The live adaptation of Cinderella last year received unanimous praise for its production and costume design. And from the surface, I can understand why, it’s lavish, pretty and sells the fantasy of a Mary Sue kind heroine rising above her antagonistic step mother and sisters to live happily ever after.
What more could a girl possibly ask for?
To be honest, my general thoughts of the costumes are in line with my views on this latest live adaptation: transparent, vacuous and vain. Everything that the movie is technically not supposed to be about. I think it’s mainly the script’s fault that it delivered such one dimensional, underdeveloped and cliched characters that costume designer Sandy Powell simply didn’t have much to work with.
The one particular dress that I had an excruciating amount of problem with was the dress that Cinderella wore when we’re first introduced to her as an adult.
The aqua cotton dress with it’s frilled neckline and gathered bodice suits the ‘modesty’ and ‘primness’ of Cinderella’s character. She doesn’t care to wear the latest fashions and is happy to do mundane house chores with her coral apron.
This initial impression of Cinderella doesn’t bother me, but when we cut to the scene where she waits for the arrival for her stepmother and stepsisters, wearing the same dress, that alarm bells started to go off my head.
Firstly, I believe Cinderella comes from a some what affluent family, definitely not poor, so it was strange to see that she didn’t change into a new dress to welcome her supposed new family. I understand Powell’s choice to just have Cinderella in the same dress to portray her as being the opposite of her vain and materialistic stepsisters, but it felt wrong for the characterisation of Cinderella- she’s supposed to be this daughter that looks forward to seeing her new ‘mother’ and ‘sisters’ (for the sake of his father’s happiness), so shouldn’t she want to wear something new to look ‘presentable’ (and not at the risk of appearing rude for wearing her every day dress).
More over, as she began to take on the dirty, nitty gritty house chores 24/7 (because she’s SO NICE you guys) , her dress miraculously stayed thoroughly clean and put together (okay her apron darkened in colour, but there also doesn’t seem to be any dirt or spills or stains on their so…..).
I’m not saying the dress should have holes and ripped edges to show the stupid audience how horrible the conditions in which Cinderella is living under; no, that would just be lazy costume design with no depth and complexity. However, perhaps it would’ve been natural for her to have a change of clothes? Or a dress that is slightly more loose fitting so it’s practical for her to do house chores? Trousers? (And no, this film is not a historically accurate one when it comes to costumes, so Powell has no excuse to hide under the ‘oh but there was no loose gowns at the time’).
The clothing choices for the Stepmother and the sisters also all lacked careful considerations during the beginning of the film.
The stepsisters and their mother’s debut costumes are too lavish for my eyes to see anything. Money talks, and their clothes could be the talk of the whole town for all I know. It simply doesn’t make any sense for the Stepmother to desperately want to marry Cinderella’s father when they look dripped in jewels. I do think that’s where the problem lies with the debut of Cate Blanchett’s character especially. It’s too in your face so us the fact she’s this manipulative, evil stepmother. (She’s dressed lavishly with a veiled hat so she MUST BE EVIL, everyone!)
I think a more nuanced approach should perhaps involve depicting the mother and sisters in fashionable but outdated clothes; to emphasis that they once did have money, and the mother is scraping all that she can to preserve her youth and beauty. Because those are the two most important traits women should possess. And then gradually show off more up to the minute, more decadent clothes after marrying the father, to emphasise their greed and vanity.Or am I being too dramatic?
I’m also very disappointed in the portrayal of the fairy godmother played by Helena Bonham Carter. I love Helena, don’t get me wrong but the way the film had her first depicted as a wrinkly old woman who can’t walk without a cane and then to this lavishly dressed, energetic blonde haired woman after Cinderella once again proved to us on how kind she is, just reeked of ageism to me.
And the dress Bonham wore after transforming herself to the perky blonde fairy godmother was just awful.
I don’t understand why she has to wear a lavish corseted ball gown in order to transform Cinderella. The iridescent lace looks too garish that it resembles a cheap stage costume dress, which I’m sure wasn’t what the studio or Powell had in mind.
And I think the makeup team did a horrible makeup application on Bonham as they clearly did not take into consideration on whether the makeup would match the rest of the outfit.
The intense dark smoky eye does not compliment the cool toned, almost white coloured dress. The warm toned blush as well as the luminous finished lipstick contrasts starkly with the dark eye story and together, they look too intense and dramatic to be paired with a dress is pale, sparkly and cool toned.
But enough about fairy god mother, she can give herself a new eyeshadow look for all I care.
The talk of the show when it comes to all Cinderella adaptions; the iconic ball gown Cinderella is known to wear across all the different versions that are out there, I gotta say that I quite like Powell’s interpretation on this one.
I do think that there is some serious, annoying photoshopping going on with the colour of the dress, because I still can’t figure out whether it’s a periwinkle blue or a powder blue. But if you must know, I prefer the powdered colour one.
- That is also one beautiful pumpkin carriage.
For starters, it’s a softer, cooler colour that leans closer to the 1950’s classic Disney adaptation (I’m a traditionalist when it comes to this) and suits Cinderella’s passivity personality more.
The butterfly embellishments on her organza butterfly-esque collar/neckline thing (and I call myself a design student) adds a nice touch to her transformation process, and reinforces the innocence and naivety of Cinderella. (Which, whether I want to like it or not, the dress does exemplify the whatever nice characters of Cinderella that we’re supposed to love and find endearing).
My favourite part of the look though, would have to go to the makeup and hair department for using Swarovski crystals on James’ hair and décolletage- it’s just pure genius (and further product placement for Swarovski, why not), as it shows off the magic of the fairy godmother for transforming Cinderella, and as the saying goes; lit from within, Cinderella is lit from within and out, with the way the multifaceted crystals catch the light.
I think overall, Cinderella was quite easy on the eyes for me, but lacking in depth and sophistication; whether in story or costume. But the one thing it does, it does well, which is to sell us this epic fairytale love story as being something to aspire to (the movie made nearly $550 million worldwide, if anyone is counting the dollars), supposedly.
the rambling files 