Taylor Bobbitt: Ernest, Wrap-up

Working back-stage for The Importance of Being Ernest was kind of uneventful. Ernest is only an 11 member cast, and only three of them has any costume changes, and those people are Jack, Gwendolyn, and Algernon. The maximum that I had to do during the show was use a lint roller on Lady Bracknell’s hem and pin and unpin a hair piece on Gwendolyn.

All in all, I found that it was before the show that was most eventful. I did makeup, did hair, helped with the straightening of costumes, and helped actors when they needed someone whom their lines can bounce off of as they practice. By the way, Dannia Tan should rap for a living, because she has the raw fast-moving language ability of Busta-Rhymes (and Ron Miller, holy crap). Hearing her practice her lines was kind of funny because she would say them so darn fast that you couldn’t comprehend anything she said until it registered about three seconds later. She has a future, I’m tellin’ ya.

That's me in the background helping and stuff

My nose is not big in person. For some reason, I look like that witch from Princess Bride. Look. I participated.

I helped Algernon with his makeup the first time that I came. I applied his eye-liner (which apparently he has trust issues with anything touching his eye except for contacts. That’s probably a hyperbole on his part, but nonetheless) and I curled his eyelashes with Gwendolyn’s lash curler. He said I did a wonderful job, and that I didn’t make him look like a drag queen. Well done, Taylor. Well done.

Dannia (aka, Busta Rhymes)

I also helped Gwendolyn with her blush and bronzer once upon a time during Ernest. I did pretty well, if I do say so myself, and I do say so myself because she said it, too.

I'm in the background helping someone else. By the way, my phone is broken and pictures are a no no. My photos are lost.

I helped the maid with doing all of her make up because she said, and I quote, I don’t know what to do. So, I did what I would normally do with everyday makeup, but with more highlighting and contouring. I did pretty well. She looked cute. Blush does such wonders, I tell ya’. I also did her hair. I twisted it back and did it up in a braided bun. She looked adorable.

In the last show (which was on Saturday) I helped Lady Bracknell with her hem. It was disgusting with dirt, so I brushed it off. By the way, that red and black lint thing not only works magic, but it has arrows on it to tell you which way the lint trapping grain goes so that you can actually trap it. Man, I love figuring out stuff through Dannia.

I have got to say, though. My favorite part of the entire thing was watching from the side. The first time that I had actually seen it from the side was on Wednesday, during the free show. I saw Act III when Lady Bracknell says, “Wheeeeeeeeeere is that BABY?!” I was cracking up on the side of the stage. UGH, she’s so funny.

Another thing that I did for some actors (it was actually only Dannia) was give them a shoulder massage to calm them down. It’s surprising how much she and the other actors were shaking from being on stage. This is funny because they hold their face, but they shake like crazy. Hmmmm. This surprises me.

All in all, it was less pressure and it was fun. I was able to be creative.

Costume Critique: Legally Blonde

Elle arriving at Harvard

Movie cover

More sleazy Warner

This past Friday, I decided to watch Legally Blonde with my roommate and her two friends. I, personally, love this movie because it's really funny. I also enjoy the really dated costuming and California girl references.

The woman responsible for the costume design of the movie (not the Broadway musical)is Sophie de Rakoff.  Sophie de Rakoff was born in June of 1969 in London. She is mostly known for Legally Blonde (2001), This Means War (2012), and Sweet Home Alabama (2002). She seems to work with Reese Witherspoon mostly, seeing in how Reese was in all three of these movies.

Sophie de Rakoff

I want to talk about three characters in Legally Blonde. These characters are Elle, Warner, and Paulette. Firstly, let's talk about Elle. Elle is one of my favorite chick flick characters of all time because she's a hilarious mixture what the United States sees as "California." She speaks with the stereotypical California valley girl accent, she's a "Gemini vegetarian," she's an animal rights activist, and she even looks like LA, bright and shiny. Rakoff did a great job of displaying stereotypes. When you look at how Elle dresses, she dresses in pink a lot. It's her "signature color." She stands out at Harvard. That's the point. She wears a lot of bold colors and fabrics while everyone else on the east coasts is wearing boring sweaters and colors.

Warner and his sleaziness

Paulette 

Next, I want to talk about Warner. Warner is the jerkiest jerk ever. He's shallow and spoiled and selfish. I feel that it was really important to dress him appropriately when he was introduced as a character. He's sleazy. Handsome, but sleazy. When he was introduced, he was wearing a tie-less suit. A shiny blazer with broad shoulders. His hair was slick, and he was chewing gum obnoxiously. Not to mention, he was wearing sunglasses at night. Who does that?! Ugh. I feel like it was a California twist on the boring east coast. Shiny, yet still grey and dull. It did a good job of showing that he had his fun with Elle in California, but that he's going back to the East Coast to go to Harvard.

Now, I want to talk about Paulette. Paulette is a funny character who is older, who dropped out of school, and does nails at a nail salon. I feel like her outfits reflect that really well.  She's wearing stylish 80's clothing (probably what she would have worn as a teenager in the 80's). She just looks like an aged teenager with glamour and love in her eyes. She's kind of like the 13 year old in 13 going on thirty, but a lot older. She's usually in pastel-like unthreatening colors as well. It reflects her passive personality well.

My favorite costumes would have to be Elle's. She's so bold and out there and it cracks me up to see what she wears. Her clothes are really dated and pink. It reflects her colorful and bubbly personality well. When her clothing changes (as an intern) it shows how she was trying to change temporarily. But then in the end, she brought pink to law.

Taylor's Lab Hours

Costume Tag

All three of Jack's outfits

       Once upon a time, I stayed in for two hours on Thursday to get to work on some Earnest things. Teehee. I feel like there wasn't a whole lot of things to do. I mainly started looking at 1880's and 1890's fashion for Lady Bracknell. Thanks to Ingrid, I finally got added to the Pinterest page. It took a while, but I did.

       After a while of getting inspired by Google, this Asian teacher guy happens about the costume shop, claiming that he's "Jack." He looked Jack-ish enough that I took his word for it. When I checked out his story, it turned out that it did in fact check out. He was Jack and he had an appointment. Haha.

       Ingrid and I took his measurements first. Ingrid used the measuring tape and I drew the numbers on the page. Apparently, he's a 38-32 pants size.

       After we took his measurements, I took him upstairs to the closet to try to find some Jack-type clothing to fit his costumial needs. Seeing as how I have neither dressed a dude nor ever dressed like one, I found this to be a bit of a challenge. Finding those three jackets was hard. I'm not quite acquainted with male attire. I just know what looks good from a woman's eye. I decided to apply that.

       In the end, we ended up with three coats, three vests, and a few pairs of pants to choose from.

       All of this was hyperbolous; I basically dressed Jack and planned Lady Bracknell. 

Taylor's lab hours!

So, this is what I did this week:

I sewed Mrs Correy's costume. Man, I have to say, I have spent so much time on Mrs. Correy's costume. I kind of want to move on with it. But at the same time, I'm so excited that I have been able to make such a cool costume!

I sewed this skirt together this past week. Let me tell you, that was a lot of layers. I had to put two lines of stitching in in order for it to all stay.
1 layer of waistband. 2-3 layers of red skirt top. 1 layer of green skirt. all together, it was sometimes 5 layers.

I the waistband, I put on Velcro. Putting on the Velcro was Sister Dooley's idea, but it was a good one. One thing that we as students in the costume shop understand is that we need to be able to reuse whatever we make. In order to make the skirt more reusable, I put Velcro. Everyone is different shapes and sizes. The Velcro allows for adjustment. I was especially thankful for it when I tried it on, haha.

Also, I (and others) found petticoats to make the skirt poof. Poof is awesome, and necessary. We also found the bussel. The bussel makes the butt big. Let me tell you, the costume all together looks awesome with the butt poof. I'm excited for Aliya to wear this.

I also made letters and accessories. I just need to stitch the black letters on the skirt (so they're removable for future wearers.)

This week, I plan to stitch those letters on and move on to statue drapery.

Taylor's lab hours

This past week I worked primarily on two different things:

Pattern pdf

Sister Dooley pinned it up!

One of them was a pattern that Sister Dooley needed taped together and traced for the statue unitards. Man, I had no idea how difficult that it was actually going to be. I thought that it was going to be a breeze, but patterns are confusing. But, hey! I got it done. I was able to trace Hera's unitard (for Sierra Phillips) which was tiiiiiinnnyyy!

Mrs Correy (Broadway)

What we have thus far.

The second thing that I did was work with Mrs Correy's costume. Honestly, this costume has taken forever and a day to put together thus far. I think that the reason for taking so darn long is that Mrs. Correy is an eccentric and creative character. On Broadway, her bussel is trays of treats! I've been super excited about her character. It is still in the making, and it's taking a while but the end result will be AWESOME! I'm super excited to make her accessories, which will be letters and such. I guess next I'm going to have to sew all of it together instead of just keeping it up with pins! Hopefully, that won't take very long. Also, Alpha and I were wanting to make her bussel huge!

Words to the wise: Don't do all of your lab hours at once. Your feet will hurt so bad that you won't want to walk for a while. 'Nuff said, yo!

Taylor Costume Critique: Selma

This weekend, I went to Laie Palms Cinema with my friends to watch Selma. Selma is a film set during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. The main character is Martin Luther King Jr. Other characters include Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, Malcolm X, and many other people who left a profound imprint on the Civil Rights movement. The film was awesome. Films are supposed to have a way to manipulate the emotions and feelings of their audience through music and other things. Selma did a fantastic job.    

Ruth E. Carter

Name the production and the costume designer.

Selma's costume designer was Ruth E. Carter.

Are the costumes the right for the movie, in period and in style?

As I paid attention to the costuming in the film, I noticed a few different things. To give some background facts, fashion is something that moves slowly. The rich are the first ones to move onto the next fashion while the poor are the last. I noticed that the middle class and powerful stayed more up to date on the fashion of the times. I also noticed that the lower class people were still in nineteen fifties style appropriate wear. Also, older people had older clothes. The old man in the movie was still wearing fifties-appropriate clothing. The young boys were up on the times. I couldn't find any pictures on Google to showcase this (seeing as how the movie just came out and all) but it was just something that I noticed. I really like how Carter was smart about that. It made the film more real, and while this isn't a conscious idea to everyone who watches films, it stood out to me.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King (wife)

Something that I also noticed was that Carter  took the nineteen sixties style clothing, and took a more modern touch to it. I especially noticed this with Corretta Scott King's (Martin's wife) dress in the opening scene. I noticed the stones and beads on the dress. This is something that is very popular and fashionable right now. To be as glamorous as possible. She was a beautiful character. Because of the style of costuming here, she is as beautiful now as she was then.

What costumes did I like best? What was done well?

Oprah Winfrey's character, Annie Lee Cooper, was always dressed beautifully. Her dress colors were bright. Her coat was always clean and pressed. Her earrings were always nice and sensible. Her hair was always on point. Her makeup was always tidy. I love Annie Lee Cooper. I feel as though her costuming was very sensible and symbolic. Annie Lee Cooper was and is a symbol, representing the fact that Blacks were the same as Whites in every way except skin color and treatment. She defied the stereotype and was always beautiful, and that's why she was my favorite costume. When she was denied the ability to register to vote, she still looked beautiful. When she was beaten on the bridge, she was still dressed beautifully.

Taylor Bobbitt: Costume Critique "Lord of the Rings"

       For this costume critique, I decided to watch Lord of the Rings, the 1st and 3rd movie. The reason that I chose the first and third movie is because the characters show the most contrast between the two. (1) The costume designers behind Lord of the Rings are Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor.

Young Frodo in the Shire

Young Frodo in the Shire

Frodo after the Journey in the Return of the King

       (3) I want to focus on the dramatic difference in costuming (with the same character) over time. In other words, as the characters changed over the course of the journey, the costuming did as well. I think that a prime example of this is with Frodo Baggins. When Gandalf came to the shire in the the fellowship of the Ring, Frodo was portrayed as a very happy and unbothered hobbit. When you look at his costuming, he's wearing white colors, very light and airy. His make up is bright and clean. The blush makes him look happy, healthy, and full of life. His hair is long and bountiful. It looks healthy as well. I think that Ngila and Richard were trying to portray a very young and carefree Frodo, one with youth and without responsibilities. I also think that they use this Frodo for direct contrast with the Frodo during or after the Journey, the Frodo that aged so much mentally and really got a little messed up in the head from that ring. Frodo at Mordor is almost an entirely different human being. Frodo went from being this loyal friend with control and morals, to a broken hobbit with nothing but an addiction to a ring's anger and power. Looking at his costuming, we can see the before and after effects of the ring and the journey to Mordor. His hair is shorter and dry (malnourished looking). His face is beaten, dirty, and dry. His chest is covered in dirt. His clothes are tattered and full of filth. His once white shirt is now brown. His eyes don't look nearly as blue and full of life and curiousity; they look full of misery and need. His costuming reflects this change amazingly with such great contrast. It's symbolic.

Gandalf the White

Gandalf the Grey

        Now, let's look at Gandalf. Gandalf the Grey (the Gandalf in the fellowship of the ring) is a Gandalf who is worn down with adventure. His clothes are simple and of an old, tattered, cottony fabric. His hair is greasy and wavy, as well as his beard. Later on, Gandalf goes through this resurrection-type thingy. He is reborn in a manner of speaking into Gandalf the White. The contrast is so great! His hair is perfectly straight and trim. His beard is perfectly white and trim. His cloak is simple and clean. His staff is white. All of these white things are symbolic of progression and strength and wisdom. I feel as though his character was developed well.
     (5) I would have to say that my favorite costume is Gandalf the White's costume . His costume is so clean cut and white. I can't help but see his character (as the White) as a dependable and clean character. He fights with what seems like more strength. His hair also stays perfect the whole time. It's quite awesome. I wish my hair did that.