My cartoon for this weekend’s Guardian books.

I love the hats when hats should be worn

(If your homoerotic tension is happening outdoors, HATS. Actually Thomas doesn’t have a hat on in this scene, but I’m sure it’s near at hand. Unlike the ladies, men didn’t have hats pinned to their hair, so they could take them on and off briefly with greater ease.)

I love the hair being down vs. up for storytelling rather than whenever you want the actresses to have Beachy Waves.

Hair is up because daytime!

Hair is down because sleep and/or brother-fucking time!

I love how incredibly period everything looks, to the point where even more artistic details often have historical precedent

(Party scene from the movie- look at Edith’s dress)

(Portrait of Ava Lister, Baroness Ribbesdale, by Boldini, c. 1905)

most of my dress history friends agree that, if we were told the film costumes were extant garments from museum collections, we’d readily believe it

Masquerade in Films

The Masque of the Red Death (1964) dir. Roger Corman

Romeo and Juliet (1968) dir. Franco Zeffirelli

 Labyrinth (1986) dir. Jim Henson

Batman Returns (1992) dir. Tim Burton

The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) dir. Randall Wallace

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir. Stanley Kubrick

Van Helsing (2004) dir. Stephen Sommers

A Cinderella Story (2004) dir. Mark Rosman

The Phantom of the Opera (2004) dir. Joel Schumacher