Tzain

I could give you the short version - and my interpretation of them (which might not be identical to other interpretations of it). You get little about seams and a lot about possible historical sources, so read only if you’re really interested… Slavegirl: This costume is clever. When the dancers stands still, they look dressed. When moving, they look a lot more naked, due to the flimsiness of the rope skirt. Yet the costumes are rich, expensive. In Roman times “slave“ didn’t automatically imply rags and dirt. A wealthy man would pride himself in dressing up his slaves well. Slaves could be the most beloved girlfriend, the family’s accountant, the head masters of schools, the best chef in town, the most sought after doctor, the superstar gladiator. It’s very ambiguous. 

The splendor of Hannibal and Elissa’s court in Carthage is therefore reflected in the splendor of their slave’s clothes. Their costumes aren’t true historical costumes; rather how the Victorians might have envisioned it. The bodice is corseted, of alternating red and green panels, and with the seams covered with gold trims. The skirt is made of ropes (not too unlike Bronze Age Egtvedt Girl), attached to a golden belt. The decorations on the bodice - the gold collar and the “crotch tiara” are strangely sexual, covering the erotic zones of the girls. It’s probably a nod to how the at times random ballets in the Parisian operas was meant to be eye candy for the wealthy male patrons. In addition they wear flesh coloured tights, velvet panties, gold tiaras, gold wristbands, and pointe shoes. Elissa: Elissa, Queen of Carthage, one of the lead roles in the mock opera “Hannibal”. This is the role Christine suddenly has to fill in for, and she becomes a singing sensation overnight. Again the red, green and gold shades are kept, and again the design shows how Victorians would envision a historical style rather than showing actual historical style. But I’ve always believed the design for the Queen of Carthage is more than a nod to the snake goddesses of the ancient Minoan culture of Crete. It’s one of the few historical sources showing long skirts, aprons, “corseted” bodices with bare chests, pleats and X like decorations on the hem. But they’ve gotten another Greek inspiration in terms of choice of fabrics - that of the Byzantine empire. The more gold and the bolder colours, the better. 

The main costume here consists of a bell shaped skirt with an apron, glittering tabs, waterfall backdrapes and a corseted bodice. There’s also a tiara and additional jewelry. Carlotta’s version of the skirt is usually a bit bigger than Christines, and Christine’s has another waistline so the skirt can be put over the Slavegirl costume and still look like a pointed bodice. Dressing gown: A dressing gown is a garment worn when dressing up in the morning or changing at night, covering the underwear. This one is as such more Edwardian than Victorian in style. Victorian dressing gowns were usually bolder and heavier, more colourful, more patterns, while Edwardian dressing gowns were lighter and often paler and with lace.

Christine Daaé’s dressing gown is made of patterned silk. It has a fairly fitted bodice and a trained skirt, and elbow long sleeves with engageants (lace hanging down from the elbows). There is a similar flounce around the neck opening and around the skirt opening and train. When closed it still shows a bit of the collar of the Slavegirl costume underneath, but the gold wristbands and the tiara is removed. The pointe shoes is also removed, showing white pumps with a Baroque (curved) heel instead. Il Muto Maid / Serafimo: Here Christine plays a man who’s dressed up as a woman (pants role). She wears a frilly shirt and a bell shaped, knee length skirt. Underneath are tight-fitting breeches. The shirt is ambiguous, functioning both as a man’s frilly shirt and a woman’s fluffy blouse. The frilly cap on her head is called a mob cap. She also wears pumps with a buckle and a Baroque heel. The colours are kept in fresh pastels, ochre, mint, pink, turquoise, green, opposite delicate white lace. 

Rooftop:When Christine goes from playing Serafimo to playing The Countess, replacing Carlotta in the lead role, she is dressed up in a grand costume. This is not meant to be the same costume Carlotta wears - Carlotta’s shows a corset, underskirt and dressing gown - what’s worn when dressing up. Christine plays the countess a bit later in the opera, when she’s fully dressed. Her costume is a hybrid of a Robe de Cour (stiff and grand court dress) and a Robe a la Francaise (softer dress, still used by the nobility and still very posh, but differently constructed). 

The dress is usually made with a separate bodice and skirt, attached together. The fabrics used to be a rich silk or brocade of sorts with a sequined lace fabric on top, creating an amazing glitter and depth. Today they often go for metallic brocades instead. All kinds of colours has been seen, from almost white to pale blue to mint to lilac to pink. The front has a false underskirt front with horizontal lace decorations, and rich decorations at the front bodice as well. As most of Christine’s costumes this one too got engageant sleeves. At the rooftop she wears a mint or blue hooded cloak - the shade makes it looks like Christine is bathed in moonlight - while she during the applause wears a big, “powdered” wig. Star Princess: Christine’s Masquerade costume has a hint of her ballet past - she wears a soft pink tutu and a corseted, sleeveless bodice. The costume is accented by blue and silver, and sprinkled with hundreds of silver stars. The bodice goes from pink in the lower half to blue/purple in the upper half, like a sunrise or a sunset. The same kind of shading can be seen in the skirt, being pink in the outer layers and blue in the inner layers. The bodice is decorated with hundreds of beads in curved and pointed shapes echoing that of the tabs. Christine also wears a crescent moon tiara, and blue and silver boots. Silks, tulles and a lot of beads is used for this costume, and it’s allegoric. 

Wishing dress (2nd Managers): This dress is the first (and only) personal Victorian dress we see Christine wear in the whole show. She wears it when at the Manager’s office when learning the Phantom wants her to play the lead in his opera, and she wears it to the graveyard when visiting her father’s grave. This dress is made of the same blue stripy/floral silk all over the world (apart from some very few versions), and is maybe the most iconic female costume in POTO. 

The dress is typical of the 1870s, with a defined bustle, heavy drapes, historical references and lots of trims. It mimics the late 17th century/ early 18th century Mantua, especially in the waterfall backdrapes and the engageant sleeves. Up until the early 20th century bright blue was the colour of young girls (think Alice in Wonderland), and this dress certainly has a more innocent look than Carlotta’s military decorated red dress. It’s decorated with flowers in the bodice, often echoing the flower pattern of the fabric. In the Mausoleum scene she wears an additional hooded cloak. As such more late Rococo/Early Regency in style, as cloaks for bustle dresses (dolman) were tailored to enhance the bustle. But the style is still fitting for the moody theme of the graveyard. I believe designer Maria Bjørnson glanced at the photo photo of Meryl Streep in “The French Lieutenant’s Wife” when designing the cloak. The costume design reminds a lot of that photo. AmintaI often refer to this as “Flamenco meets Rococo”. It has several Rococo elements, including the bell silhouette, the Pierrot jacket/bodice closing over a stomacher, and the engageant sleeves and the little apron. At the same time the defined black flounces and the rose in the hair reminds of the classic flamenco dresses. 

The costume is made of a salmon silk with embroidery (in the oldest version actual lace was used). The bodice is tight fitting, and there’s elbow length sleeves with engageants. The bodice has an A opening, revealing the stomacher (or decorated corset front) underneath. In the neck opening there is rich fringes, or alternately a fringed scarf. The skirt also has a split, revealing a rich lace underskirt. The actual skirt is somewhere between ankle and knee length, built up by several layers of flounces. Wedding dressThis is the dress the Phantom has prepared for Christine. Hence, it’s not really her personal dress. It has previously been seen on the Mirror Bride. It has a hourglass shaped bodice with elbow length sleeves with flounces. The bodice has a basque (kinda pleated belt around the hips), ending in a big bow in the back. The actual bodice is made of a ribbed cream/metallic fabric, and has either fan decorations or glittering appliqués - or both - over the bust. The skirt has sloaping rows of lace decorations, and a waterfall backdrape in the back. The colours are kept in cream, silver and white. There are no obvious sources for this dress - which I love - but some plausible ones can be seen here. 

honestly even if they were going to go in that direction they shouldve gone all the way and used the performer's hair + cat ear headbands, the hats look terrible

i dont actually mind most of the makeup actually? except the lack of noses

i actually do like teazer specifically

There a loads of pics of them with tails on! And on all fours! So the characters are probably ACTUAL CATS but I'm still not taking that as 100%. For instance it could still be a human cult wearing tails because that's their thing.

The tails are odd looking things, they seem to be foam based and almost look like the kind of prosthetics you'd glue on to a person being a creature for a movie. Although clearly not because that'd be nuts for an outdoor production in the middle of summer even if the UK wasn't in the middle of unprecedented apocalyptic heat right now.

They do look like some kind of mass produced thing though: Not necessarily a moulding though but certainly off some kind of production line assembly, even though it'll certainly be on made of very human costume fabricators!

I feel like the most likely thing is the tails will have a fabric covering on the finished costumes, and that covering might be attached to the main suit. A small cursed part of my brain it making me think that they might have printed spandex suits with integrated tail covers, which I simultaneously love and hate the idea of :D

But I have no idea, they could equally be covered in plush fabric of any length from velour to Tugger mane equivalent.

& the pose used looks almost identical to the Cats 2019 poster

So the costumes for regents park's Cats production have been revealed, and, uh,

I have some thoughts. This is gonna be very disjointed.

and i've got things to say.

soooooooo they look,,,, eh. that's it. imo, not exceptional.. not amazing. but meh. firstly. the ears? oh gosh- okay they're not HORRENDOUS, but they just look like cheap cat ears you'd get on a head band. like they all vary in different shapes, like they're either wearing caps with ears or like i mentioned head bands. and displaying different types of cat ears aren't bad, but omg.. the way they look. is not it imo. LIKE ONE OF THE CATS EARS IS SUPER LONG- TO THE POINT IT LOOKS LIKE DOG EARS, and one of them is rounded so much and floppy- it just looks cheap. firstly. why are they nearly all the same colours? 3 cats are the same colour, 4 cats are the same colour etc etc you get the idea. like you CAN'T even tell who is who (and that is worrying)

changing cat colours isn't a bad thing necessarily, like non-replica will do that and then they look fine. but dude in this one... they all look so similar. like i legit don't know who is who! because they all have the same varying colours etc.

like even in non-replica productions, they still make it so not every cat is LITERALLY the SAME BUT DIFFERENT SHADE OF COLOURRRRRR. and rum tum tugger doesn't have his iconic mane!!!! two of them, who i think are tantomile and coricopat (this is my personal nit pick) have a pattern on their outfits look like giraffe spots. i can't even tell who is skimbleshanks, or EVEN WHO IS MISTOFELEES!! you can see clearly everyone's hair. which imo, really takes away from the "wow these are cats" to the point where it's like "wow.. these are people dressed up as cats" like i feel a bad saying this, but it just looks like they're wearing cheap halloween costumes for a party? (especially the make-up, there's no cat noses or cat lip. which further strengenths the "wow these are just.. people." (like ik there'll be slinking around, and being all touchy like a cat. which is great! love that! but like,,, i just don't know anymore)

"the kittens will love it..!"