Monday, April 20, 2015

The more I try to research the fashion of Renaissance France...

...the more I understand why "Ever After"s costume designer used the look of Italian Renaissance.

There's almost jack out there on French fashion during that time and the Italian fashion is more familiar than French, which to an untrained eye looks like it could've been from England.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

More on the Cinderella dress

So this article popped up on my Facebook feed, which does go into some good detail about the blue dress that I love/hate so much.

It also has a picture of the dress BEFORE the butterflies were put on and the dress looks so much better. It reminds me of Clouds on a full moon night.

On the skirt: I think I figured out how the color changing is by using layers.
Top is a blue sheer fabric; this' most likely silk crepeline.
Second is a lavender, also sheer, not sure if it's the same fabric as the first layer
Third is a sheer iridescent turquoise fabric, most likely organza but could be that fancy shmancy polyester stuff
Forth is just an opaque white fabric

Under all of that is the Petticoat Of Doom.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

My thoughts on the Cinderella dress (2015 movie)

Disclaimer: This post is NOT an attack on Sandy Powell, the costume designer. I love the costumes in this and feel that most would get the House of Worth Seal of Approval. I just feel there's just too much going on and and not enough at the same time with the iconic blue gown.
Also: I am not a costume expert/historian (nor do I play one on tv) so there's bound to be a lot mistakes.

The dress looks mis-matched, as if the bodice of the gown came off of one dress from the late 1890's to early 1900's (from the floof around the neck and the cut of the body, but, like I've said before, I'm not a costume expert) while the skirt is an 1860's elliptical skirt and it just looks weird. Powell says she drew inspiration from  the 1950's and I did find a Vogue pattern that resemble the dress but I keep thinking "Scarlet O'Hara wants to know what did you do to her dress".

Then there's the color: it's definitely uses similar fabric as Arwen's Arch dress from a Lord of the Rings cutscene, but it looks like it goes from ZOMGITSBLUE blue to a "...meh" blue on film and most other exhibit photos.

Going back to the bodice again: the butterflies. I know they have a special meaning in the story but on the gown, they look so out-of-place and -like I said earlier- belong on a different dress. I did a Google search on ball gowns and came across some that had the butterflies on it, including this gem from House of Worth, where the fabric is designed so that the butterflies look like they're flying off of the gown; if there was something like this in the gown's skirt, it would've been perfect.

Okay, I've gone over what I felt there was too much of, I'll finally go over what there wasn't enough of... and that was sparkle. It sounds incredibly stupid I know, but for me sparkle is very important and since the dress 10,000 Swarovski crystal, I expected some f**king sparkle dammit! And why just on the skirt? Just cover the damn thing in sparkle and it'll at least be closer to the original.

This rant went nowhere but I'm done. I'm not going to talk about the controversy about Cinderella's small waist, as Lily James has already addressed a number of times.

I confess I liked how the skirt floated.

What I thought about the new Cinderella moive

  • I heavily agree these reviewers for the most part. 
  • Ella is a lot like Bella from “Twilight” and Pollyanna. Couldn't connect with her and felt that she really didn't do anything to deserve her happy ending. (The script writer was also behind “Eclipse” so not really surprised there.) 
  • I still am totally crushing on Lily James though. <3
  • Cate Blanchett is really the best performer here as her body language does a lot of speaking for the character.
  • The script is horrible. The dialogue could be muted and you would have gorgeous silent film.
  • There were a lot of moments where the movie was trying to be “Ever After”.
  • Not a whole lot of character development, save for Kit and his father.
  • Not enough risks were taken in the story as a whole.
  • I really love Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother and she’s tied with Leonardo Da Vinci for Favorite Fairy Godmother on my list; I wish she was in the movie more.
  • There’s also seems to be a habit of introducing random characters then dismissing them.
  • And people say Belle had Stokholm Syndrome.
  • Aside from the scenes where Ella is with her parents and Kit is with his father, the ball scene was one of my favorites.
  • The blue gown’s skirt is to die for by the way it moves, still don’t like it as a whole but that’s a rant for another blogpost.
  •  Ella’s lack wardrobe also bugged me. Danelle has six to eight costume changes while the animated Cinderella has five. Ella only has four.
  • Her main dress never got dirty or show signs of wear.
  • The message of the story seems to be “Have courage, be kind, and you shall rewarded in the end with PTSD.” Why not "Home isn’t always a place, but in fact person” so when Ella’s father tells her to take care of their home, he’s saying take care of yourself.
OverallIgivi2.5/5Its okay buvermucyouaveragDisnemovianwill always go for EverAfter
Savyoumoneanwaifoitcomoutthcheaper/smalletheater-preferablonthahapubooDVDHathmakingfofudrinkingame.