I have spent years in the theatre-- BA and MA in costume design and history (15 years). Then I was a designer for the garment industry (24 years) . Now I teach fashion history in a college.
>From my experience-- The "look" is the thing, not historical accuracy. If you have a director like Franco Zefferelli he is going to look for more accuracy. However Remember his "Taming of the Shrew"? Liz Taylor was dressed in a VERY hollywoodized version of Lorenzo Lotto.(I am surprized she wore a balzo !) Because she was the star. A STAR has a lot of influence in what they wear. People like Edith Head knew how to dress Stars by giving them what they wanted-- to appeal to their image and their vanity. And sometimes STARS want to make thimngs more accurate over the objections od the director. Bette Davis shaved her hair and eyebrows for "Elizabeth and Essex" in order to make her character more accurate. Hollywood thought she was nuts. When Cecil Beaton did My fair Lady he was a photographer/artist with some experience in design. However he was grounded in the Edwardian era. I knew the woman who actually made the costumes for the Broadway show (Helen Pons-- she designed the original costumes for "our Town, etc)). She was the backbone of the costumes. She knew what could and could not be made. When they made the movie his designs were adapted to the screen-- with someone to oversee the construction. No director with a brain is going to risk the look of a movie to his girlfriend or his niece unless he feels that she can do the job. Too much is at stake.A costume designer has too much responsibility to too many people to be *just* a girlfriend or niece. Many people who have clout in Hollywood as stars will not risk their image if they feel their costumes do not reflect it. They overrule a designer based on ego, comfort, or their own "Vision" of the production. It is a rare actor that will wear a costume simply because the designer gives it to him or her. It is a very idealized situation to allow everyone to do their own jobs. In a perfect world it happens, not Hollywood. Monica Spence -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:35 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [h-cost] Mel Gibson flicks In a message dated 4/24/2006 10:53:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: think we are all too critical about costume work in films. The director-- and sometimes the STARS have a majority of things to say about what is worn. *************** This can be tricky. Especially when they hire the producers niece or girlfriend to do the costumes....something that seems to happen in America more than Europe. Sometimes the actors are just looking out for themselves. If you have a top notch designer, as many period films do, smart actors, art directors, directors and producers just let them do their work. I don't think we're too hard on film. I mean they're spending a fortune! _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
