Red Heads in RED. UGH.

I hate when designers put redheads in red. Once in a while it's done right but it has to be the right shade. But most of the time, I think it clashes like crazy. So, I've found some examples. So I'll start with "The Notebook." They felt that putting Rachel McAdams in red would be a good idea. I'm not really a fan. It's not the worst I've ever seen but I don't really like it. Luckily, Rachel's hair isn't SO red that it's unbearable. It's sort of a strawberry blonde. Here's another one. The worst outfit I think is this one. I couldn't find a good pic of it so that's to give you an idea of the scene it's in.

Okay moving on. When Kate Winslet had red hair in a few of her movies, designers also felt it necessary to put her in red. Here's her red dress in Titanic. It's a great dress and sort of iconic to the movie but it's not complimentary to her orangy hair color. Here's an outfit from when she did Hamlet. It doesn't clash as much as the previous one but it's still odd.

Okay. Nicole Kidman. Moulin Rouge. The red dress. WHY? That pic makes her hair look almost brown but if you watch the movie, it's DEFINITELY red. It's horrible. Love the dress, love the hair, HATE them together. Here's another red dress they put her in in that movie.

And then there's "Elizabeth The Golden Age." This is red done right. When it's done in shades that go with the hair, like more orange tones, it looks good like this one and this one. But I always think that redheads look best in GREEN. Cate is put in green here (LOVE the sleeves btw) and a sort of yellow green here. They look better than struggling to make red work, in my opinion, although the reds they put her in worked. Her hair also goes well with purple.

Okay, now for one of my favorite series, "Mad Men." It has one of the most popular and attractive red heads out there right now, Christina Hendricks. Amazon woman haha. Okay, I just want to die when they put her in red or pink. Here is another one. And another. Again, why must they put this beautiful redhead in these colors that clash so badly with her hair??? It's so frustrating! Here's another woman in the series who's a redhead and they put her in a red shade too. Okay, now to prove my point that redheads look great in green. The designers don't realize that she looks bad in red but luckily they DO realize that green looks great on her. Here's Christina looking great in green. And again. And again. And yet again. Here's the other girl I showed also looking 10 times better in green (I just realized how similar her dress is to Christina's in the previous pic I linked to.) Christina looks almost as good in purple. And again. (That was an intense episode.)

So there it is. Photographic proof that red heads shouldn't be put in red but should rather be put in green or purple. It makes them look more complimentary in general and makes their fiery hair stand out as the flame it was intended to be.

By the way, here is a great video on the costuming in Mad Men.

Asian Influences in Costume Design

I've noticed SO much Asian influence in costume designing for a long time now. I don't know why but it seems that designers like to use it in all sorts of different cultures and settings whether modern, historical, or fantastical. So this entry is about some of the things I've noticed. First, I'm gonna cover Star Wars just to get it out of the way. There is a HUGE amount of Asian influence in Padme's costumes. Firstly, it is known that her queen makeup was influenced by traditional kabuki makeup. It's the basic white face with red accents. Most of these have been pointed out over at P.G. but I'll just put some here. First, there's the traditional Mongolian inspired one. Now compare that hairstyle to this pic of traditional Mongolian hair. And, amazingly, the woman in the pic even has Padme's cheek dots. This pic had to be an inspiration to the designer. Here's another one that I found. It's nearly identical to Padme. Then there's Padme's parade dress where the back resembles a Chinese or Japanese parasol. That one's from Memoirs of a Geisha. There's also this dress of Padme's and this dress of the queen at her funeral, which are almost identical in silhouette and styling. The beads off the headdresses are reminiscent of this headdress from Singapore. This dress and this dress, which are almost identical also except in different colors are also kimono-like in shape. (Oh, and don't ask why Natalie Portman played Corde until after she got blown up. I don't know. haha) Also, the hair shape, which is the same on both costumes, is similar to kabuki styling. Another thing I noticed is that this hairstyle, which goes with one of Padme's senate gowns in the second movie, is a sort of creative combination of kabuki styling and the traditional buns Sumo wrestlers wear. Also, the Jedi costumes are inspired by Japanese robes. There's a great page on it with reference pics at P.G. here. One last thing that I only came across today while researching for this entry. I was looking at traditional Samurai armor and came across this helmet. Remind you of anyone? Yeah, that's what I thought. :)

Okay, FINALLY moving on from star wars and going to Hellboy. Now, in the first movie, there is really only one influence and it's Hellboy's hair. It's clearly Sumo inspired. But I just watched the second Hellboy recently and I was like Holy Crap! This whole thing has Asian inspired written all over it! Even the architecture of the Troll market looks Asian. If you watch the extras on the DVD, there's a tour of the troll market. That link isn't even half of it so I encourage you to watch it if you have access to it. It's great. Del Toro spares no detail. He's amazing. Anyways, other than Hellboy's hair, there are the elven folk. There is princess Nuala, who has very Kimono-like dresses. This one is sort of a bad pic cuz it's from the side but the waist piece and the criss crossed neckline reminds me of a kimono. Oh! I found a better pic of it here. This one is my favorite of Nuala's dresses and is probably the most kimono inspired of the bunch. It even holds some resemblance of some Ao Dai dresses that I came across while researching for this entry. They're beautiful. Her brother in the picture resembles a Samurai warrior with his outfit in the pic too. His costume that most resembles a Samurai though is this one. I mean look at the similarities between that and this traditional outfit. He's even got a golden medallion on his forehead. Also, you can't tell in the pic, but in the movie's fighting sequences, you can see that Prince Nuada is wearing those poofy pants stuffed into boots like the traditional costume. (There's probably a technical term for them but right now, they are gonna be poofy pants.) Here's another pic that shows the side of the outfit and also Hellboy's Sumo bun.

Okay, next movie. A Knight's Tale. One of my favorite movies of all time although the only thing I don't like about it is the love interest, Jocelyn. She's ugly and the costume designer was on crack. It's medieval and she's got Audrey Hepburn and Asian inspired clothing and 80s dyed hair. Whatever. The point for now is the Asian influence. First there's this one. See what I mean? But the pattern on the cloth and the sleeves remind me vaguely of a Kimono. Then, there's this one, which reminds me of an Ao Dai outfit. (Am I spelling right? I don't know.) Then comes this one, which I think looks like a new twist on Ao Dai, especially with the hat. Compare the hat and the neckline to this Ao Dai costume. I'm pretty good, eh? Or maybe it's just a coincidence and the designer wasn't influenced by Asian styles at all. Oh, I thought I'd mention that Ao Dai is a Vietnamese style by the way. I wish I would've discovered Ao Dai sooner. I'm really in love with the style now. They're beautiful. I'll have to work it in to some of my sketches. ;)

Okay, now for some movies that have a more subtle Asian influence as in only one or two costumes. I came across these robes from The Other Boleyn girl and they are very kimono like in the sleeves and vaguely in the necklines. I you look at the address at the top, the woman at costumer's guide has even dubbed the robes "Chinese" so apparently I'm not the only one who noticed. Another movie is The Matrix. Neo's robe reminds me of Ao Dai clothing also. Compare the neck and the shape to this dress. Even in Spiderman, Mary Jane wears a kimono inspired dress at the parade although this is the only pic I could find but you guys probably all remember it. (I hate when they put redheads in red. It clashes unless it's done REALLY right.) Next movie is The Lord of the Rings and I believe this screen shot is from the first movie. Arwen's dress has major kimono influences. And lastly is a dress from Moulin Rouge, another one of my favorite movies. This dress is deemed "the oriental dress" because it was clearly inspired by oriental style. Here's a full body view of it although it's small. Her hat is even like a stylized rice paddy hat.

So that's that. Those are all the one's I've noticed so far. Feel free to comment and point out any other's you've found. Until next time!

Star Wars (the recent ones)

Okay, so recently Spike was showing all the new Star Wars movies on TV and I, of course watched them even though I've seen them a million times. Every time I watch them, I notice something new about the exquisite costumes. If you'd like to study the costumes more, check out the Padawan's Guide, which is a GEM. I'll just talk about some of my favorites and least favorites. I'll start with movie 1, which is really movie 4. First Costume: ------->

Ugh. Padme wears this one TWICE. I'm pretty sure it's the only one she wears twice too and it's the ugliest one. You know what it reminds me of? When you see one of those shows on National Geographic or the Discovery Channel about native tribes and the women's boobs are down to their knees? Well Padme's got two purple saggy boobs hanging from her head and that's all I'll say about that.

Then there's this one:

Padme wears this one when she goes to meet Anakin. It's her "commoner" outfit and frankly, I just think it looks cheap and not very well thought out.

Then this one: ----------------------------------->

The costume is okay but the headdress is RIDICULOUS. Need I say more?

I like the one below. It's feminine and yet masculine at the same time.

My favorite of Padme's costumes from Phantom Menace is this one though:

I love the subtle yellows and pinks, the Asian parasol inspired neck piece. It's beautiful. But, if you go to the Padawan's guide, you can see some closeup pics of the from panel and it looks really cheap-like it was done with glitter glue. I guess as long as it looks good on film it doesn't matter but I must say I was a little disappointed with that.

Okay, that was insanely complicated so now I'm just gonna do my favorite costume pick and maybe least favorite and do the rest in links. Besides, it's taking up a butt load of space.

I actually have two favorite costumes from Episode II. The first is the costume we first see Padme in:

This costume is gorgeous. On Padawan's guide you can see an inspiration pic for the hair. You should check out pics of the back of the dress and close ups. There's so much detail. I really love this one.

My other favorite one is this----->

The pic doesn't even do it justice. You've gotta see how it moves and how the light shines through it in the movie. The only problem I have with it is the hair. You can't see it in the pic but you can go to P.G. to see it. It basically looks like a caterpillar rolled up in a spiral. But man, the costume is genius.

Can I just say that some of the hairstyles are ON CRACK. I mean, they're better than in the first movie but geez. This one is rather interesting. I find that they increasingly try to pay homage to Lea's styles in the older movies. The neck piece is great though. Almost vampire like. And look at the back of the hair. It's like what sumo wrestlers and Hellboy do to their hair. Speaking of homages to princess Lea hair, this is one of least favorite hairstyles of the movie. The dress is great tho. Yet ANOTHER homage to Padme's future daugher, this is also two buns stuck on the side of the head, although this time, she's put hairnets on. Although I do love the dress and it's color. More here and oh my gosh the outfit is gross. There's sexy tummy like this costume and then there's tummy gone wrong like that blue one. Ugh. And the cape she wears with it is also gross. She looks like a nun. Okay, I have to mention the pancho costume. It does fit with the ruggedness of Tatooine but it bugs me that it hides Natalie's figure. She's basically a blob.

You may notice that I'm not mentioning any of the guys. This is because they are boring and mostly the same throughout the series although I do love that in the third one, Anakin get's all leathery and slick with those boots and the black glove. Muy sexy. :) So lastly, numero tres.

One of my favorites is this:

It's so simple and flowy and for some reason, I love when the shoulder is exposed like that but the arm isn't. I think it looks cool.

One of my other favorites is this one:

It's in that intense scene where Padme and Anakin are on opposite sides of the city and they just stand there looking out the window at each other as if they have some sort of connection. The color is a mix between green and brown and I just think it looks so regal. I also love how simple they left her hair in both of these pics.

Other costumes. This one is clearly Lea inspired. I mean on P.G. there's a pic of an artist and on the wall behind her is a pic of Lea so obviously they were trying to pay homage to her probably partly because it's in the scene where Padme tells Anakin that she's pregnant.

I absolutely love the head piece on this one. I don't think we ever see the full dress in the movie but if you want to see it, go to P.G. It's not that spectacular. I always remember it because it's when she says that great line, "So this is how liberty dies; with thunderous applause." Love it!. I hate this headpiece and thank heaven that this costume got cut out of the film because she's channeling Bob Marley or something. It's hideous.

One more thing. People don't realize how much work goes into costuming. Some costumes take days to sketch then get approved and then take months to construct and are only on screen for a few seconds or even edited out like that Bob Marley one and there's one other in Episode II that they dubbed the "family costume." So, I was watching Episode III one time and I saw this gorgeous outfit worn in the background, on screen for about 5 seconds. I had to look it up. It was originally designed for Padme but wasn't approved so it goes to a 5 second non speaking part. And it has that peeking shoulder thing I love too. :) It sucks so badly that no one really appreciates these things (except for me and a few others haha). Okay that lasted way longer than I intended but there you go. A summary of my thoughts on the Star Wars costumes.

Introduction

Okay, so I've decided to make a blog about costumes because I love them. Although I have pretty much decided that being a costume designer for film is not for me, I still love researching and sketching ideas. So here are just my thoughts on costumes. I don't know who will read it but oh well. :)