Thursday, February 13, 2014
Clothes and Character: ‘American Hustle’
Video - NYTimes.com: Michael Wilkinson, who has designed elaborate costumes for films like “Man of Steel” and “Twilight,” said the bold choices of the ’70s made designing for “American Hustle” a lot of fun.
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4 comments:
Let me start this off by saying that the design for this whole production was FANTASTIC. Each character, like the designer said, is so attached to the clothes and that comes across so clear in the movie. Amy Adam's costumes showed her hand in the hustle by dressing in that flashy revealing way, while still being a strong female character. Each scene was just so well designed and I think that it deserves many awards for the amount of expression that went into each and every costume.
I love this video. I agree with Katie, I did enjoy the costume design for this movie, but I was distracted by Amy Adams' side boob action. This may sound silly, but I have talked to other people and my friends agree. However after watching this video I understand why the designer went in that direction. Her outfits were meant to express the type of freedom women were displaying in the 70s as well as the contradicting senses of boldness and vulnerability. A huge part of that movie was about the characters' vulnerabilities. As the designer explained, the more skin that is exposed, generally the more vulnerable a character comes across.
It's very cool to see how much goes into something that can seem as simple as clothing. The amount of research and detail that goes into getting the period and the characters right is pretty incredible. In well designed movies or shows, the clothing in a movie becomes almost a subconscious effect -- even without noticing specifically the details of a character's clothes, they give off the feeling that really matches the character himself. I do agree with Simone, though, in that however important the clothes may be, they shouldn't distract from the story.
He did a fantastic job with the costumes. It added so much to the world of this movie and really helped the characters. Amy Adams was able to use her costume for sex appeal. She would use her low cut dresses to aid her hustle. Jennifer Lawrence did the same. Her hustle was to keep Bale from leaving her from majority of the film and it worked. Frankly it would've worked on any man.
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