BLOG POST: Fashion In Film And TV
In the office we often talk about the TV shows, films or books that we have been reading recently or can’t wait to start. We also enjoy recommending each other different things to start watching or reading. From all the conversations that we’ve had about these topics, we’ve found out that we’ve watched a lot of the same things and enjoy the same kinds of genres. The topic of this week’s discussion is fashion in TV and film.
When I think of Killing Eve, Jodie Comer wearing the big, beautiful pink Tulle dress by Molly Goddard is the first thing that immediately comes to my mind. I remember first seeing the pictures and loving them because of how the photos showed her walking around and she’s wearing a beautiful and elegant outfit as if it’s the most normal thing.
Comer plays a Russian assassin called Villanelle and along with all the discussion about how amazing the show is, Comer’s fashion in the role is also the talk of the town. I have found that a lot of people have even taken the iconic Goddard dress and used it to create their own Villanelle Halloween costumes. I really love the outfits that she wears in the show because of cool they are and she has such a variety in what she chooses to wear.
Game of Thrones is quite possible one of the most talked about TV shows since it was first aired back in 2011. As we have been watching the 8th season, we often come into the office to talk about what has been happening in the episodes and what we would’ve liked to see. The show was developed from a series of books (A song of Ice and Fire) written by George R. R. Martin. I love this show because of all the unexpected things that happen and when I first watched the show, I was always on the edge of my seat. I have even already rewatched it a few times since it’s started because I love it that much! It’s incredible to be able to watch so many characters developing over the years.
One of the great things about the show is the fashion; you can see the development and changes in the stories of the characters in the show being subtly hinted at through the clothes. For example, Cersei at the very beginning of GOT used to dress in quite a feminine way, but after her troubles during the fifth season and having her hair cut extremely short, her fashion changed to one that was considerably more masculine. You can tell that the fashion in the show has definitely had an impact on some designer’s collections.
Some of my favourite aspects about the costume design from the show is the amount of details that are in the clothing when it comes to things like embroidery and I also loved seeing the garments that were a combination of a feminine silhouette mixed with masculine, more structured details too. The more structured garments are some of my favourite from the show.
Outlander is another historical show that Anjelica and Amy have both watched. The show was developed from a series of books by the author Diana Gabaldon and is set in 1743 and 1945. Each of the different seasons are inspired by the different book adaptations. As the show is set in two different periods of time, it’s important that the fashions of the two different times are portrayed correctly.
Even though I myself haven’t watched the show properly, Anjelica showed me a clip from one of the episodes in the first season where the main character Claire is travelling and she ends up spending some time with a group of women who are dyeing fabric. Anjelica told me about how plaid fabrics that were made for the show weren’t as bright as Plaid fabrics are today because in the 18th Century fabric could only be dyed with natural materials such as vegetables.
Forsythia, Honeysuckle and Horseradish would produce the colour green
Walnuts produce a rich brown
Ragwort and Saffron produce yellow
Madder would produce the colour red
and Indigo the colour blue
I read an interview with the costume designer for the show and found out that they started making garments a year before they started filming for the second season and they made about 10,000 garments which is incredible. I also found out that they didn’t use clothes that were from runways and edit them but that they had to do a lot of research about the clothing from the time and make absolutely everything themselves, including things like buttons and corsets and shoes. All of this was done to make sure that everything was authentic as possible.
