Dress Up and Play

Current Costume Updates

Here are some great articles about the current nominees:

More of the same of Jaqueline Durran the greatest dress of the year. The part I liked best ends the debate on the one whole dress vs. seperate pieces issue once and for all :

'It also had to survive a secret rendezvous on a bookshelf!

Well, we had lots of the gowns. The fabric was so fine that the bodices kept tearing. We had three or four skirts and 10 bodices and when they tore, we would quickly repair them. But it only took about a day to shoot that scene.- Jacqueline Durran '

... and one of them is being auctioned off here.(Be sure to scroll down to see a good clip of the film showing the dress.)

And a great article that reveals tidbits into the genius that is Colleen Atwood.

How about Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall's characters? They really are quite comical and cartoony.

Alan [Judge Turpin] was the slightly grubby man-about-town. His clothes have two or three color screens on the fabrics that gave him an oily, slick feeling. Alan and Timothy [Beadle Bamford] are the Romantics, that's what we called them. They are actually a bit more Georgian, the period before the Victorian era, a bit more decadent and flowery.

When people have a great moment in their lives, they tend to stay in that moment stylistically. - Colleen Atwood
(I love how she thinks about that stuff!)

Watch the video here which Alan Rickman talks about his ideas for keeping the guy dirty.

More green dress-ery

Wow! This green dress from The Atonement is getting alot of buzz. Who knew?

Here's an article from today's New York Post about it. I don't know if I've expressed this enough, but it's really all about the design process for me...so I love the part about how she arrived at the color by layering different fabrics together and having it specially made.

I also love that this isn't a 'designer' dress as most people think it is. Costume designers are designers too!

The Atonement Update

Yay! I'm back! I've been unbelieveably busy the past couple of weeks. I shot a short film and went to Hong Kong and back in a week and a half's time... the two had nothing to do with each other so there was alot of people and schedules and planning and traveling and packing and fixing and pinning and fitting and meetings and food. But it's over now and I'm so glad to have been productive because now I can watch tv and movies for at least a week and not feel at all guilty or lazy.

On my way to Honkas (as it's affectionately referred to in my office) I grabbed Entertainment Magazine because 1. Johnny as Sweeny Todd was on the cover and 2. There was this great article on The Atonement and the costumes and that green dress.

What I wouldn't give to hear more! Why are these snippets inside designers' heads always so small? The process and thought that goes into the purpose of each costume is so fascinating to me. It needs to fulfill so many variables it's a wonder they can land on anything at all... much less the perfect dress which this one clearly is.

The Atonement

Who doesn't love a pretty dress? Well, here's one for the day: Keira Knightly in a stunning kelly green dress for the movie The Atonement, which is suppossed to come out soon. The costume designer is Jacqueline Durran, who also did Pride and Prejudice. It seems as if she is just getting started, but is having some great beginners luck being chosen for quite a few great projects!

It looks like in this last picture there's some cutwork around the neckline and armholes but it's really tough to make out. I love this dress.