I never thought much about costuming as an important aspect of the movie – as in why characters wore the things they wore. I figured the designer just thought them pretty. It wasn’t until recently that I watched either the making of Eclipse or maybe it was a special feature on the DVD that I realized just how much thought goes into every detail of clothing.
This is the gist of what the costume designer of Eclipse explained: she wanted to show the Cullens as getting darker in their preparation for fighting the other vampires. In the first scene were we see them all together, they wear more neutrals and earth tones. Then we see them gradually get darker costumes until they’re basically all wearing black in the final battle scene.
That being said, costumes play an intricate part of not only movies but books as well. Think about all the books you read – chances are, there are vivid descriptions of at least one piece of clothing in the book. To see these pieces come alive on screen just seals the deal of how important what our favorite characters wear really is.
2007 Best Costume Design Winner – Marie Antoinette, loosely based on Antonia Fraser’s biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey
I don’t know about any of you, but Marie Antoinette is one of my favorite historical figures out there and I sincerely have this movie to thank for it. While it’s not the best portrayal of the doomed monarch, it’s beautifully done to show not only the lavishness of pre-revolutionary France but of the slow descent of Marie Antoinette. But I could go on for days about this movie and how great it is. What we’re discussing are the costumes.
The costumes in this movie are like none other. They’re lavish and beautiful, outlandish at times. While everyone in the movie is dressed beautifully, it’s Marie Antoinette’s costumes that win the prize. Her clothing starts out as tasteful, young and sweet, before it moves into some of her more crazy styles, such as this:
Towards the end though, she is dressed more simply again, with darker colors that show the seriousness of her situation as well as her development from a flighty teenager to the queen we can all admire and who has accepted her fate.
2010 Best Costume Design Winner – Alice in Wonderland, based on the book by Lewis Carroll
Y’all, this is my FAVORITE movie. Okay, not FAVORITE favorite, but I love it oh so much. One of the things I love most about it is the elaborate costumes and am pretty sure I bounced all over my seat when it won best costume design 2 years ago. I’ve always loved this book, even as a little girl. We had taped the Disney version when it came on the Wonderful World of Disney (who remembers this? hands?) and I swear I watched it almost as much as I have this version.
I’m not really sure if the costuming shows Alice’s growth as a character or further characterizes any of the other characters, but they sure are fun! They are, in fact, characters of their own; from the stuffy clothing worn at the beginning to the outlandish outfits found throughout Wonderland (or Underland as it’s called in this version). The costumes seem to come straight out of Lewis Carroll’s crazy mind… or Tim Burton’s.
I’m interested to see what movies you think had amazing costumes. Whether they were Oscar nominees or just films you enjoyed, what movies do you feel had the best costumes?
The nominees for Best Costume Design are:
Who do you think will win? Vote and check back on Sunday to see if your vote was a winner!
The Grown-Up YA 
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