Over the past two years of university, I have learned a lot both in and out of the classroom. Over the past two years, I have also watched a lot of movies, videos, and television shows. I have noticed that while watching movies, I spend more time analyzing what the actors or characters are wearing, rather than what they are saying or doing. Through the years, my perceptions of what the characters are wearing has changed. At first, it was a secondary aspect to the person's personality and role in the story plot. As time passed, I started relating what I was learning to the media I was exposed to. Classes such as Material Culture (HECOL 201) and Historic Costume (HECOL 268) gave me a more well-rounded perspective to the motives behind why certain characters were portrayed in certain ways. I began to realize that costumes were, at times, more important than what the character did. Costumes have silent roles that give the viewers insight into who the person is before anything is said.
I love that costumes can be used as icons. For example, think of the Disney princess Snow White. You are probably picturing her in the dress below. Or how about Judy Garland's gingham dress in the Wizard of Oz? Perhaps you always picture Sheldon Cooper in a particular graphic tee or Howard Wolowitz in colourful skinny jeans. Costumes make a character memorable in the viewers' minds. The association becomes inseparable.
The course about Material Culture showed me new ways to consider how the garments and accessories the person was wearing related to their context. It showed me how effect costumes can be beyond simply the stereotypical black representing evil and white representing purity. For example, certain details such as jewelry help the viewer identify status, age, and gender in a single glance. Historic Costume was another influential course in my movie-watching. In time-travelling movies such as
Back to the Future, I found myself looking at how costume designers chose to portray certain decades and how they gave cues to what the time period was without it being explicitly stated. It also gave me a more informed perspective on historical accuracy and how the costume designers could have manipulated the costumes to make them appear more aesthetically pleasing for the viewers in modern times. To use one story as an example, the costumes in the movie
A Room With a View were interpreted in very different ways when comparing the 1985 film with its 2006 counterpart. While both movies portray Edwardian fashion, the 1985 film used silhouettes that included strong shoulders, similar to power suits worn at the time that included shoulder pads, whereas the 2006 film decided to forego the shoulder pads, in keeping with the modern aesthetic.
I also began to apply the idea of costume to everyday life. People use their apparel to portray themselves in a certain way. Costumes are also ideal as disguises. As with films, people use their garments to camouflage themselves within society. Because my degree in university is centered around clothing and textiles, I find this exploration between character and costume very interesting. If you would like to learn more about costume design for films, a very important person to learn about would be Edith Head. You can learn more about her
here. A classmate of mine is also interested in historic costume and I read a great article about a garment called the '
justacorps' that she wrote. You can check her blog out
here to find out more.
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