Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Costume Design Research Task

Female Clothing

According to a reference on page 9 from the script 'A Memory of Lizzie', the play is centered around Massachusetts in the United States, and takes place around 1871 to 1872. In order to determine appropriate costumes for this play, we must research children's clothing from this particular time period. This section will focus on female clothing, and what different types of patterns, trends, layers and accessories were worn by them in the early 1870s. 

--------> To the left, is a cartoon image of three young girls from the play's set time period. This image is a great example of the patterns that were used on dresses back in the day, and what sort of embroidery was necessary. The girl towards the left is wearing a three-quarter length dress with ankle boots and an elegant hat. On the bottom layer of her dress, you can identify some flower type of design surrounding it. Below the flowers, there is a fine dotted line going around the width of the dress. As her back is facing towards the image, we have absolutely no clue as to what she is wearing at the front. The dress is full sleeved and it seems as though there are two distinctive layers to the dress; a top layer and a bottom layer. The dress slightly puffs out at the end, giving it a simplistic but elegant look. The hat appears to be a trilby and has a ribbon going around with loose ends of string coming out from the front. The girl in the middle is wearing a three quarter length dress as well, with a fashionable headband and pumps. The pattern of her dress is vertical stripes with a bit of a frill at the neckline. The stripes provide as a great illusion and is appealing to the eye. She is wearing a type of apron on her waist that may or may not be attached to the dress. The apron is bordered with a frilly lining and does not have great detail on it. Her shoes are simple with a bit of a heel and have two straps crossing over each other to look stylish. Her necklace is rather simple with two ropes forming a bow in the centre. The girl on the right is wearing a three-quarter length dress, with a headband and what appears to look like chelsea boots. At the bottom section of her dress, there is a zig-zag pattern around the dress. The dress is tight on the waist and flows/puffs outwards a lot to make the dress more aesthetically pleasing. The neckline of the dress is closed in by a huge bow. Her headband goes around her head, and there is a leaf pointing up. I have chosen this research item because it provides the viewer with three similar yet different styles of children female clothing with distinguishable patterns, styles, sizes, shoes, and accessories. Also, this particular item is very relevant towards the cast members and characters of the play, as there are several young female characters that go to a school and play in a playground. This research item will assist me while creating my thumbnail sketches, and my final sketches. 
Here, towards the right, is a real life image of a young girl from the year 1874. She is wearing a three-quarter length dress, a necklace, a headband, stockings, and flat shoes. The bottom layer of her dress is done in valances. This look was considered to be a trend and very stylish in the 1870s. There is some sort of belt at the girl's waist. She is wearing a necklace that has a single gem coming down at the front. She is wearing white stockings with ankle strap shoes. The headband that she is wearing to pull back her hair is known as an Alice band. I chose this research item because for starters, it is a real life image which helps the audience to visualize that actual clothing more realistically. Secondly, the photo is very clear and you can see the significant components of the dress and her accessories. And finally, this clothing for this gender and time period will assist me while creating my sketches, as most of the characters in the play are female and they are around this age range and status. 




Above is an image of petite girls from the 1870s. All of their costumes vary from one another but there are some elements that can be categorized as common. The tiny girl on the left is wearing a shirt, a skirt, a hairpiece, and shoes. The shirt is full sleeved and white. The details are done in blue. There are two blue stripes around both the wrists. There is also a very sophisticated collar with blue lining and a flap on both sides. There are buttons along the vertical line of the shirt (where buttons are normally kept in today's era as well), and the flap that the buttons are on form waves on both sides with blue lining. The bottom portion of the shirt is also detailed with a blue lining border. The skirt is "ocean" in colour and has three black stripes near the end of the skirt. The black stripe in the middle is very thick, whereas the other two stripes above and below it are much thinner. The skirt goes below her knees, and there is a gap between her wellington boots and the skirt. The wellington boots are ocean blue in colour and have small buttons at the back for support. Her hairpiece is very stylish and flows down long at the back. It is very hard to depict what the hairpiece exactly is, as it is indeed a cartoon. The second girl from the left is wearing a dress and boots, and is also holding a doll. Her dress is extremely sophisticated as there are many details and it makes her seem like she's from the upper class. The dress is tight on the waist and then flows outwards a bit below the waist. There is some sort of a belt as well. There are buttons at the back. The dress is beige and peach in colour and it has several flaps and layers, which adds to the sophisticated look. There is a prominent flap coming outwards from the bottom of the belt with frills, making it look like an upside-down shell. There are three or four other flap layers that look very identical because they all are bordered with frills and they all have the same squiggly pattern in the inner layer of the frill. The dress is three-quarters in length. Her boots are black and they have a bit of a heel, and go a few centimeters above her ankles. The girl in the middle is wearing a very uniquely styled dress with a hair clip and boots. The dress is three-quarters in length, falling below her knees. There is a clear belt seen along her waist and the middle of the dress. It is bordered in magenta and is embroidered with off-white and a khaki tone in the middle. The dress has two flaps on the each side that start off from the section between our neck and shoulder and end around the beginning of her thighs. The border of the flaps are embroidered with a layer of magenta frills and a layer of khaki frills. The inner section of the flaps are abstractly smeared with off-white and khaki dye. There is some sort of a collar on the dress, that goes a bit high on the neck and is magenta, off-white, and black. The bottom portion of the dress is bordered with long khaki and magenta frills which makes it look very appealing. The boots are leather black and have a bit of a heel. The second girl from the right is wearing a dress and shoes, as that is all we can see because her back is facing towards us in the image. The dress is three-quarters in length and falls below her knees. It is a monochromatic dress as the whole dress is just brown in colour. It is quite similar in pattern with the dress of the girl in the middle of the picture. The wrists are designed with frills, the bottom portion of the dress is designed with four layers of frills, and there are two clear flaps sticking outwards from the back, also bordered with frills. The shoes appear to like black leather boots, similar to the other girls in the image. Finally, the first girl on the right is wearing a dress, stockings, and shoes. The dress is three-quarters long and is grey in colour. There are three medium sized flaps coming out of the waist of the dress. The flaps are shaped like rectangles and are embroidered with black lining. The girls is wearing checkered black and white stockings with black leather boots. I chose this source because it had a lot of clear and visible details and it was rare because this picture actually used colours, which would give me a better understanding about the suitable colours for the time period. Also, the second girl on the left is holding a doll, and in the play, Rachel has a doll that is very dear to her, so this picture also gives me an idea of what dolls looked like in the 1870s. 

Overall, there are certain elements that are frequently used in the three pictures. The first element is the length, and all the dresses were three-quarters long. The second element was the frills, which was used on almost every single dress. The third element was the boots, which was frequently visible in image 1 and image 3. The fourth element was the puffing/flowing out of the dress below the waist, which was a trend back then. 

Sources: 
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