The costume vault

As I suppose you are all aware, I've written extensively about the costumes for Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars Prequels in this blog. It seems only logical, this is, after all, a blog dedicated to Costume Design, and hers is pretty iconic and vast. You can find all my articles dedicated to her here . Unfortunately, it seems my thoughts and opinions on the matter have not been welcomed by some, as I've gotten a lot of messages violently asking me why I hate Padmé Amidala's costume design, and even, sometimes, going as far as to accuse me of hating the character itself. This has left me a bit worried, and I thought it was time for sharing some honest thoughts on the matter. EPISODE I: I'M NOT PARTICULARLY FOND OF THESE MOVIES I've certainly claimed this a lot. And it's true. It is a true statement not only for me but for a lot of people as well if the internet is to be believed. Still, somehow, some people have taken this claim to mean that as I do not like the mo...

Another year has come and gone and I am, once again, facing the difficult task of choosing the best of this past year. Fortunately, 2017 has been, overall, a pretty good year for costume design, which makes my job easier. A brief reminder needed: here I will not be looking at the quality of the movies themselves but at the quality of their costume design. Also, the list order is rather random. All of the designs mentioned below stand on their own and I don't think they can really be properly listed. And so, with that out of the way, I begin. I. MONSTROUS LOVE: Lady Macbeth . Designs by Holly Waddington Director William Oldroyd set himself to fail when he chose to adapt for his directorial debut the extremely harsh and complex novel  Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov's. And that would be all I would be saying about it except for the fact that he did not fail at all in this endeavor. Quite the contrary. Oldroyd delivered a bold and uncompromising movie ...

In the first part of my detailed analysis of the evolving design for the crown in BBC's The Hollow Crown ( here ), I covered the whole first season and the designs for Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. In this second part, therefore, I'll continue this analysis by covering the second and last season of this Shakespearean adaptation, which includes the plays of Henry VI Part I , Part II and Part III and Richard III . So, without further ado, let's dive in. 4. Henry VI The second season covers the infamous chain of events known as the Wars of the Roses and it begins with Henry's infant son all grown up. Shakespeare's work covers, throughout three plays (which are condensed to two in the show), the tumultuous civil unrest throughout Henry VI's reign and his eventual fall from grace. Henry, as portrayed by the Bard, is a meek young man that despises conflict and prefers to pray than to rule. He is this naive, childlike man who is so pure in his inno...