Démodé

historical costume projects & resources

Award Nominees Time!

kendra

Oscar nominations were announced today.  The costume design nominees are:

  • Bright Star
  • Coco Before Chanel
  • The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  • Nine
  • The Young Victoria

My thoughts:  aieeee, a embarrassment of riches!  Bright Star really did have amazing costumes — not your standard “hey we rented some muslin dresses for this!”  Granted, the main character designed and made her own clothing (and clothing/sewing play a beautiful role in the movie), so there’s a reason why.  Coco Before Chanel — another good contender.  Less flashy than some other options, because of course Chanel herself was all about the pared down look.  Costume was also used to great effect in this film, again because Chanel herself was a designer.  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — hard to vote either way.  The costumes were perfect for the film (which I highly recommend), but they didn’t excite me as much as Bright Star, Coco, or The Young Victoria.  Nine — haven’t seen it, getting lukewarm reviews, will put that one off, so I can’t comment; costumes are by Colleen Atwood, which is promising. The Young Victoria — definitely the flashiest and most “Costume Movie” of all of them.  I was excited to see someone make 1830s really well, using lots of bright colors and interesting fabrics.  In the past, I always heard costumers say, “1830s! Yuck!”  Now all I hear is, “The Young Victoria had gorgeous costumes!”  And it’s Sandy Powell – what’s not to like?

Also, the nominees are out for the Costume Designers Guild awards.  It’s a long list, here are the period/fantasy categories:

Period Film:

  • Coco Before Chanel
  • Julie & Julia
  • Nine
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • The Young Victoria

Fantasy film:

  • Avatar
  • The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  • Star Trek

Period/fantasy TV series:

  • Mad Men
  • True Blood
  • The Tudors

You can read the full list of nominees on their site.

6 thoughts on “Award Nominees Time!”

  1. I just saw Young Victoria for the second time this weekend (I was a lucky one who was in the UK when it was released a year ago) and I noticed a, what I consider, brilliant costume moment, where Victoria is have a good hard cry. Instead of crumbling the shoulders and waists like we do. Emily blunt had to bend at the waist and rest her head on her dressing table. It’s little moments like that, where you are reminded that she has a busk in and a corset on that you’re given a moment of truth. Little moments of costume brilliance in film….

  2. Yes, “The Tudors” definitely qualifies in the “Period fantasy TV series” category…
    And even I loved the “Young Victoria” costumes, although I was most blown away by the men’s costuming

  4. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the web site for the film, http://www.theyoungvictoriamovie.com, and click on Costumes – there are a large number of Powell’s sketches each alongside stills of the completed garments in action, and Powell explains what she was aiming for with each costume. The illustrations are surprisingly vague, but the explanations are really interesting!

  5. Kendra you should see Nine! The costumes alone make the film wort seeing, Marion Cotillard and Penelope give great performance. Don’t listen to what the critics say it may not be GWTW, but it is has great performance and even greater costumes. By the way I miss your reviews of period films.

  6. Anthony – thanks for the recommendation! OKay, okay, I promise to watch Nine. At some point.

    And I know, I am WOEFULLY behind on my movie reviews. I just wrote myself a list of movies I’ve watched that I need to review, so stay tuned — soon!

Leave a Reply