www.yahoo.com/entertainment: In movies and TV, costumes help sell the character. Many of us grew up dreaming of wearing the gorgeous princess gowns, period dresses, or superhero suits we saw onscreen. Sometimes, however, the most beautiful outfit is also the most painful — and occasionally, an actor's costume can cause lasting injuries.
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I think it is really interesting that so many women have to just accept all of this pain for their art, so it fits the period accurately, but my question is, after all of this time and all the inventions and modern technology in this modern day, why has not a single person tried to create a period-accurate costume that would not cause harm to the actor. In any other job or profession, if they are getting injured from their profession, that would be considered unethical and illegal. Yet when actors get hurt, it seems to be just part of the job, and that women are supposed to just accept it because “beauty is pain”. I think this is very strange because some of the things the society sees as beauty are the calm and comfortable parts of nature, so why should female beauty be expected to be filled with pain and injury?
I am glad that it is becoming more mainstream to talk about how some of women's fashion can actually be quite unsafe. Personally I hate the expression “beauty is pain” because it perpetuates the idea that women have to be uncomfortable to look “pretty”. There is now a decent amount of research on how much damage corsets do to a body. The fact that corsets can permanently damage your body if you wear them too often just makes it so much more crazy that that was a fashion standard for women for a long time. I’ve worn a corset once or twice and each time had to take it off after a short amount of time because I felt like I was going to puke. One thing that I truly hate is when designers do not think about the person who will be wearing/using a thing and only think of the design. The fact that Danika Gerner had to have surgery and got dropped by her agency because of that dress, especially after she told the wardrobe department that it was hurting her, infuriates me. People do not give a shit about how a woman feels in an outfit, only that she looks good.
Corsets are very much demonized, I think to an extent that is not adding anything to the conversation about women's oppression in the past. I believe that if someone is uncomfortable in a corset, then that the corset has been put on wrong or has been put on for the wrong reasons or is the wrong corset for what they're doing. If you are going to be working a long day you should not be wearing an extremely tight, extremely fancy corset. Historically those were worn for fancy dinner parties. Historically a working woman would have worn a more comfortable corset that is not for such a rigid shape and that is what working actresses who are wearing corsets for long shoot days should be wearing. It should not be uncomfortable; it should hold up the weight of your skirts instead of your shoulders holding up the weight of your skirts. The other thing is oftentimes people think that corsets are how you get a really defined hourglass shape and that's not true, historically women used a lot of padding in their chest and in their hips to achieve that shape alongside a corset. I could rant about this forever but these experiences are the result of bad costuming not that corsets are evil. The other experiences I cannot speak to but sound horrific and like the industry needs to get better about treating workers and actors in ways that are not harmful especially with how they are costumed.
First, I thought it was so interesting that Emma Stone thinks that her ability to hold her breath for longer periods of time underwater is from her time in the corset for “The Favourite”. You’d never really think that would happen but it does make sense because of breath control. Anyway, I love the Catwoman suit in Batman Returns and that will forever be one of the most notable costumes in DC history to me and I’m simultaneously surprised and not at the fact this costume was terrible to act in. It’s also insane that they hadn’t initially designed a way for Michelle to go to the bathroom in the suit. I LOVE this iteration of the Cinderella costume so much. This is one of the prettiest dresses ever worn in a live disney movie. I love the dress but I am not surprised it was that constricting considering how TINY Lily James’s waist was in this movie.
This article is wild. I can’t believe that this is an issue even to this day. I feel like with all of our years of experience and modern technology, there are ways to make costumes that don’t torture actors. At the end of the day, actors are athletes. In sports, the goal is always comfort and ability/range of motion. Why is this not the same standard held in the entertainment industry? Men In Black 3 is very recent, and the fact that an actress had to wear a full metal costume in heels blows my mind. We should use technology to create better costume options. There surely were lighter options that would look similar. Additionally, I believe that nobody should be permanently injured from their job. The actress was left with nerve damage and a herniated disk. As a result, she needed surgery which left her $30,000 in debt. As an industry we need to become more accessible.
Its kind of crazy to me how these are all relatively recent productions, and all movies where post production is always an option. The most jarring to me out of this list was how Rachel brosnahan had a corset related long term injury from marvelous ms maisel. Which caused her to not really be able to take deep breaths anymore in the long term, especially because she was also directed to speak very fast and wear a corset, this feels kind of unnecessary considering how there is no clear corset in any of the costumes, it is worn under her dresses. Another one that stood out to me was Michelle Pfeiffer cat woman costume, which originally didn't have a method for her to use the bathroom in, on top of that the addition that the mask would choke her is so inhumane, considering the amount of movement she had to undergo for the role.
I think its such an interesting conversation regarding actors comfort in costume. On one hand it is always important to ensure that no one is put in a situation they are wildly uncomfortable in, on the other hand, being put in costume is part of an actors job. I think its so interesting how many of the costumes listed were period costumes. Corsets are of course quite uncomfortable in todays standard. The thing that really gets me is that women have been living in these supposedly torturous clothing for centuries. I also think its important to bring up Elizabeth Banks comment that she loved the clothing, helped design it, and still called it torturous. You know what they say, beauty is pain. I remember watching an interview with Jim Carrey where he said for the Grinch he had to practice real techniques on withstanding torture in order to be productive. Which to me sounds like it might be a little far. Its such a weird line.
This article title immediately reminded me of corsets in the past, which were made out of whale bones. I remember reading about the threat of wearing these corsets, with just one breath that was too forceful causing a corset to break. Because of the whale bone material, these breaks could be so sharp as to cut the wearer and even kill them. Although modern corsets are no longer this dangerous, the article touches on the fact that there must still be safety precautions taken when wearing them. Because corsets were originally meant to slowly thin out the wearer’s waist over time, actors that wear them for long periods of time need to be aware of the permanent impacts this piece of clothing can have on their internal organs and outer physique. The distress that these actresses experienced seem to be a result of not being fully informed by the production team of these impacts.
This article is so upsetting to me. I know it is not as straightforward as these actors just saying no to the costumes and I think that is what I am most upset about. A dress I thought about before opening this was the blue cinderella dress and of course it showed up in this article. I thought about that dress specifically because it is absolutely beautiful but the waist is so so so small and it looked heavy. I understand there is a certain goal to be achieved but I do not think that should be prioritized over the comfort of a performer. I also don’t understand why we are putting people in costumes like these with all the technology. There has to be ways that we can achieve the look we want without all the discomfort. I imagine there are ways to edit, or use different angles, or such to get the same look without everything else.
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