Dress Up and Play

Coco Avant Chanel costumes part.2 The Rise

Part 1

‘She was the first good-looking couturier and because of her own strong look, everybody wanted to copy her. She was an artist who intellectualised couture for the first time,' explains Catherine Leterrier, costume designer of the exquisitely costumed film Coco Avant Chanel.

 

Legend has it Coco was preparing for a party and suddenly was inspired to cast off the traditional frou frou girly look for some male dominated pants. Myth has swelled to a point that she is now known as the first woman ever to wear pants.

 

"The fashion of that period was lovely, so it was difficult to show that Coco looked better than all these elegant women." - Catherine Leterrier

 

Coco Chanel's major influences were the introduction of menswear inspired pieces for women and the innovative use of jersey fabrics.

"she was her own muse", says Leterrier. 

Part 3 of Coco Avant Chanel costumes coming soon.....

Coco Avant Chanel part.1 The Beginning

Audrey Tautou plays Coco Chanel in the upcoming biopic Coco Avant Chanel. 

Costume Designer Catherine Leterrier was brought on for the challenging task of recreating the most influential couturier to ever grace the earth. As the film follows Chanel's life - mostly her early years- you will almost never see the tradition Chanel looks we know today.

 

Coco Chanel was abandoned by her parents early in life - having to find her own way by working as a seamstress and then as a milliner.

 

The movie follows Coco in her early years, concentrating on her rise and the early elements that would influence her design choices.

 

 

 

 

‘Of course there is pressure because Coco was the greatest. It is like, for an actor, when you play Shakespeare. But then I just approached it like any other film,' Catherine Leterrier

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

I found this image of Ms Debbie Reynolds playing the Unsinkable Molly Brown in an issue of Good Housekeeping from July 1964. It's an interesting pic that they used to compare the gowns of costume designer Morton Haack to the real Molly's unabashed Nouveau Riche crossover look- they're two different worlds to me. 

So here are some more of the Real Molly just for historical sake:

Well it's obvious from these past two pics that she loved Gros Point Lace.

 

In fact it's obvious she just loved ALL kinds of lace.

Cheri

Oooh! Look at all the pretty pictures!

This is a new Michelle Pfeiffer movie entitled "Cheri".

 

 

 

I am *in love* with the color in this movie. Michelle's skin just glows in every photo.

The costumes are by Consolata Boyle. Looks like she's finally gotten a great shot at doing something truly beautiful for beauty's sake. (Which is not always the point of costume design, but fun to look at nonetheless.) She has a pretty extensive work history, but nothing that sings like this does... unless you count Mary Rielly... which we don't.

My Fair Lady

I went through a major My Fair Lady phase when I was in high school. My dad bought me the box set for Christmas (back when Laser Disc was all the rage) and it came with a portfolio of these sketches inside.
They're prints of Cecil Beaton's own sketches... the ƒahbulous Cecil who easily seduced an Oscar for this film.

The Laser Disc box set also came with a VHS (yeah, I don't get it either) of a special making of documentary that was shot and shown on tv when the film was released. I'm sure it's on a DVD somewhere. If you can find it and you're a costume nut like me, you will not be disappointed. It shows exclusive footage of the whole wardrobe department; it even features the 'Glove Girl' whose job it was to give all the men and women their gloves for each day and ensure their arrival back in the department at the end of shooting.... I don't know why I delight so in little unknown snippets such as 'Glove Girls'.

I can't find anything on YouTube, but one of these days I'm gonna figure out how to upload VHS footage... yes one of these days.

Sunflower Dresses

sunflower dresses, originally uploaded by Ephemerally Yours.

I haven't had time to research new movie news lately so I'm going to show some great costume photos. This photo a random vintage find from Ephemerally Yours on Flickr. Clearly they/re supposed to be sunflowers- it's just surprising to me how large and bold the costumes are... you always think of the the early 1900s (I'm taking my best guess) as being delicate and soft. I wonder what sort of production they were for. Any guesses?

Go to Flickr to see more of his great photos.

Love In the time of... Hoop Skirts!

Oh man the colors in this picture are killing me... so pretty! Especially the red hoop skirt. What a genius way of inserting color into the picture that adds beauty but doesn't take away from the overall palette of the rest of it. Genius!

more Love in the time of Cholera

Here are some more pictures, these show a little bit more detail of the clothes, and some great colors.

Love in the Time of Cholera

The designer of this movie, coming out next month, is Marit Allen. She has a varied work history including Mermaids, The Witches, Brokeback Mountain, and Scarlett (tv movie). The scenes here translate beautifully. This time period set in South America is one rarely seen in film, and the texture it affords us is incredibly rich.