It's funny, but actually, studying historic costume has made me
appreciate what ELSE theatrical and movie costumers are doing more
than I did before I knew where to hunt down period-correct sartorial
information. When I'm dressing for re-enacting, I strive for ever
more accurate accouterment, because the story we are telling as re-
enactors is either This Is What It Was Like or sometimes This Is How
It Differs From Now. Strict authenticity is the point in that effort.
And I have to say that often what is most authentic is not to my own
personal, modern taste, so I have to tell my personal, modern taste
to shut up.
But the story in a play or movie is usually one that reflects a moral
issue that resonates with the modern audience. And what theatrical
costumers do, sometimes breathtakingly, is to evoke the historic
period while also using visual clothing symbolism that will enhance
the characterizations in modern eyes. Thus, as someone on this list
pointed out a while ago, the hair and makeup of the romantic leads
will usually be the least authentic, for they must telegraph beauty
and desirability and probably moral good as well to the modern
audience. (Though I've recently been impressed by the costuming for
the Showtime series "Dexter" -- how do you dress a sociopathic serial
killer who is attempting to live by a moral code in order to pass for
normal?) Even when using modern-day wardrobe for modern characters,
the way they select color and cut paints a character portrait with
amazing nuance. With historical stuff, they have to work with the
double vision of what the characters might have worn in period and
what will look, to modern viewers, like what the characters might
have worn. Because most viewers are not going to tell their personal,
modern taste to shut up.
But then they get us, complaining because the costumes go beyond This
Is What It Was Like and try to help tell the story!
Anyway as for the Butterick pattern, I think the answer to "what era
is it?" might be, "whatever year you want it to be." The jackets look
kind of 1940s/50s boudoir to me.
Lauren
Lauren M. Walker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On May 3, 2007, at 3:51 PM, Ruth Anne Baumgartner wrote:
But the biggest issue, to my mind, is what the costume communicates
to the audience, because that's the ultimate question for any
aspect of a theatrical production.
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