What a great point! Anne Hollander does introduce this kind of connection
in her (eye-opening) book, "Seeing Through Clothes". Many, many times I go
back to read the parts that discuss past fashion always being interpreted in
terms of the present aesthetics.
I am greatly amused with the present retro of the 1970s...bell bottoms,
angeltops and other nostalgic tops and bottoms. Hip-hugging and boob
lifting. But the colors are not the same, the designs of the fabric and the
fabrics themselves are softer,but perhaps bolder? The originals were the
natural outcome of the "burn the bra (or whatever)generation" ...
Kathleen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carmen Beaudry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Historical Costume" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 8:45 PM
Subject: Re: now costume design, was Re: [h-cost] new Butterick pattern 5061
>I didn't either. As both a historian and a costume designer, I see no
>reason to be embarrassed about the very good reasons why accuracy > is
>often compromised on the stage. I still groan when I watch films with
>terribly bastardized fashions, but I can often tell why they did it.
>Telling the story is first priority. Accuracy is icing for the geeks.
>:)
Melanie Schuessler
Exactly. The ones that really irk me are the ones where the story would
be better served by most accurate costumes and they still don't.
I just read a very interesting article about Memoirs of a Geisha. Lisa
Dalby, who is the only non-Japanese ever trained as a geisha, was a
consultant on the film, and was upset that they didn't use the correct
make-up, but did a modified version, until she overheard a couple of
stagehands talking about how wierd the complete white-faced look was to
them. She realized that, in order to portray the women as beautiful and
sexy, the traditional make-up had to be modified for the modern and
western audience, that where a Japanese (and especially an older Japanese
audience would see them as being beautiful, the intended audience would
not.
Melusine
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