Into a Dragon

After realizing that my Kingdom Hearts III Sora project was going to be somewhat too ambitious, I have decided on something a little more simple, but still very fun and in the cosplay setting. I want to do a hoodie and pants inspired by Toothless from the movie "How to train your Dragon".

There's a design online that I would like to base my creation around. I might tinker a bit with it to make bigger wings to have a cooler look, but I am still undecided because I would like it to be something everyday wearable as well.
Toothless is a very lovable character, so I dont necessarily want to look fierce in it.

This coming Saturday we will be going to fabric mart, so I will be able to get the materials there. It shouldn't be difficult, I now only need black color fabrics.

I now have the materials needed for my final project. Overall the cost was about $70 dollars. Which is pretty cheap considering that all websites that offer this hoodie price it around $200-300 dollars.

I will be following a Mcalls hoddie pattern which I will slightly alter to make the main construction of the hoodie. Afterwards, it will be up to me to make the ears, spikes, tail and wings patterns. I will be using batting to stuff the wings and tail.

Right now, I think time wise I should be fine. I also made sure to get extra fabric and batting because I will probably end up botching a couple of pieces.

The only thing I am missing right now would be the paint to make the small scale details that the hoodie shows in some parts.

I am really excited to start this project this coming week.

Finishing Fiddler

I loved this production! At first I was sad we weren't doing a play where we could have more creativity. These were just poor villagers. But it was actually a lot of fun. When I saw the final play on Saturday, I was blown away. I was finally seeing just how many dresses and outfits we actually had put together. There were so many little details that I never noticed before.
I felt accomplished about Golde's shirt, even though I wasn't the one who finished it. It made me want to sew and make things again.
Even though I won't be here next semester I will always miss this class and the people who made it the best class ever! I would have never thought that I could be a part of something as cool as what we did.

Costume Critique: Lord of the Rings

This is by far my most favorite post. One, because it is about Lord of the Rings. And two, because the  costume designer Ngila Dickson also created the costumes for Xena: Warrior Princess.
Too. Much. Goodness.
To be honest, the costumes from Lord of the Rings speak for themselves. For the volume of costumes that were created, it is incredible to me that they were each so detailed and diverse. In an interview with Ngila, it was noted that with a crew of 40, over 19,000 costumes were made to meet the needs of stunt doubles, horse-riding doubles, and characters of different sizes. To help aid the illusion that hobbits were much smaller than man, costumes we created identically but on a much larger scale weave. For one of the Dark Riders, more than 50 metres of layered fabric was used!
I love researching designers and reading about ways in which they differentiate characters. For example, with Frodo, Ngila wanted him to have a more refined and gentleman feel, and so of all the hobbits, he was dressed in subtle velvets. She is so sneaky! But now that I know that, it makes such a difference!
As a trilogy, Lord of the Rings received more than 20 award nominations, won an Oscar in 2004 as well as an American Costume Designers Guild gong. I personally think it is safe to say that Lord of the Rings is the most epic trilogy ever created. The budget was approximately 280 million dollars, took 8 years to complete, and grossed nearly 3 billion dollars.

Oz the Great and Powerful

Gary Jones

This unusual arrangement was instigated by director Sam Raimi, keen to create a cohesive fantasy world. Jones’ costumes are, like most fantasy genre designs, a mix of period and architectural influences – roughly late Victorian/early 20th century and Art Deco (Eastern and Asian influence). They are not avant-garde; say in the inimitable style of late, great costume designer Eiko Ishioka, but more restrained overall.
Glenda has three changes during the film, though her costumes are all quite different, becoming less feminine and more ‘armour like’ as she reaches her confrontation with the other witches. The outfit on display at Selfridges is the last she wears in the film, her ‘celebration dress’, so any battle elements are discarded in favour of soft, poufy shapes.

Evanora's only costume for Oz, apart from a black dress seen during the finale when she also wears leggings beneath her skirt – presumably so she can fly above the camera while retaining her modesty. Finishing on the hips, this long and light crepe silk skirt has an uneven hem rising toward the left knee. It is covered by swirls of light green thread holding tiny transparent discs, cubes, and Swarovski Crystals.
The bodice is even more attractive as it follows a 1930s evening gown style with gentle V that is offset slightly to the left. Crystals and similar appliqué condense near the bust, which is lined in black lace popping into view above a cluster of heavy white beading. The collar is made entirely of emerald green feathers. Black feathers sprout from each shoulder giving off a militaristic air. She also has an emerald pendant.




Theodora/The Wicked Witch
"Theodora’s Givenchy throwback."

They had to test her dress to see if she could run in it. She could but they decided it didn't need as many layers or such a wide circumference.










Glinda's first dress. Although pink is used for tulle underskirts in her final ensemble, Glinda does not hark back to the more fragile characterisation of The Wizard of Oz (1939). Indeed at one point her bodice is intended to resemble armour.

Theodora's riding outfit, with a twist on the classic Victorian costume. Here she is active, romantic and just a little bit tomboyish.

The Hundred Foot Journey

Pierre-Yves Gayraud is a costume designer and actor, known for The Bourne Identity (2002), Cloud Atlas (2012), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The Hundred Foot Journey (2013). I really find it interesting when you have designers that can jump from historical or futuristic settings to completely casual or regular situations. IN this post I will focus on Gayraud's work in The Hundred Foot Journey because none of us has done a movie about chefs or cooking.

Something very interesting of this movie is that it brings out a beautiful juxtaposition between the French and Indian cultures. The movie focuses on the culinary battle that is fought among two restaurants in the country side of France. However, one can see this contrast not only in the food they prepare, but also in how they are dressed.

To me in a very real way, the costumes in this movie reflect both the personalities and the cooking styles of the restaurants. On one side you have Madame Mallory who expects nothing, but visually beautiful and  perfectly cooked food served at her restaurant and on the other you have Hassan, who is definitely not quite so intricate.

Madame Mallory wears a tailored skirt suit, that reflects her high standards when letting her chefs know that a sad overcooked asparagus had been served last night. All of her clothes are very high class and very fashionable keeping her in the French look.






Hassan on the other side with some rather shabby clothes and some other that border on totally tacky like this print pleated shirt is an accurate representation of his Indian cuisine. His food is not really something about finesse, its really out there.

It is also interesting to see how the rest of Hassan's family is dressed. You can see that some of them are trying harder to better blend in in their new setting by wearing formal clothes in the same color pallet, while others are still wearing some rather noticeable colors or patterns.This is specially true about the dad who in this particular scene is wearing a green jacket in a sea of dim grey and khaki tones.

This is probably one of my favorite outfits of the movie. It looks so beautiful, even when it is composed by so many layers and it doesn't have any vibrant colors, I still find it very attractive. Its weird to say, but it looks very cozy and heart warming. 

The Finishing Touches

I must say that I ended up enjoying this class much more than I initially thought. I think that one of the main things that made this so enjoyable, is the people that are part of the team. We don't really hang out much outside of class, but inside the costume lab we are a pretty cohesive friendly group.We worked well as a team and were very eager to take on whatever the production needed to move forward.

Sometimes we didn't see eye to eye on our costume critiques, but on the play I feel like we all knew what our objective was so it was easy to choose things without any dissent of opinions. And I think a big part of why that happened is that Sister Dooley really gave us direction from the beginning.

She let us know what should be the main components of our wardrobe and then she allowed us to have fun with it. This I feel is very important, because now as we are about to be done with the play I look at our actors in their costumes and I can really feel fulfilled in the sense that I really helped and made a difference in the costume design.

Going with that same idea, being able to be in charge of the final look of Fruma Sarah was an amazing opportunity and also very fun. It was especially cool, because now I know how to do skeleton looking makeup.

I do wish that we had been able to have some more practice in make up. We had a couple of lessons, but just the theory is not really enough to go help an actor with their makeup. Myba next time we can have some make up classes earlier in the semester and have some test models.

Fashionista Revenge

Jill M. Ohanneson is known for her work on Revenge (2011), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002). Her work in ABC's hit series, Revenge, is what really caught my attention. Set in The Hamptons as a tragic story of drama and revenge, the series costumes and fashion is everything you would dream it to be.

I was able to find several interviews and articles in which Jill talks about the shopping, designing and altering for the show's wardrobe. From the looks of the clothes, one would think that they just buy everything from high end designers for every episode, but that is completely untrue.





This is an excerpt of inside magazine:

“Almost everything that goes on our principal actors gets altered, from head to toe,” she said. “Men’s suits are altered up one sleeve and down the other and up the back and sides. All the dresses are brought in to within an inch, actually a fraction, of their body.” Each actor has their own mannequin to match their figure!

Jill says that this altering/fitting process is very important to the show. Most of the characters are very powerful and wealthy personalities and this must be transmitted not only through their acting, but also through the clothes they are wearing.

“We tailor everything to make it work with the actors’ bodies. All the principals have their clothing tailored. That’s how you make someone look powerful. If your clothes fit you perfectly, you feel more authoritative and you carry yourself differently. “


The mannequins on the right, belong to three of the main characters of the show (Victoria Greyson, Emily Thorne, and Nolan Ross).

For these same reasons, no major clothing items are ever worn more than once. Every episode and its clothes must stand alone and make a grand impression each week to keep alive that Hampton's atmosphere.

Each character has their own separate closet. Emily has the biggest overall wardrobe, but Nolan's closet is the one with the most pairs of shoes.
The wardrobe also has its own accessories closet and their tailoring department.

On a more specific note, I will talk about how Emily Thorne's clothes help give depth to her character. In the show Emily lives a double life, to everyone she is a graceful, wealthy, new arrival at the Hamptons, while in the shadows she is doing dangerous tasks to infiltrate and destroy those who took away her father.

Thats why whenever she is in public she will be wearing beautiful dresses and sometimes tailored suits, but in reality she is the most comfortable when she is in jeans and a t-shirt.

The 100

Katia Stano designed the costumes for the TV show The 100. The show takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. "Think a Game of Thrones/The Hunger Games mash up".
"There's no Barneys, no Nordstrom, no Target," Stano says. "So everything that has been left over from the post-apocalyptic war has been [torn] to shreds and they have re-purposed everything."

"One of the most asked about items are the bomber jackets that the cast are wearing, they look vintage and second hand, but they’re only from H&M! With the cuffs and collars frayed, stitching pulled and re-worked. Some of them have even been turned inside out to expose the quilted, orange padding, whereas the majority have the navy jackets. It’s a small detail that the fandom have picked up on, but it’s the details such as that one – which distinguish the ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ of the group – that are appreciated by hardcore fans."




Here, Clark is using an airplane like buckle from the drop-ship as a buckle across her chest. Tires and scrap metal are used as armor, animal skin is used as thermal wear and odd bits of material are used as weapon holsters.







Their clothes out in space.

A Sea of Fabric

Penny Rose is a costume designer who has worked in the film industry since the 1970s. Rose was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design three times for the films Evita (1996), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).

Many of the costumes featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean series are worthy of praise, but my all time favorite is definitely Captain Jack Sparrows look. It looks so washed out and raggedy, but the whole costume is composed of several elements that have given Sparrow his identity. Some of the pieces are:

* woven blue-gray eight-button jacket with flared, pleated tails and
        oversize slit cuffs
* distressed 12-button aubergine linen vest
* oversize, open-necked cream linen shirt with billowing sleeves
* faded brown cotton button-fly pants with buttoned, buckled cuffs
* distressed brown leather belt with oversize antique-finished buckle
* distressed brown suede knee-high boots with 10-inch cuffs
* cream-colored sash with red stripes
* fingerless medium brown glove with wrist strips
* frayed black rag with striped accents

The costume of this costume is very well known and spread online thanks to the fact that one of the costume replicas worn by a stuntman was auctioned.



Some other very noteworthy costumes are the golden gown that Elizabeth wears at the beginning of the movie (Curse of the Black Pearl) and Tia Dalma's dress (Dead Man's Chest). The dress that was washed away in the sea for the first movie was actually also auctioned online, and thanks to this many people have been able to replicate it incredibly accurately. The fabric reportedly is Chelsea Sable and the lace on the sleeves is English Net. Both of these fabrics are available online.

Tia Dalma's outfit is very much the opposite of this gown, it is a simply raggedy dress with accesories to finish the look. However the treatment that the fabric seems to have received is marvelous.



There also seems to be several layers of fabric that were used to make the textile that the dress seems mostly made out. I particularly like that even though this dress looks so decayed and aged it still keeps that look that goes in hand with the time the movie is set on. It is still very conservative and with lots of details in the finishing.

The costumes in this movie all look so very cool and make you wanna be each and every one of the characters, and I think that is an important thing that good costumes can achieve. You wanna be certain characters to look at yourself in their clothes and that makes you root for them even more.

Frequencies

Also called, OXV: The Manual. Everyone takes a test that determines their luck, their frequency. Zak has a negative number, so he is literally out of sync with nature. Marie has an ultra high frequency, so she is highly intelligent. Everything works out for her. She randomly finds 200 pounds on the ground, which is the exact change she needed for an item she purchased. The downside to her high frequency is she has no emotions. The luckier you are, the less you care.
Zak and Marie are complete opposites. They can only meet for 60 seconds, and then nature starts to rebel. Clouds start forming above Zak's head and begins to only rain on him. The next time they meet, a plane flies overhead and begins dropping luggage all around him. Zak is in love with Marie, but she is only using him for experiment.
The costume designer, Milica Todorovic
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSfzixf314
music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTPbG7imt8g

In the school, once they find out what frequency they are, they have to wear ties with the color that resonates with their frequency. It's a way of knowing who's who. Zak wears red, Marie wears purple. These colors stick with them even after school.
Zak almost always wears red, when he doesn't he wears black and white. Marie always wears purple until her frequency changes (except pink on their date).

Zak, through his teenage years, looks disorganized. His hair is long like a boy in a boy band. His tie looks like he keeps loosening it and wringing it.
Zak's best friend, Theo, is exactly in the middle, so he wears blue. His dad wears blue as well.


Marie's father doesn't seem to follow any color scheme. When you first see him he wears red, but later he wears blue. Her mother first wears a dark purple shirt. Overall she just looks very formal and expensive.
When Marie is conducting her experiment, she tries flirting. She wears a knee length skirt and you see her unbutton the top of her blouse and loosen her lavender tie. She even fiddles with her hair a bit. She wears a white dress for the dance but has purple flowers.

Marie-Curie Fortune

Isaac-Newton Midgeley (Zak)

Theodor-Adorno Strauss (Theo)