Comments | eldawen345: India, its set in India!

eldawen345

India, its set in India!

Oct 29, 2007 13:14

So we are working on As You Like It in costume design class this term. And I've chosen to set my version of it in India...British colonial India circa 1810-20ish, to be specific. The Dukes and the girls are British (governor types, though Frederick has a military bent so that I can have him in khaki and make his court generally drab), Oliver and ( Read more... )

insanity, as you like it, overachievment, school

Comments 16

peronel October 30 2007, 02:53:21 UTC

Ohhh, if you want a darker colour for Frederick, you may want to look at the riflemen. Dark green. Not what I would call drab (think Sharpe - mrrreoww) but it would be a darker contrast.

I'm sorry if my earlier post was rather negative. It's just if you want "British governor types" and "upper class Indians" and sufficient stability for British women to be there and socialising, you're going to need to be quite careful which bit of India this is set in.

Peronel

eldawen345 October 30 2007, 08:34:31 UTC

Oh, no worries :) I totally understand that I've made some rather broad assumptions and generalizations in my post, and that I'm going to have to be careful about where I actually go with this. And I'm sure I'll have to discard some ideas as historically implausible. But for the sake of conveying the basic atmosphere I'm aiming at, they work for the time being. I'll replace terms and concepts with more accurate ones as I delve into this further.

edmndclotworthy October 30 2007, 11:36:36 UTC

Here are some portraits of the actual Governor Generals of India during the period you are looking at:

1806 to 1813
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto;

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eldawen345 October 30 2007, 17:26:44 UTC

You are amazing, thank you!

editrene October 30 2007, 14:33:39 UTC

You could also try the National Portrait Gallery. You can play around with the various options to get the best search results, but you can choose categories such as "military" and "uniforms" and "regency war heroes" (or somesuch).

editrene October 30 2007, 14:42:02 UTC

Also, we've got loads of books in our college library on military uniforms for various eras - they're kind of laid out like picture books (they look like this and there's a whole series of them). In fact, if you scroll down on that Amazon page you'll see them all lined up! This book looks like a good option, too.

I have no idea how accurate it is, costume- (or history-) wise, but it might be worth looking out for some of the Sharpe DVDs, as they're set in the same time period (there's loads of them - this just links to one of them).

newmoonstar November 1 2007, 00:49:18 UTC

Oh cool! That sounds like such awesome fun! You've gotta post pictures when you get further into this project!

Now, I'm no expert or anything, but British India has always been a pet interest of mine, and I can recommend a few books that I found really facsinating, focusing mostly on social life and customs (and they all have great pictures!)

What Life Was Like in the Jewel in the Crown from Time-Life books is a treasure trove of pictures and stories from the beginning of the East India Company till the 1900s, a good general overview, with lots of sidelights on more specialized things, like textiles, which could be useful. Illustrations are full-color, which is even better.

Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj by Marianne Fowler. This one is a little more specialized, it contains biographies of four wives of governor generals and viceroys of British India. The earliest bio is about 10 or 15 years after the era you're going for, but it gives an excellent feel for the millieu and a glimpse into the politics without being ( ... )