Flashback Friday: Themed Parties

Here at the Studio we get all kinds of interesting calls, and some of our favorites are for theme parties.  A few months ago we costumed an 85th birthday party, in which all the birthday matron's grandchildren dressed as her at different stations in her life and acted out a skit for her.  We have done princess parties and superhero parties for kids as well, and as our Closet is slowly but surely making its way online, we hope to costume many more in the future.  Today's Flashback Friday is a focus on the last two theme parties we costumed, which, coincidentally, were for friends of mine and Marilyn's, respectively.

I am a HUGE fan of theme parties, as anyone who has seen my Facebook feed can attest.  Luckily I am also friends with many amazing and wonderful people who share my love for themes, as well as my passion for our Studio!  When my friend Carrie decided to theme her New Years' Eve party in the style of a 1920s speakeasy (complete with 20s jazz from a gramophone.... image on her computer, and giant black and white speakeasy background for pictures), I started texting out pictures of sequined headbands and slinky beaded dresses.   By the end, we had had something to do with costumes on half the party.


1920s New Years Eve

All us girls who were costumed entirely by the Studio... dresses and headdresses alike :)
Photo by: Zoe Jouannelle

Everyone who got their finishing touches at the studio... hats, ties and ascots!
Photo by: Zoe Jouannelle

Just for fun... all the girls!
Photo by: Mary Green

Then in February we got a call from Felicia, a friend of Marilyn's.  She is with the Annapolis Film Festival, and they threw a big Oscars viewing party this year, complete with live-action Oscar!  He was a big hit, and we now have an Oscar costume available in the Closet.  We often create "custom" costumes for rental, so our client can get an amazing custom costume for the cost of a rental, and we can then send out this super cool costume again and again!

Oscars Viewing 2013

Photo by: Felicia Barlow Clar

Photo by: Felicia Barlow Clar

The Academy and Costume Design

The Oscars are this weekend, and we've been hard at work putting together a few red carpet-worthy dresses and one brilliant gold Oscar costume for a party.

Trevor in Oscars glory... literally!

The costume design nominees this year are unsurprising: Anna Karenina (period), Les Miserables (period), Lincoln (period), Mirror Mirror (fantasy/period), and Snow White and the Huntsman (fantasy/period). This is not a commentary as to whether these nominations are deserving; having only seen one of these I can't judge (and I have heard wonderful things about the subtlety of the Lincoln design, for one.) This is a commentary on the clear bias and/or lack of understanding that goes into choosing in the first place.

Costume design can be about big, glitzy "wow" pieces, or accurate period research, but it is also about the interpretation of a world, and telling characters' stories through the way they choose to present themselves. Subtle color, fabric, and silhouette choices are all vital aspects of storytelling that often get overlooked. Sometimes a costume piece can be the very thing that allows an actor to fully embrace his or her character; the structure (or lack thereof) gives them a physical basis from which to do their work.

Simply because a film is set in the present does not mean an incredible amount of costume research and painstaking design work did not go into the character design. And while work does not necessarily constitute brilliance, brilliance can be subtle. And subtlety takes work and ingenuity that is not always recognized by the Academy. Gorgeous couture gowns are worthy of acclaim, but so are a fisherman's cap and a perfectly distressed yellow t-shirt, if it tells the right story.

Great films tell a story, and when all the technical elements come together the story comes live for the audience. Costumes can be memorable and iconic whether the costume piece is Cinderella's ball gown or Juno's orange and white striped shirt, a fact we hope the Academy realizes the next time this great honor comes around.

What do you think about this year's nominees? Do you have any favorite modern costume pieces?