully tweedy looking, ha ha ha. I love the green buttons on this. Green coat, green gloves, green hat, green dress, green everything! I love it! Mwahaha!
Green stitching detail at the waist of the green dress. ;-)
And GREEN SPECTATOR SHOES!!! ME WANTZ!!!
Here's the man dummy that was standing next to the lovely green coat. (Man dummy, hahaha, that sounds funny!) Worn by John Malcovich, who, for once, didn't play the creepy perverted bad guy in the movie.
Am I the only girl who loves a well-tailored man's suit?? I can just imagine how nice this wool felt.
He had some really neat wing-tip shoes, but they didn't show up in the pics so I'm not posting them here.
I'm not sure if the rust/brick red colored dress was worn by Angelina Jolie or just one of the operator girls she worked with, but I loved the color. The drop waist had a detail of tiny buttons right above the waistband, which I found interesting. Not where I'd want to draw attention with buttons, lol. She's holding a pair of old-timey roller skates, and it was neat to see one of the switchboards set up behind the mannequins. Oh, how times have changed...
I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot to say about the costumes on display from Doubt, other than they were...black. Lots and lots of black, and when there was an absence of black, there were dark colors. LOL. Not that there's anything wrong with that (I love black!) it just makes it a teensy bit difficult for me to elaborate on them, except that Meryl Streep's costume had a very nice rosary.
Her cape/capelet/shawl thingie, upon closer inspection, also proved to be knitted, which I thought was really neat!
I'm afraid that's it for this post (I'm afraid I went a little overboard with the pics, too!) but I'll try to wrap this series up with a third and final entry as soon as I have the time to write it up. Valkyrie, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Duchess, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age will be next. ;-)
Once again all images are courtesy of here, here, and here.
Part one of this series, which covers The Spirit (very briefly) and The Dark Knight in great detail, may be viewed HERE. Since then I've also discovered two new promo pics that show the sideviews of both the Batsuit and Rachel's dress (the latter has been lightened to show detail), and I've edited to add them to my first post. A kind commenter pointed out this article on the TDK costumes as well.
One movie I had (and still have) no interest in seeing, but was incredibly impressed with the costumes, was The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. While I have no idea if they're even remotely historically accurate (judging from the other two films in the franchise that I've seen, I seriously doubt it) but they looked good as far as aesthetic appeal.
The skirt on this one was my favourite part of yellowish outfit. It looked like it was silk, with the entire skirt pleated in little tiny pleats. The color is almost hideous, but it worked in a lavish, opulent sort of way. It looks like it would have been a lot of fun to wear. ;-)
Then there was this outfit.
Pretty straight forward, huh? Look a little closer...
Again, the main fabric appeared to be of a black silk with a tiny lighter colored woven design. The frogs were also black with tiny flecks of gold, and the facings, instead of another fabric, were made with the wrong side of the garment silk for a different yet perfectly matched contrast with more of the gold-looking threads showing through. I thought this was really clever. ;-D
The embroidery on the black Asian outfit was beautiful at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you notice that it's incredibly three-dimensional and realistic looking. That's because it's chenille! I really hope whoever made this got to use a machine, because I can't imagine having to do all that work by hand! It really was exquisite, though, and the fuzzy-looking nature of the flowers made me long to touch the rich crimsons, golden ochres, blush pinks and corals, and the mossy greens. ;-)
A lesser-known-fact might be that I'm in love with the color turquoise, so of course I have to talk about this beauty here:
At first it kinda looks like a fancy bathrobe or negligee, but once again, there are tons of delicious details just waiting to be discovered, if you only look. ;-)
I'm not sure if any ancient emperors had turquoise fabric dyed quite this bright, lol, but who cares? Mummies don't get up and walk around Cairo, either. Made of a plush velvety fabric that just begs to be touched (again...but I didn't), the sleeves looked like they were stamped with emblems made of golden paint, and adorned with gold "thingies" scattered about.
I got a big kick out of how they made the necklace. It's just regular old rattail cord, in turquoise, with Bali-type golden beads strung intermittantly. This wouldn't be that hard to make, the pendants would prove the greatest challenge, but Fimo clay might work, if one had the patience.
And I didn't notice these in the exhibit, but get a load of these shoes! Ankle breakers!!
On to the next, right? Um...no. Not quite yet. I haven't done the men's costumes! I'll confess that I mostly liked those because they reminded me of Ngila Dickson's masterpieces in The Last Samurai (yes, I know those are Japanese, and these are supposed to be Chinese...) and watching the documentary on how they made all the armor with all the teeny little overlapping plates, chainmail, and whatnot...talk about labor-intensive. It looks like these costumes were done in a similar style, so it was neat to get to see them up close.
I couldn't help but think that all those little rectangles looked an awful lot like Mahjong tiles...really detailed, distressed and battle-worn jade-type Mahjong tiles...each one individual and moving free, fastened to the others by little gold X's.
More Mahjong! And some gold chainmail on his wrists, with some nasty looking face-smashers on the backs of his knuckles. These look much more painful than the ones on Batman's gloves.
Next in line was another cinematic costuming surprise, this time from Appaloosa. The only serious attention I paid to this film's costumes previously was squinting at the stripes on Renee Zellwegger's outfit on the poster while waiting to leave the theater after seeing The Dark Knight, lol. That'll teach me. They were very nice. So nice, in fact, that I quite forgot to inspect the cowboy costumes worn by the male manniquins behind the ladies, lol!
I love the color combination on this. Light blue and saddle brown, such an unexpected and unusual pairing, yet it looks authentic, too, at least IMO. I think the fabric is moire, and the parasol has delicate knotted fringe.
My favourite element of this outfit has to be the skirt, and apron front with the blue silk "ribbon" applique. It appears everywhere, not just in front, but also along the sides of the apron front, which are also scalloped. Nice touch.
I also love the sheer pleated trimming along the edges, and the ruched satin on the bodice and at the wrists.
Another little-known-fact, I have a thing for stripey bustle dresses, but after seeing the dress diaries of a few other costumers, I know I'm not alone in that one. ;-P
I'm not exactly sure how to go about describing this one. The yellow fabric is striped and I would guess it to be silk, but I'm not as sure about that as I am about some of the others. The blue accents on the bodice are velvet, and the blue ruffles on the underskirt look like satin.
The lighter blue accents (most noticeable on the wrists) also appear to be a silk satin, and the tiny buttons are covered buttons, with what I suspect to be wood inside. I squealed when I noticed this!
All those little things down the front of the skirt are buttons...covered buttons...alllll they way down to the hem...
One of the things that stuck in my mind the most would have also been easy to miss. This trim looks almost like it was scalloped or cut with a series of notches to prevent it from ravelling away entirely, but was left raw-edged after it was inserted in the seam. On the portions of the gown where the actress' hands would have rubbed up against the skirt more often (the front, the right side, etc.) it was significantly more damaged and worn than in other areas out of reach, such as the back and skirt area.
But my favourite part of this dress had to be the lace jabot/bow thingie at the neckline. I'm convinced it's Vintage, and there is even some lurking upstairs in The Fabric Stash that looks very like it. I love it when normal, easily-found things are used in movie costumes! Silk brocades that are $98 a yard are all very nice, but it's also nice to see some inexpensive but good quality things, too. ;-)
I think the "base" of the bow-shaped thingie (I wish I knew the proper name for it) is made of two layers of Vintage lace, sewn together to form almost a larger piece of lace "fabric" in the shape desired, then edged with another lace ruffle along the edge. The "jet" (I think it was fake) brooch didn't match at all, IMO, and looks totally random.
And I'm sorry, but I thought this dress was just absolutely hideous.
It looked like someone took an old silk hankie or nightgown, cut it up, then glued it all over an otherwise nice black gown. *facepalm* I didn't like it, and the crocheted flower motifs all over everywhere didn't help matters any, either.
Changeling was the only other movie in the exhibit that I'd already seen, and like TDK, it was one of my favourite displays. These were delightfully vintage looking, as if they might have been well-preserved historical originals rather than movie costumes. They were definitely Oscar-worthy, in my very humble opinion, as was Angelina Jolie's performance as Christine Collins. (I'm not a fan of hers, but this had to be a gut-wrenching movie to make, and she did one heckuva job.) But I digress.
The costume designer took the pains to actually make something that looked real, not bright and gaudy and tacky like half the other "historical" costumes on display. Here's a group shot, minus the two figures on the far right.
I'm not going to discuss the creepy dude's outfit, because, quite frankly, it gave me the heebie jeebies to look at it in person, but you can see it to the left in this next photo. (If you've seen the film you'll understand what I mean.)
I loved this brown ensemble. The coat, especially, had a wonderfully "old" look to it, and I love it when costumers use a lot of brown.
An article I read when the movie came out stated that they intentionally paid a lot of attention to Christine's brooches, because she was apparently fond of them in real life. I was especially charmed by the little ivory-colored brooch that looked like it had been made from bread dough clay!
The cuffs had rows of stitching by way of decoration...
...aaaand the shoes were delightful. ;-P This movie had the most fabulous shoes, and you hardly ever get to see them onscreen! Nevermind, I more than made up for that by
This next green dress is my very favourite of all the costumes in the movie, and one of a handful out of the entire exhibit. So seemingly simple, and yet there's a great deal of attention paid to detail, too.
There were what looked like crocheted motifs at the hip and along the hemline.
I wonder if they cut up some vintage textile, or made the decorations especially?
I adore this cloche hat, and it makes me want to whack off all my hair into a 20's bob! *sigh* It looked to be shaped from a creamy buttercup yellow wool felt, with velvety flowers and a rust-colored ribbon. I forget if it was satin or grosgrain. :-/
The accompanying shoes.
Another fabulous costume that I loved, once again in green. Has anyone noticed a pattern here? LOL
I don't know if it really is tweed, but it's delightfully tweedy looking, ha ha ha. I love the green buttons on this. Green coat, green gloves, green hat, green dress, green everything! I love it! Mwahaha!
Green stitching detail at the waist of the green dress. ;-)
And GREEN SPECTATOR SHOES!!! ME WANTZ!!!
Here's the man dummy that was standing next to the lovely green coat. (Man dummy, hahaha, that sounds funny!) Worn by John Malcovich, who, for once, didn't play the creepy perverted bad guy in the movie.
Am I the only girl who loves a well-tailored man's suit?? I can just imagine how nice this wool felt.
He had some really neat wing-tip shoes, but they didn't show up in the pics so I'm not posting them here.
I'm not sure if the rust/brick red colored dress was worn by Angelina Jolie or just one of the operator girls she worked with, but I loved the color. The drop waist had a detail of tiny buttons right above the waistband, which I found interesting. Not where I'd want to draw attention with buttons, lol. She's holding a pair of old-timey roller skates, and it was neat to see one of the switchboards set up behind the mannequins. Oh, how times have changed...
I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot to say about the costumes on display from Doubt, other than they were...black. Lots and lots of black, and when there was an absence of black, there were dark colors. LOL. Not that there's anything wrong with that (I love black!) it just makes it a teensy bit difficult for me to elaborate on them, except that Meryl Streep's costume had a very nice rosary.
Her cape/capelet/shawl thingie, upon closer inspection, also proved to be knitted, which I thought was really neat!
I'm afraid that's it for this post (I'm afraid I went a little overboard with the pics, too!) but I'll try to wrap this series up with a third and final entry as soon as I have the time to write it up. Valkyrie, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Duchess, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age will be next. ;-)
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Date: 2009-04-04 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 09:13 pm (UTC)*lols at your icon*
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Date: 2009-04-04 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-05 08:56 pm (UTC)Besides, I was having problems keeping my long hair looking nice: it always looked so unkept, no matter how much time and effort I spent trying to make it look decent. But as it turns out this is one style that may suit me best!
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Date: 2009-04-04 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 11:21 pm (UTC)...turquoise costume...Gorgeous...
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Date: 2009-04-07 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-05 02:06 pm (UTC)Love the Mummy costumes! They`re so fascinating and interesting!
The embroidery on the black Asian outfit was beautiful at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you notice that it's incredibly three-dimensional and realistic looking. That's because it's chenille! I really hope whoever made this got to use a machine, because I can't imagine having to do all that work by hand!
The embroidery is gorgeous! So traditional! But actually many of these are done by hand too and they are obviously more expensive. But machines have made quite a difference ;)
Thanks for sharing olde! Loved both the posts ! Very interesting! :D
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Date: 2009-04-07 12:52 am (UTC)Thanks for the comment, glad you're enjoying!
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Date: 2009-04-06 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:33 am (UTC)