At 11:00 AM 12/31/2005, you wrote:
Oh, that picture! I saw it earlier online. When Julie first described it, it sounded like the thing was sheer! But I see what you mean about seeing the outline of her breast.It definitely looks like it's made of fabric only with no boning. Yes, Hollywood costumers know better - there are plenty of movies out there with decent stays and corsets! Something exists in the 18thC called jumps - described as "lightly boned stays", although there are lots of questions about various extant items and what, exactly they were and who wore them when. Anyway, I have not seen the movie, but from the ads it seems that she is an upper class lady? The less shaping, the lower the class, unless of course she was relaxing at home and would not ordinarily have been seen in public that way. Obviously it is shaping her somewhat. I think it's unattractive, especially for a leading lady. My take on it (as an 18thC type) - that type of thing may well have existed. She is not "properly" dressed wearing it (maybe she is not supposed to be "proper" in that scene or she is not a "proper" sort of character) or it's possible that it's not used correctly. Also Venice was it's own animal and some of the conventions of costume we have (from predominantly English sources) don't apply. I wonder how much research the costume designer did? Don't let it ruin the movie - at least she's not wearing powder blue eyeshadow. :-)
Well, for what it's worth (and this includes spoilers) the character of Francesca is definitely upper class, I think her family is supposed to be old Venetian nobility, the kind with lots of blue blood but no money. And the scene where she wears that corset is on the scaffold. She (and Casanova) have been condemned to death and this is what she's wearing/allowed to wear to her hanging. If you look at the picture, she's wearing a lovely quilted petticoat, and even the corset itself looks to be constructed accurately. Just no bones and I think the wrong kind of material (it almost has to be for it to shape itself so closely to the actress's curves).
It didn't ruin the movie for me, but it did kind of yank me out of the scene. And being a costumer all I could think of was "what WAS she thinking???" (the costumer, I mean).
I would really like to contact the costume designer and ask about this. Julie _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
