Characters & Their Costumes

Page from Unit 3 Sketchbook
Algernon, Act Two: Short Suit & Slippers

Page from Unit 3 Sketchbook
Cecily, Act Two: Dress & Ballet Pumps

Which Characters?

I have realised that to design in depth for the costumes in "The Importance of Being Earnest" it is better to choose some characters, or some scenes, for this very short project. The time limitation means that to use my time efficiently I believe it would be better to focus on a couple of characters in depth, their change from scene to scene, and really outline their identity within my costume designs.
Male and female character is definitely the direction I would like to go in, otherwise the effectiveness of my all female cast would be lost in translation and the production is not actually being performed. It will also help me illustrate the current androgyny in womenswear.
Personally the characters of Algernon and Cecily, are my favourite couple in the play and there is the opportunity to design with contrast. Algernon the elaborate and mischievous bachelor and Cecily the young innocent country girl. In terms of colour and shape, designing for these two characters would be most enjoyable I think, and allow me to create something the most visually interesting for the audience to enjoy. Lady Bracknell is another character that I would enjoy to design for, however I think the time limitation is too short and therefore would affect in a bad way the quality of my designs for Algernon and Cecily. Consequently, I will only do this couple (A & C ) in depth. However, I could possibly create an entire cast sketch in the set, perhaps the last scene, which would allow me to create a fuller context in which my costume designs would be seen and the chance to design simplistically the other characters.

Approach to Design Brief

As "The Importance of Being Earnest" is set in 'the present' I think it would take the design in an interesting direction if I take this literally and base my designs on today's society.
To keep it relevant to the themes and storyline of the play I plan to create costumes with modern silhouettes but pattern the fabrics using a contemporary twist on Victorian style. Contrasting these two elements will, I believe, create a visually engaging design aesthetic and something new for this classic text.
A further development I made whilst researching for the project was to take inspiration for the modern silhouettes only from British designers, thus keeping with the English setting and style of Wilde's play.
In addition, I will approach the theme of colour by using the associations with colours to decipher the appropriate one for each character. Then taking this inspiration and applying it to the fabric patterns.
I'm excited about beginning the design process and feel enthusiastic about where my project is heading.

"Anna Karenina" Costume Exhibition

Ham House and Garden
Photography by: Marina Bussandri 

Held at Ham House and Garden in Richmond, Anna Karenina", the costumes in this exhibit were viewed in The Long Gallery, a room which is rich with context, history and beauty.
the location for some of the filming of "Anna Karenina". Long galleries were common in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, commonly used to stroll up & down as a form of exercise.

The Long Gallery, Ham House
Photography by: National Trust

The Long Gallery was used as a means to show of the Lauderdales' royal connections and lavish taste. The walls are covered in portraits, including the likes of: King Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and other members of the royal court. The shallow carved and gilt frames are mostly 'auricular' pattern, fashionable in the 17th century. There are large windows at both ends of the room, which allow in daylight but there is little artificial light as this would damage the paintings. Unfortunately this affected the costume exhibition as I found details were lost with the lack of light.
At first, I found the costumes did not look like much in comparison to how bold and luxurious they appear in the film. However the longer and closer I looked at each garment the more impressed I became.
The costume designer for the film, Jacqueline Durran, is famed for her period costumes in both "Pride and Prejudice" and "Atonement". For the stylised adaptation of Tolstoy's epic love story the director, Joe Wright, gave Durran a brief stating that she was to honour the simple silhouette shape reminiscent of a classic stage setting. Consequently Durran designed the costumes which inhabited both the opulent fashion of the late 19th Century as well as taking more simplistic inspiration from the 1950s era.
Anna's undergarments were the piece in the exhibit which caught my attention. Aesthetically they are beautiful to look at. Made historically accurately meant that they were supposedly very uncomfortable to wear. Originally the undergarments were to be created in reds, pinks and yellows however the director made the decision to colour only the corset and leave the rest uncoloured to visually make more of an impact.

19th Century Undergarments
Worn by Anna Karenina, (Keira Knightley)
Photography by: Marina Bussandri

 The other garments worn by the character of Anna Karenina on display included a black hat with mesh veil and a ball gown. The dress is from the intense ballroom scene. Fifteen meters of fabric were used, and for the actress to be able to endure the long filming hours for the scene, the costume designer had to make sure the material was light weight. An expression of shock spread across my face when I first saw the garment due to the tiny size of the dress, and consequently very petite torso and frame of the actress. Black which had a dark purple sheen as the light moved is how I would describe the fabric. Expensive was the last thing it looked, and the clasps were not hidden well. However one must remember that this is the state of a garment after having been used for filming. Personally I found this dress underwhelming but it worked well on camera and stayed true to the detail in Tolstoy's writing.

Velvet Dress, with close ups of woven trim and sleeve

Worn by Dolly (Kelly MacDonald)

Photography by: Marina Bussandri

The pale green coloured velvet dress worn by the character Dolly in the proposal scene was designed with a minimal trim which was a nice contrast to Anna's opulent and elaborate style. The soft gentle colour resembles and embodies the character of Dolly. I found the detail on the puff sleeve incredibly beautiful as both the fabric and the concaves created light and shadows which were visually very engaging.
Male garments were also displayed. The grey military uniform which Jude Law wears consistently throughout the film was influenced by the Russian uniforms at the end of 19th Century. The simple wool design exudes importance and runs with the idea that the most important person in the room is the least ostentatious.
The Blue military suit worn by the character of Vronsky was made using individually casted buttons.
Knowing the extent the production went to in order to seem authentic and the importance of the 'realness' of a button makes the whole film and exhibition more impressive. Practically was questioned with these costumes as well. Joe Wright wanted this costume to be even tighter on Aaron Taylor-Johnson, however Durran stepped in to say that this was impossible as the actor would have to ride a horse.

Blue Military Suit

Worn by Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson)

Photography by: Marina Bussandri

The accessories displayed included: pillbox hat, military hat and a pair of gloves. Whether they were sourced or created remains a mystery but it is clear that they now most definitely look worn.
Overall i had an incredibly enjoyable day. Ham House and Garden is an incredibly beautiful, extravagant place to visit. I found the exhibition smaller than I had imagined, including only five or six garments, but they were of the principal characters and therefore had much richness and depth to them. An incredibly enlightening and useful experience!

Unit 3, Part One Costume Ideas

These were my costume ideas for the Alpha character for our unit 3, part one video. The structure and geometric are alpha with the earth tones of the omega character. I think they work well but would have to think about fabrics that would allow for movement; possibly a jersey fabric.

The Semiotics of Theatre: Costume Chapter Notes

The Semiotics of Theatre: The Theatrical Code as a System
(p. 83-92)
Erika Fisher-Lichte

The notes from this book have been unbelievebaly informative and usefull for both of my Unit 2 Word & Image documents as well as my general understanding of costume and identity, which I have no doubts will inform my practice.

Notes:
> Constitutes an actor's external appearance.
> Costume is more predominant that make-up or hair, as it is easier to perceive in purely quantitative terms.
> As a rule, the audience's first identification of a character is based on the costume.
> This relationship already appears to be developed and ordained by the social meaning of clothing: functions of theatrical costume largely coincide with the functions of which clothing can fulfill in social life.
> James Laver comes to the conclusion, "it would not be far off the mark to say that all clothes for special occasions and stylized clothes of any kind are, in effect, theatrical costume. We are at least on safe ground in suggesting that all clothes are in origin theatrical costumes."
> Clothing in particular functions as one such means of identifying oneself, Erving Goffman refers to it in this sense as an "Identity document". For clothing informs others relatively quickly and completely about the role it's wearer wishes to play. In this way it gives rise to certain expectations with regard to the future behaviour.
> Units of costume are: material, colour and form. they collaborate to give different meanings, which all relate to the identity of the person and/or character.
> Clothing is capable of communicating: age, gender, religion, distinction between social classes, status, occupation, culture/ ethnicity, climate region, historical function.
> In life these clothes have a practicality connectes (eg. labourer's uniform and it's movement and comfort). However it loses this quality when it becomes a theatrical costume (as it denotes the clothing of character x).
> Costume in theatre has no practical function to serve.
> Costume can also draw on mythological codes, govern the appearance of: Gods, angels, demons, figures from fables as well as animals.
> Use of costume as a means of specific characterization was developed above all in western theatre int his century.
> Costume is also capable of performing general symbolic function which are not exclusively related to character, but rather to the entire performance; underline the meaning of a character (eg. protagonists wear bright colours and supporting/ secondary characters wear 'colourless' muddy tones).
> A distinction has to be made between movements which are imposed by the costume and those which are called for by the costume. (eg. Skin tight dress and heels do not permit long strides; whalebone corset& farthingale permit only measured upright movements).
> Such disparencies are frequently employed as a medium for characterizing the figure, thus the character's identity emerges.
> However external appearances only provide the outlienof an identity, sketching the contours of a role that in concrete form arouses expectations which have to be met. This concretization is performed by the actor through his actions. The linguistic and paralinguistic, mimic, gestural and proxemic signs he produces fill the role outlined by the external appearance with concrete. Concluding the character's identity only takes shape in the course of a process.
> A character's identity cannot be fully constituted solely by external appearance.