Firstly, a note on how gorgeous the costumes of this year, and last year were. From Pride & Prejudice’s wonderfully earthy, realistic Georgian clothing, to Reese’s sassy dresses in Walk the Line, to the creative, weird clothes in The New World, 2005 really did raise the bar in costume design.
And this year! Well, the range and excellence is clear again: Marie-Antoinette, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, etc.
I heart clothes. :D
The nominees:
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen
How I did: 80%. Predicted all of the latter four correctly, but I saw The Prestige wrongly. Not bad work, though. It's because I read Vogue, you see. ;)
Now, onto comments. I’ve seen all but Curse of the Golden Flower, which I shall therefore be making comments about it from images I’ve seen.
Curse of the Golden Flower (Chung Mang Yee)
Well, from what I’ve seen, the costumes in this film look absolutely stunning. Detailed, grandiose, decorative, pretty… yeah. Nice work. B+.
The Devil Wears Prada (Patricia Field)
Astounding, astounding, contemporary costume design!! I was over the moon when this got nominated in Costume, because it’s usually all the medieval, epic stuff that gets in, but whoo!!! The dressing of Meryl Streep, the transformation of Anne Hathaway, the subtlety of Stanley Tucci’s clothing – all are areas to be commended. And the labels, oh, the labels! From an interview, I know that Emily Blunt nicked one of the belts she wore on this show, and quite frankly, I’m astonished at her self-control. If it were me, I would have stolen every single item of beautiful clothing. A marvel. A.
Dreamgirls (Sharen Davis)
The thing that stood about for me most about the costumes in Dreamgirls was the exquisite colour palettes. They perfectly complemented the cinematography and set décor, making the actors look every bit as glamorous as the egos of the characters they were playing. Furthermore Sharon Davis’s costumes manage to travel through a number of decades, as well as revealing traits about the characters. This all amounts to what must have been a heavy task, but it was well done, and the costumes simply are a treat. A-.
Marie Antoinette (Milena Canonero)
Oooh la la. Canonero does a great job of capturing the immense extravagance of the costumes, relating to the extravagance that Marie lived in. And, whilst aspects of Coppola’s felt, to me, to be quite artificial (the incongruous soundtrack, for one), the costumes, from the furs to the muslins, felt 100% authentic. Love the vibrant colours. A-.
The Queen
Not much to say here. Subtle work, but definitely the lesser of the category. Probably only got nominated because of the overall product of the film. B.
So.
Who will win: Marie-Antoinette (thought it’s very, VERY close)
Who deserves to win: The Devil Wears Prada
Who deserved to get nominated: Pan’s Labyrinth (see a pattern?)
And this year! Well, the range and excellence is clear again: Marie-Antoinette, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, etc.
I heart clothes. :D
The nominees:
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen
How I did: 80%. Predicted all of the latter four correctly, but I saw The Prestige wrongly. Not bad work, though. It's because I read Vogue, you see. ;)
Now, onto comments. I’ve seen all but Curse of the Golden Flower, which I shall therefore be making comments about it from images I’ve seen.
Curse of the Golden Flower (Chung Mang Yee)
Well, from what I’ve seen, the costumes in this film look absolutely stunning. Detailed, grandiose, decorative, pretty… yeah. Nice work. B+.
The Devil Wears Prada (Patricia Field)
Astounding, astounding, contemporary costume design!! I was over the moon when this got nominated in Costume, because it’s usually all the medieval, epic stuff that gets in, but whoo!!! The dressing of Meryl Streep, the transformation of Anne Hathaway, the subtlety of Stanley Tucci’s clothing – all are areas to be commended. And the labels, oh, the labels! From an interview, I know that Emily Blunt nicked one of the belts she wore on this show, and quite frankly, I’m astonished at her self-control. If it were me, I would have stolen every single item of beautiful clothing. A marvel. A.
Dreamgirls (Sharen Davis)
The thing that stood about for me most about the costumes in Dreamgirls was the exquisite colour palettes. They perfectly complemented the cinematography and set décor, making the actors look every bit as glamorous as the egos of the characters they were playing. Furthermore Sharon Davis’s costumes manage to travel through a number of decades, as well as revealing traits about the characters. This all amounts to what must have been a heavy task, but it was well done, and the costumes simply are a treat. A-.
Marie Antoinette (Milena Canonero)
Oooh la la. Canonero does a great job of capturing the immense extravagance of the costumes, relating to the extravagance that Marie lived in. And, whilst aspects of Coppola’s felt, to me, to be quite artificial (the incongruous soundtrack, for one), the costumes, from the furs to the muslins, felt 100% authentic. Love the vibrant colours. A-.
The Queen
Not much to say here. Subtle work, but definitely the lesser of the category. Probably only got nominated because of the overall product of the film. B.
So.
Who will win: Marie-Antoinette (thought it’s very, VERY close)
Who deserves to win: The Devil Wears Prada
Who deserved to get nominated: Pan’s Labyrinth (see a pattern?)
Tags: costume, clothes, fashion, Oscars, Prada.
And naughty me, I nearly forgot to take part in this tag! Six Weird Things About Me. I've done this before, but I can certainly think up lots more to bore you with!
Here are the rules:
Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog.
OK, I'm skipping the tagging thing, because I always miss people out when it comes to tagging, whereas others get annoyed about being tagged. So I'm leaving it open - anyone who wants to can do this! :)
Weird facts, galore-
1. I've recently taken to saying two of the chavviest phrases around, "buff" and "well jokes." Tell me this a month again and I'd laugh in your face, because they're just so unclassy and such an insult to the English language. Yet. I'm saying them. I suck, I know.
2. I live somewhere in London, and the boroughs of London that I have been to are: Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden,Croydon, Ealing, Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamletsand, of course, the City of Westminster. So I've been to most of London, basically.
3. I'm a tomboy/girly girl hybrid. As you've seen from this post, I adore clothes. I also love watching football. I collect tonnes upon tonnes of earrings and necklaces. But I don't like wearing skirts. Odd, no?
5. I always randomly say "banana" and "Zummer."
6. Zummer!
