Why is costume designing important

The costume of a character alone can give you a hint about the period the film was set in the 50s, 60s, 90s, or s , the profession of the character lawyer, doctor, clown, gangster , the financial status of the character rich and exposed or poor and timid. We all remember the image of the costume designer in the Pixar smash hit The Incredibles. Yes some costume designers can be eccentric but they are an interracial part of the film production team.

Costume Design plays an essential but seemingly quiet role in making a movie memorable and making the characters awesome, whether the character was meant to blend into their environment or stand out from it. Costumes can be described as aids by which film makers tell their stories. Although costume designers play a crucial role in making characters realistic, they are less celebrated and recognized as actors and directors.

When the word costume is mentioned, what comes into most minds are Halloween outfits and people dressing to appear like someone else. Although this assumption is appropriate, it is only to an extent. The majority of costume designs in cinema is aimed at creating authentic and realistic people on the screen. Let's profile some great movies and see how costumes influenced their stories. As was mentioned earlier a costume design could be meant to place the character in a specific period of time.

The award winning and one of the highest selling movies of all time, Gone with the Wind , was set in the American civil war era of Scarlett O'Hara's costume reflected the conventional outfit of that time and accurately depicts her subsequent fall from grace.

Metaphorically, also, the way she attempted to design her outfit reflected the reconstruction era that was to come after the war. In the American epic and award winning movie by George Lucas, Stars Wars , attention is drawn quite quickly to the plot, character or special effects of the movie, but the costumes played as much role in the success of the blockbuster.

Princess Leila's costume design was able to transmit to viewers a blend of alienness and royalty, thereby interpreting that she was both from another world as well as of royal breed. The costumes of the other cast of the movie; The Generals, Robots, and soldiers were vivid enough to transmit to viewers their unusualness but not so much as to get them lost as to the meaning of the costume.

The problem of designing a costume for a present day movie is that when the movie is shot, edited and finally released, the costume would have been outdated. So the challenge is always to design a costume that is a little beyond the film time. In the Academy Award, rap movie on Eminem, 8 Mile , his costume, the simple hoodie was aimed at reflecting his status and ambition to make it on pure talent and on nothing ostentatious, while keeping viewers' attention on his face. There really isn't a costume design template for films.

Every film has its own style style, and the costume design is meant to compliment this style be it realism or ostentatious. Some costumes are meant to make characters stand out of their world while others are meant to blend in.

In Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie, the costumes of the other characters in the movie reflected the late s while Wonka's jacket was a hybrid of a later period, thereby visually portraying a character who is not only out of this world but also ahead of his time. The costume made him stand out. All major positions on a film set are represented by a union. The costume designers guild is a labor union of industry costume designers, assistant costume designers, and illustrators working in the film industry, streaming, television, commercials and other media.

Every year the costume designers guild awards its members for the best work of the year. Whether for costume design for theatre, film or television. Costume design jobs are hard to come by but it really is all about building relationships with established costume designers.

Offer the intern for them on their next gig. Work hard and network your but off. Many people entering the film business ask how much do costume designers make? The next question I hear is their costume design school? According to the Hollywood Reporter the top ten costumer design schools are:.

Bonnie and Clyde, the American crime biography film, is another movie where costumes were used to depict a standing out. Although the movie was set in the s, the criminal duos style, costume, and obsession with the media placed them in the s making them appear anti-establishment, much like the young people in the real world when the movie was made.

In the movie Django Unchained , Jamie Foxx's bright blue costume was intended to make him stand out from his surrounding, perhaps to highlight his status as a free man. In the American crime movie, The Godfather , the military costume design of Michael Corleone reflected his wish to stand out from the mafia, who were known to typically wear classy suits. But as the movie progresses, and his resolve broke, his costume design revealed his gradual switch to the mafia life.

Gangster and Mafia costuming reflects an ambition to fit in. Gangsters in most movies typically use costumes to try to fit into high society, but try as much as they may, it is always obvious they are only trying to play dress up and still stand out as mafia. Another example of dress up can be found in AMC Breaking Bad , where the high school chemistry teacher Walter White tries to appear like a gangster. But as the series progresses he eventually gets what he wants and becomes a gangster.

Also, as mentioned earlier, costumes give an insight into the nature or profession of the character wearing it. In the Stars Wars movie, Luke Skywalker's costume and aesthetics reflected his status as undergoing martial arts training, while Obi-Wan Kenobi is dressed as a monk or Knight because he is doing the teaching. Costumes also tell more about a person, the variety of shoes in the opening scenes of Strangers on a train could give the viewers a hint on who is wealthy and who is more of an everyday person.

The viewers can make several inferences just from the type or color of the different shoes. In the movie, Days of Summer , costume color was used to depict each of the two key characters.

The opening scene establishes the color pattern for each of the character, brown for Tom and blue for Summer. The color continuously shifts as the film progresses. When Summer enters Tom's world the color changes to brown. A great movie is one in which all the production elements come together to do a good job, this includes costuming.

If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole here are some essential costume design books for you to dive into. These designs were almost as memorable as the movies themselves. I believe you are expecting me. Welcome to miss Mojo and today we'll be counting down our picks for the top 10 best costume designs in movies. Before we begin, we publish new videos every day, so be sure to subscribe for more great content.

For this list. We're looking at the most influential costume designs throughout the decades that helped to make their films even more unforgettable. Bonus points were given for originality historical accuracy and good old fashioned razzle dazzle.

Number 10 The Great Gatsby city packed into automobiles and all weekend every weekend ended up at Gatsby's highlighting the decadence of the roaring 20s in the biggest way possible. Everything is over the top to mere Gatsby's ambition in this art deco soaked adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel.

And just like in a well planned party, no detail is lost in the costuming from the flamboyant to the subdued every bit of design works and drawing viewers into Gatsby's world kind of Takes a Breath Away doesn't. Although the film received mixed reviews overall, the look of the thing was overwhelmingly lauded by both critics and audiences.

And it was nominated for Best Costume Design from many different awards circles, including the Academy Awards , which one can't repeat the past. Number nine Titanic. According to designer Deborah Lind Scott, it took 50 people a full year to costume the entire cast. Accurate costumes in this dramatic period piece helped to draw audiences into the story of the doom ship and the star crossed lovers aboard. But it also told us subtle story underneath. Scott was able to use style and texture to bring out roses character using fiery reds hidden under heavy adorned blocks to depict the feisty spirit being buried under social traditions.

With so much attention to detail 20 years on the film has barely aged today. To make me account. Taking a swing in the completely opposite direction on the historical accuracy scale is this Liz Taylor classic. But despite falling short in the realism department, the costume designers were able to achieve the fabled outrageous splendor of the Egyptian Queen and her court, lavish oversaturated and unabashedly reveling in every hue Technicolor had to offer it wasn't just the Egyptian Queen that made a big scene.

With CGI slipping into almost every Hollywood film these days. We are likely never to see a costume production of this scale on screen again. As the ever decked out Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor broke a Guinness record at the time for most costume changes in a film changing 65 times into increasingly wild getups. I asked it if Julius Caesar I demanded of you. Number seven Amadeus gave me that longing and then made me mute. Okay, we admit that one could make a solid argument that some of the costumes here haven't aged well, between the plastic wigs polyester dresses and really poor lace jobs.

This one is starting to show it's where as an 80s job, it captured more than enough mozartean atmosphere to convince the Oscar committee to hand over a gold statue to costume designer Theodore peach tech. While the look isn't perfect, viewers love the cream puff hairdos, velvet slippers and tight bodices on top of that Amadeus set a high standard for costuming and period pieces and paved the way for future films.

That really does rock Mozart, but also beautiful waterfire three heads. Number six Star Wars franchise stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking nerf herder drawing inspiration from old comics, westerns, classic cinema and Japanese tales.

The look of Star Wars has been frequently imitated, but never duplicated. Somebody has to say my skins at the time of a new Hope's release in the late 70s. It went completely against the grain in almost every way, ropes fell helmets and tunics taking the place of traditional shiny spacesuits and overtly futuristic fashions.

In doing so George Lucas and team created something that was at once familiar and totally exotic, from Han Solo space cowboy trappings to Darth Vader's cape and Samurai inspired armor. To the sleek and medicine presence of the Empire. The echoes of Star Wars have rung through almost every sci fi endeavor since Everything is proceeding as I have.

Number five West Side Story. In this 20th century take on Romeo and Juliet. A lot of the work to highlight the two contrasting worlds is done through color and costuming.

While they stand out against the backdrop of their own world. They are practically drab when pinned against the vibrant Puerto Rican gang. The Sharks baited. At the heart of the story are the innocent Maria and Tony gamely and white and yellow upon first meeting, but in defeated gray and passionate red by the end, it's a little heavy handed, but it did wind designer Irene Sheriff and Oscar you all killed him.

And my brother, Henry, not with bullets and gods. Number four, The Lord of the Rings franchise. Skip to content Home Lifehacks What is the importance of costume? Ben Davis March 11, What is the importance of costume? Why is costume important in film? How do costumes affect a play? What is costume design in Theatre? What are the responsibilities of a costume designer in Theatre? What are the three main responsibilities of a costume designer? What are two job duties of a costume designer?

What are the seven objectives of costume design? What makes a good costume designer? What are the six different considerations for costume design? What are the types of costume? If a production is naturalistic in style, then costumes should be realistic and recreate everyday life.

However, a pantomime , which is far more theatrical, would feature grand and colourful costumes to support the overall style of the show. Three men stand on stage, wearing suits in the naturalistic style of the s during a performance of An Inspector Calls, The Novella Theatre.