Concept to Character...

The importance of costume - "Costumes are never clothes. Unlike fashion, which is designed for our three dimensional world, costumes are designed to appear in two dimensions on screen, needing the enhancement of colour & texture, to 'read' a screen"
The fifth element is one of my favorite films. I think it is one of those films, that for me, I love because it was a big part of my childhood. I used to watch it with my sister over and over again and whenever I see it now it reminds me of those times. The costumes in The Fifth Element were designed by the GOD that is Jean Paul Gaultier. This man is one of the great fashion designers, a truly talented man with a vision like no other. These amazing costumes are a huge part of the film. I think people are always aware of the fact that if your film is set in the future you need to think about how different the world will look and production design is very important for this obviously. However it is equally important to think about what people will be wearing this far in the future. I think for Gaultier this job must have been a dream come true, you get the impression that there were no constraints in his designs, he was given free reign to create wonderful wacky costumes as noone knows what the human race will be wearing in the future. His costumes are interesting because he uses very modern materials like plastic, rubber and spandex. All of which are very flattering to a good figure, they provide a stylish silhouette. When these materials are caught on camera they look incredibly modern and futuristic which is exactly what makes them work so well in this movie. I think Jean Paul Galtier is interesting also because he seems to have an obsession with the female form.
All his costumes, even the ones not for films but music performances, such as 'the Madonna corset' (that has become so iconic a costume) really emphasises the female form, not in a crude way but with real love for shape. He creates shapes that accentuate the form of the body which I think is really effective and different. Milla Jovovich's costume to the left looks so simple and yet it works so perfectly for the scene. It also works with her body, as it looks like the bones of a ribcage. Galtiers designs for the airhostess are great too! Again, they have cut out bust sections to create a more modern, more sexy costume. The colours used makes the actors almost look edible, like candy. These two look like parma violets! (even the wigs are very modern. We now understand modern fashion to be clean cuts and defined features, silhouettes and clear forms. Galtier has done this perfectly while keeping things fun and quirky.) 

"Fashion is a visual art of enormous creativity. Fashion is about commerce, change, individuality, and standing out from the crowd. This makes it easy for the public to confuse actors with the characters they play..."

In the film version of My Fair Lady Cecil Beaton won an academy award for his costume designs and it's no surprise why...
Cecil Beaton started off as a photographer and was soon asked to join Vogue (which trust me, is an honor few people are lucky enough to receive) He took many fashion photographs and portraits, mainly of The Royals & celebrities. After the war Cecil designed costumes and sets for the stage on broadway then moved into film design.
His designs are very classic and utterly glamourous. We have come to think of black and white as the classic colours that ooze class and sophistication. Cecil Beaton has to create over 100 costumes from scratch for the Ascot Racecourse scene. A designer could easily make 100 costumes, but what makes this scene so  amazing is the amount of design that obviously went into each and every costume. The scene almost turns into a fashion show as you are shown each costume, all inkeeping with the same colour scheme. Its really mesmorising and what secured the academy award for best costume. 

Audrey Hepburn play's Eliza Doolittle in the film. She is such a graceful, fawn-like star that the combination of her and this amazing costume is just magic on screen. As she started off as a dancer she has this natural agility and grace on screen, she doesn't simply wear the costume, she and the costume come together to create the character. 

"So much to reveal in small cinematic moments..."

Here is Cecil Beaton taking a photograph of Audrey Hepburn during a costume tests.

The concept art for the Ascot Racecourse scene. The scene is to show the difference in class and how the upper half live, the costumes provide us,a s the audience with a lot of information on the social background of characters. Within seconds they can paint us a picture of each character before they have even uttered one line of dialogue. Making costume very important.
I would like to also mention the film Down With Love. Although not thought of as a 'great film' I have to say I really enjoyed it in the context of production design. The costumes and sets for the film are perfect for the mood and style Peyton Reed wanted for his pastiche of the Hollywood/Doris Day & Rock Hudson comedy's of the 60's. This 'candy coated' technicolour look of the period and fashions is so inviting and fun. in this film the production levels were given great priority by the director, so much of the budget must have been spent on these lavish sets and costumes, but they really do work as an aid to draw you completely into this world that's so different from the one we know today. 

The costume Designer was Daniel Orlandi. It is obviously important to remember that a costume designers job is not always to create really lavish, theatrical costumes. All films, even the everyday ones set now need a costume designer. As I loved Orlandi's costumes I further researched his designs to find that all his other film credits have been very humdrum in comparison, this really was his only very over the top job with design, which surprised me as he's obviously very good at it. 
You can tell a lot about a character by their apartment! I think the production design in both apartments were taken from Ken adam in many ways, parts of both rooms remind me of certain James Bond sets, with the use of circles and tall rooms that tower over the characters dwarfing them.

Adrian Greenberg designed the costumes for The Wizard Of Oz, he would never have anticipated how iconic his ruby slippers would become. During our Chaplin stage in 1st year we spoke about how you could draw Chaplin with three brush strokes, he was that iconic.

I often wonder what it is that makes something or someone iconic? The design of the ruby slippers and of Madonna's corset will be remembered forever and I think thats the magic of design...