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Friday, January 10, 2025
The Costume Designers Guild loves themselves some Witches
Blog - The Film Experience: PGA this, DGA that, SAG whatever. The most important guild in my heart is the Costume Designers Guild (CDG), formed by those great artists who clothe our movie stars and style the pictures we love so dearly.
There is so much thought and care that goes into costume designing! I am happy to see so many awards given to deserving designers. I think its great that they create different categories for different genres and types of film. It's hard to pick between a fantasy and horror costume design. You can't compare them very easily, aside from technical execution. I'm happy to see Nosferatu's costume design on this list. I saw it early December and it was great. I also thought the writer's comment about how award-giving bodies are 'allergic' to recognizing contemporary costume design unless they are given an entire category to focus on it. I suspect this may be because we live in the same era those costumes are from, and so our perception of contemporary costuming may be oversaturated. On the other hand, maybe we are more intensely critical of contemporary costuming, because we live around clothes like the ones we see in a contemporary piece, so we are more likely to notice if something is a little off. Yet, likewise, you'd think that heightened awareness would make a contemporary costume designer immune to error (within reason)!
Paul did a really incredible job designing Wicked. I was very impressed with his design so I really hope to see him win some awards in the future. There have been many articles on the blog site about Wicked and the costume design so it's been fascinating to read all about them I'm all about the designer's inspiration how they were constructed and specifically the materials that were used to assemble the costumes they were very creative and fascinating so Props to Paul Tazewell because his designs for Wicked the movie where iconic and I really look forward to seeing him win some awards in the future and I also look forward to seeing what other projects as well gets to work on in the future. I love the Wicked movie so much and I love the soundtrack so anything Wicked-related is fun and incredible to learn about and read about.
I never realized the Costume Designers Guild had awards, but I’m certainly glad they do - this article introduced me to some films that I hadn’t looked into before. I hadn’t seen the costumes of The Fall Guy, Gladiator II, Agatha All Along, etc., but the CDG certainly nominated some great costume designs for each category. It also prompted me to look back at some media I had seen to fully appreciate the intentionality behind the costume design - films and shows like Challengers, Wicked, Dune: Part Two, House of the Dragon, etc. I tend to agree with the author that The Penguin should have been nominated in Contemporary Television, and that multiple films are notably absent from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film category. I find it shocking, and even shameful, that Bridgerton utilized generative AI for its costuming (alongside other critical aspects of the show like scriptwriting and visual effects). It begs the question as to whether or not a costume designer can fully claim ownership, and how the AI’s sources themselves are aware and properly cited.
Since I became interested in musical theatre, I have kept up to date with news about costume design in recent screen and stage productions. I recognized the names of several costume designers in this article, including Paul Tazewell, Colleen Atwood, and Jenny Beaven. Of the productions listed, I have only seen Wicked, Dune Part Two, and Bridgerton, although I have heard from friends that Agatha All Along, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Shogun had amazing costumes. What I found interesting was the author’s mention that the costumes of Bridgerton were created with the assistance of AI. I did not know this, and I feel put off by this information. I am not a big fan of AI when it comes to my work and creative work in general, so this is something I will pay attention to in the future. I am hoping that generative AI will not be a commonly accepted tool when I begin designing professionally. It makes me uncomfortable and I feel that a certain level of integrity or genuineness is lost in the process.
4 comments:
There is so much thought and care that goes into costume designing! I am happy to see so many awards given to deserving designers. I think its great that they create different categories for different genres and types of film. It's hard to pick between a fantasy and horror costume design. You can't compare them very easily, aside from technical execution. I'm happy to see Nosferatu's costume design on this list. I saw it early December and it was great. I also thought the writer's comment about how award-giving bodies are 'allergic' to recognizing contemporary costume design unless they are given an entire category to focus on it. I suspect this may be because we live in the same era those costumes are from, and so our perception of contemporary costuming may be oversaturated. On the other hand, maybe we are more intensely critical of contemporary costuming, because we live around clothes like the ones we see in a contemporary piece, so we are more likely to notice if something is a little off. Yet, likewise, you'd think that heightened awareness would make a contemporary costume designer immune to error (within reason)!
Paul did a really incredible job designing Wicked. I was very impressed with his design so I really hope to see him win some awards in the future. There have been many articles on the blog site about Wicked and the costume design so it's been fascinating to read all about them I'm all about the designer's inspiration how they were constructed and specifically the materials that were used to assemble the costumes they were very creative and fascinating so Props to Paul Tazewell because his designs for Wicked the movie where iconic and I really look forward to seeing him win some awards in the future and I also look forward to seeing what other projects as well gets to work on in the future. I love the Wicked movie so much and I love the soundtrack so anything Wicked-related is fun and incredible to learn about and read about.
I never realized the Costume Designers Guild had awards, but I’m certainly glad they do - this article introduced me to some films that I hadn’t looked into before. I hadn’t seen the costumes of The Fall Guy, Gladiator II, Agatha All Along, etc., but the CDG certainly nominated some great costume designs for each category. It also prompted me to look back at some media I had seen to fully appreciate the intentionality behind the costume design - films and shows like Challengers, Wicked, Dune: Part Two, House of the Dragon, etc. I tend to agree with the author that The Penguin should have been nominated in Contemporary Television, and that multiple films are notably absent from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film category. I find it shocking, and even shameful, that Bridgerton utilized generative AI for its costuming (alongside other critical aspects of the show like scriptwriting and visual effects). It begs the question as to whether or not a costume designer can fully claim ownership, and how the AI’s sources themselves are aware and properly cited.
Since I became interested in musical theatre, I have kept up to date with news about costume design in recent screen and stage productions. I recognized the names of several costume designers in this article, including Paul Tazewell, Colleen Atwood, and Jenny Beaven. Of the productions listed, I have only seen Wicked, Dune Part Two, and Bridgerton, although I have heard from friends that Agatha All Along, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Shogun had amazing costumes. What I found interesting was the author’s mention that the costumes of Bridgerton were created with the assistance of AI. I did not know this, and I feel put off by this information. I am not a big fan of AI when it comes to my work and creative work in general, so this is something I will pay attention to in the future. I am hoping that generative AI will not be a commonly accepted tool when I begin designing professionally. It makes me uncomfortable and I feel that a certain level of integrity or genuineness is lost in the process.
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