It's a 1920s May!

Somehow this month has morphed into some kind of crazy 1920s season! "The Great Gatsby" has, of course, sparked a lot of this. But for me personally there's one other reason!
A theatre company I help with the wardrobe department for is doing a production of Sandy Wilson's "The Boy Friend". It's a show that has been performed on the West End and Broadway - the Original Broadway Cast included Julie Andrews in the main role of Polly Browne!

The main focus on this production has been making it as accurate as possible. The acting style, dancing, singing, everything has been made as 1920s style as possible to match with the comical libretto and score.

The section of the production that has interested me most is the costume, of course. Stockings, 1920s knickers (as can be seen in the photo above), and the flat line of the body. The pretty drop-waist dresses, and pulling cloche hats down to the eyebrows- it'll be fun next week fixing up these things in the wardrobe department! However, this show has made me interested in something else - the hair an makeup!

Using descriptions of how it was done in a book about the show, plus using photos from theVintageThimble.tumblr.com, I had a go at it for myself!

 I did some quick photo editing to make it look like an old black and white photo, but with my short hair, I think I did okay!

It was pretty experimental, but these are roughly the steps I took:
1. use the foundation like normal, but cover the edges of the lips, or even all the lips.
2. around the entire eye, use black eyeliner. I didn't use any on the waterline though, and I think liquid eyeliner would work better than the pencil I used.
3. Put lipstick on. I only did the central area of my lips, and as I have a thin upper lip I extended above. (I don't know much about makeup and I'm sure there's a real term for that). I used a dark purple-red lipstick f that.
4. I doubt this is historically accurate, but I thought it looked nice with quite bright red lipgloss applied over the lipstick - probably that teenage brain of mine!
5. added light blusher on the cheeks.
6. mascara - in the book I read, they'd had to drip wax onto their eyelashes for the West End production in 1954!

I think it's much more historically accurate to use a sort of dark red lipstick, and to use eyeshadow and eyebrow pencil. However as I said, I was being experimental! 

I hope this quick tutorial/random post is okay - I didn't feel up to editing my next review. I feel like learning about makeup through history could be especially useful for me to complete costumes!

Marie Antoinette 2006

My Costume Drama of the Month in February was Marie Antoinette (2006) so I'm going to write a review to put towards Old-Fashioned Charm's Period Drama Challenge. So, here goes!

Marie Antoinette, in costuming terms, is one of my favourite films, and the first thing to make me interested in 18th century fashion. It is probably a well known fact by now that Milena Canonero used a colour palette for the costumes based on French macaroons, and I think that this worked well.

Many reviews have said the storyline was lacking. It was based on a biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, and they couldn't fit all of Marie Antoinette's life in France into one film! I did find that the storyline wasn't what was keeping me watching, although I did find it enjoyable.
The aspect of this film that really kept me interested, and makes me able to watch it time and time again, is that it is a treat for the eyes. Costumes aside, beautiful cinematography combined with the rich setting of the Palace of Versailles really made this film come to life for me.
My favourite scene in the film was the 'I Want Candy' scene. The shots of shoes were interesting to look at, and the scene was colourful and vibrant. The food did make me feel hungry though!
On the subject of the 'I Want Candy' scene, the music choice in the film certainly was interesting. I found the soundtrack (separately from the film) to be great to listen to, ranging pretty and sad piano pieces to 80s punk rock. With the film, I find the soundtrack worked well, but not spectacularly well; the points to be taken seriously had suitable music, and the opening scene worked (along with the above mentioned 'I Want Candy' scene) in terms of music choices. The rest of the music editing didn't excite me, but I did enjoy it.
Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette felt like an interesting choice, but a good one. She did justice to the role, and she looked right at different points. At the beginning, I really felt like I was looking at someone my age (although the straightened hair might have helped that illusion....), and by the end makeup and her acting skills made her look like a worn out woman, through mourning and watching her friends leave. Jason Schwartzman did an excellent performance as Louis XVI. The rest of the cast did lovely performances, my favourite being Mary Nighy as the Princesse de Lamballe.
This film is rated PG-13 (12A in the UK). I would recommend it to people who like pretty scenes of Versailles and fabulous costumes.

This has been my 4th review for the Period Drama Challenge! I hope you have enjoyed it! In a few days I will review "Mr Selfridge", see you then!

Other Reviews: Les Miserables (2012); The Young Victoria (2008); The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Accidental Hiatus

So I accidentally got too busy to post... whoops! I started study leave a week ago and revision is taking up al my time at the moment. It'll get less busy pretty quickly now, but there's another problem: I spilt hot chocolate on my laptop.
I had a few reviews typed up on there, plus a LOT of my films were stored on my iTunes. I have them all stored on iCloud but I have no actual access to them without that particular laptop.... I guess I'll have to find other ways to watch some, and find some other films to complete the Period Drama Challenge (which I'm ridiculously behind on, whoops!)
This summer, I'll be completing a bodice I started making which is part of a costume for Miranda from "The Tempest". It's based a little on Tudor fashion but I decided to make it quite modern. 
More importantly this summer, I'm going to be making a dress for my sister's 18th birthday party, which is going to be a masquerade. I'm thinking about possibly making a replica of the Star Princess costume in Phantom of the Opera. 

Katie Hall in the Star Princess costume from Phantom of the Opera

Anyway, I decided to make this post to let people know  - I am still here! Exams have made me more busy than I expected to be, but I'll be back properly this time next week, when I'll be preparing for MCM Expo and a week of being a wardrobe assistant for an amateur theatre company's productions of the musicals "The Boy Friend" and "Love Story"! 
(If you live in the UK I would recommend seeing both, particularly "The Boy Friend" for its 1920s costumes! Information can be found here!)