October Movie Preview

Go See Today:

The Help

Costume Designer: Sharen Davis (Ray, The Pursuit of Happiness)
Plot Summary: An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960's decides to write a book detailing the African American Maid's point of view on the White families they work for, and their hardships they go through on a day to day basis.

There's not much out there for period right now. September is usually a lull between Summer Blockbusters and Oscar Drama seasons. This movie has 60's dresses, though, and they look really good too.

October:

1911

Release Date: October 7
Costume Designer: unknown
Plot Summary: A historical drama based on the founding of the Republic of China when nationalist forces led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty.

I love me some Jackie Chan. He's so talented, and seeing him get to actually WORK and do some good acting is a real joy. Period costumes make it even more yummy :D

The Three Musketeers

Release Date: October 21
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud (The Bourne Identity, Perfume: the story of a Murderer)
Plot Summary: The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.

They've steampunked 17th century France, and it will be glorious! Don't expect accuracy from anyone, but plenty of eye candy!

In Time

Release Date: October 28
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice in Wonderland)
Plot Summary: In the future people stop aging at 25 and must work to buy themselves more time, but when a young man finds himself with more time than he can imagine he must run from the corrupt police force to save his life.

Contemporary clothing, but with Colleen Atwood doing them you know they'll be smashing all the same. Hopefully it will be released, I hear there's some pretty heavy litigation against letting this movie be seen at all.

The Rum Diary

Release Date: October 28
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Alice in Wonderland)
Plot Summary: American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1950s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the ex-patriots who live there.

Johnny Depp, Puerto Rico, and 50's fashion, what's not to like? Kinda odd that two Colleen Atwood movies are coming out against eachother, though.

Anonymous

Release Date: October 28
Costume Designer: Lisy Christl (John Rabe)
Plot Summary: A political thriller advancing the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare's plays; set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her.

It's going to be hard to decide which movie to see Halloween week! This one is splashy Elizabethan finery by a newcomer, but it looks like this may get her more work!

Save Your Pennies:

The Artist

Release Date: November 23
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood)
Plot Summary: Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

Next month is going to be a budget buster, but I had to go with the glam of silent film stars.

Coming in 6 Months:

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

Release Date: March 2012
Costume Designer: Marlene Stewart (Coyote Ugly, Terminator 2)
Plot Summary: Catching up with Hansel and Gretel 15 years after their incident involving a gingerbread house, the siblings have evolved into bounty hunters who hunt witches.

Not exactly 6 months, but there's not much scheduled for April yet. This one has a very interesting premise, and I'm excited to see if it will get fantasy clothes to go with its fantastic plot!

Watch for in a Year:

Anna Karenina

Release Date: None Yet
Costume Designer: Unknown
Plot Summary: Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna, looks for a better life, but finds only a more complicated one.

Keira Knightley and Jude Law in a Tolstoy classic? Count me in!

Video Update

I'm still working on tracking down pictures for the rest of my WorldCon/DragonCon costumes, so instead of those updates here's some fun clothing news:

40's Era Dress up for auction reveals a great history: it was made of a Nazi flag stolen for a Danish spy woman by her American soldier suitor. The story of the woman, and the dress, is amazing.

Snopes talks about the origins of sagging pants and what they mean culturally.

FIDM has a "20 years of acquisitions" exhibit up. If you can't go there's a catalog available on their website.

CanineHybrid on LiveJournal posted a video of the fursuiting panel from NanDesuKan. It's very interesting and informative!


And, speaking of panels, here's part 4 of my 5 part dyeing panel from DragonCon:

WorldCon and DragonCon Part 3

This next costume was worn at Renovation's Masquerade where I judge clerked and Sunday morning at DragonCon. It's also one of my current favorites :D

Dr. Barlow from Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan/Behemoth:



This costume was a lot of fun to figure out. Dr. Barlow is a scientist who creates genetic chimera animals, so I went with a lot of synthetic looking animal prints and funky colored fake furs. I also tried to have a steampunky color palate because the books are very steampunk in theme. The resulting mix is a very comfortable costume that I will probably be wearing quite a bit!



Next, here's part 3 of the Dyeing panel:





I'm going to start working on the tutorial videos I mention in part 5 very soon. I'm going to start with stove-top dying because I want to do that for one of my niece's pageant dresses. She's singing "You are my Sunshine" as her talent entry, so I'm making a dress with 6 tiers of ruffles that are dyed shades from yellow to dark orangey-red. Her mock-up fit perfectly, and she's very excited about her new dress!

From September 13, 2011

From September 13, 2011

From September 13, 2011

I also got her brothers' requests for Halloween costumes yesterday, and I'm super-excited about one of them, so more on that soon I hope!

WorldCon and DragonCon Part 2

My next costume was worn at both WorldCon and DragonCon. It's Zola from Girl Genius:



I've been working on this costume for a very long time--over two years! It was worth it, though. I made Phil Foglio do a double-take when I walked up to his booth, and I got a costume award from Kaja. They are such nice people, I was very glad to meet them and pick up the entire series in paper form (and they autographed all of them, what troopers!).

The boots are scrunched down in my picture, they're going on seven years old and stretch pleather apparently just doesn't hold up well! At WorldCon it started flaking and binding, so I really need to get a new pair, probably with a lower heel. I also need to add on the belt loops again, and I realized after wearing it for an hour that when I took in the sides of the pants I sewed the pockets shut accidentally, so I'm going to correct that soon :D



I've also got another video update! Here's part 2 of the Dyeing Panel:

WorldCon and DragonCon Winddown

I had a great time at both Renovation, the 2011 WorldCon in Reno and DragonCon, the Sci-Fi extravaganza con in Atlanta. Too bad next year I have to choose (they're on the same weekend in 2012) because doubling up was fun! Each con has something the other lacks, and I'd really like to be doing both when I can.

For the next few days I'm going to post pics of costumes, videos of panels, reports of stuff, and whatever else occurs to me that's related to the cons.

First, a costume picture! I'm working with the Kansas City in 2016 WorldCon bid, and for Renovation that meant planning a party with a '20s theme to go along with the gangster/superhero theme that they've got going (mostly we went gangster and ignored the superhero thing). I decided one night that I needed something to wear, so I threw together this in a few hours:



The pattern was based on the handkercheif-hem dress in Patterns of Fashion. Originally it was dagged with a handkercheif hem, but I didn't like how it looked so I ended up cutting the bottom dags off and adding the red sash and the organza tiers. The fabrics are a sequined lace I got in NYC when I was there for CostumeCon, a black Casa satin from JoAnn's for lining and binding, black Mirror Organza for the bottom ruffles, and red double-sided satin ribbon for the trim. I originally planned to wear my Mollie Johnsons with this, but my roommate convinced me to switch to my Red Canas at the last minute and I was very happy she did! I haven't gotten any good pics from the party, but I know they're out there so hopefully they'll get updated soon!



From DragonCon I have a video! I'm very thankful that Jennifer taped two of my panels, and the track director Lee Cox and my co-panelists Scott Merrill and Michael Cowart were gracious enough to give me permission to post this one on You-Tube so everyone could see! Here is part 1 of the Dyeing panel held on Monday:



I'll put up the next section tomorrow because they take forever to upload!



Also, in news looking forward I'm working on a series of dresses for my niece. Last night I sewed a mock up so I could send it out to get fitted on her:



I have this crazy fear that she's going to have a five-year-old fit over it being brown and yucky :( It could be hard to explain "mock up" to a five-year-old. Hopefully, though, it means she will get a dress that's much better fitted than last year's halloween costume, which was based on measurements and a pattern and ended up being a few years too big:



At least it's good for dressup for a while :D