The progression of madness

[costumiere]

Ugh. So I promise you something, and then I take two weeks to do it. Sorry. There's a nasty tendency for life to get in the way of all my costuming activities, particularly journaling about it.

So. I said in the last post that the hat, while made primarily to be a stand-alone accessory, was going to pay a role in a larger ensemble. And here

Comments

[rocza]

as a reflection of this, his working-class characters wear splendidly colored and stongly patterned clothing, which is typical of the period, as industrialization and the use of new aniline dyes had made these things attainable for the working class. Take note of the striped shirts and trousers his laborers wear, the windowpane-plaid jackets and patterned waistcoasts. Victorian aesthetics were frequently incredibly gaudy, and this was reflected in the working class as much as elsewhere; and it was also reflected in Tenniel's drawings of the Mad HatterThat's fascinating! I never realized these historical bits and bobbles, and it's interesting to learn, and see how you incorporated it into your costume

[costumiere]

You're welcome. :) I really love the historical context of clothing; it's one of the reasons I can't bring myself to call fashion "shallow." There are certainly things about the industry that are shallow, but what fashion reflects about a culture and an era isn't shallow at all.

We don't often get a lot of focus on working-class people in period films, and that ended up being one of the things I really enjoyed about Ritchie's Holmes, especially since it's such a "boy" film. It's one of the few times a film has given me an opportunity to ponder men's clothing of the era extensively, and particularly the differences based on class.

[rocza]

*nod*
I can see that in retrospect for the film, which adds an additional layer of interesting. You make some really good points about the context of clothing - actually, to the point that I'm sort of surprised I haven't encountered it in some of the more aesthetic areas of cultural studies and medicine I poke in, because I can see the potential for really rich discourse here. There's a lot of discussion about things as varied as makeup, body fat, and even flowers and fruit arrangements in historical discussions of medicine and the body, but it seems like clothing is equally important - and often overlooked.