Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts

Sunday, November 30, 2014

HOW TO DRESS A CARTOON CHARACTER


Traditional animal characters were often naked below the waist. Maybe that's one reason they were so appealing and funny. You wanted to laugh before they even did anything.


Modern designs are sometimes pantsless but they're designed in such a way as to de-emphasize the nudity.


For human characters the obvious way to go is clothes that are either too small or too big. I like the way Curly's jacket fits in this photo.


All my thrift store jackets are deliberately either too small or too big. I wish I could show you a picture of the miniature Uncle Eddie jacket John gave me a long time ago, but I don't have it anymore and I think I'll take a minute to tell you why. It spotlights an age-old wives trick that men need to know about.

It works like this: the wife waits til her husband is busy with something then asks him a few questions that have an obvious "no" answer, questions like: "Are you saving this ball of lint?" "Do want this pencil stub?" "How 'bout his used Kleenex?" She gets a nice litany of automatic "no's" going then casually throws in the important item, in this case: "Do you want to save this ugly old Uncle Eddie jacket?" The first ten times my wife tried this I reacted with horror that she could even think of such a thing, but she persisted and one day when I was seriously distracted I found myself saying, "Huh... oh, yeah...sure...whatever..." and that was the last time I ever saw my jacket. Now I live in fear that my more-precious-than-rubies Wrinkle Jacket will suffer the same fate.

But I digress.


 I like one-of-a-kind outfits myself.


Cartoonists should be fashion leaders, not fashion followers.


I like suit jackets (above) that flare out and stay flared.


What kind of dress shirt? One way to go is bulky one-size-fits-all shirts that always look ironed and new, like they just came out of the wrapper.
A certain kind of character should tuck in his shirt even though that's not the style now. In real life tucking it in requires constant adjustment and that's a great bit of business for a character with OCD.


Besides, tucked in shirts look great when they're pulled out (above) and allowed to hang loose. They retain their beautiful wrinkles at the shirt's bottom.

BTW, how do you like the crumpled forearm fabric and long cuffs?


Dress shirts come with all sorts of biases. This one is tight at the shoulders and loose everywhere else.

I wish I could have found a picture of a ballooning "parachute" backed tuck-in but, Alas!, it was not meant to be. Maybe next time.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

FUTURE FASHION

Fashion has been funny for at least four decades and it shows no sign of abating. The big trend in recent times is clothes that fit but don't don't fit.  Here the model wears a tailored version of the kind of felt costumes that puppets wore in TV shows like "Fireball XL-5." Maybe there's a hint of anime in it, too.


Stiff bras are funny and for that reason I predict their return. They'll keep their shape even when the girl reclines, with the result that girls will recline more often.


Nerds are everywhere nowadays and they've influenced fashion. Girls usually combine the nerd look with other things. This girl (above) starts with nerd but uses tattoos for a hipster accent and bare feet for a touch of hippy.


Here's (above) an interesting picture. It has nothing to do with what the girl is wearing, it's about the pose she's taken. She's deliberately emphasizing the line of her jaw and of the back of her neck, something only professional photographers used to do.

I'm guessing that came about because of the latest trends in bathroom design. Modern bathrooms have two large mirrors, one in front, and one in back. The result of that is that a greater number of people than ever before have an awareness of what they look like from the back and side.  That's bound to effect fashion and even the type of poses people strike in public.


   In my opinion the muscular look for women will soon go out of fashion, but that's probably just wishfull thinking.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

WHAT FASHIONABLE PEOPLE ARE WEARING NOW



Well, if you're a fashionable guy then you're probably already eyeing nerd pants like these (above). They're the latest thing. They show lots of ankle and a have high waists that wrap around the bottom of the ribcage.


Hey, it beats the old fashion look that it's replacing. I was never a fan of baggy shorts (above).



Let me digress to remark that you never see stovepipe shorts (above) on the street anymore. Stovepipes were always worn with black socks and a nose ring. 



Of course the recent guy fashion that you see on the street every day is the skin-tight neo-emo jeans. The picture above is the girl equivalent of that. It's all over the place now but the high waist-nerd look will probably replace it in a few years. Tight jeans are just too hard to put on. 




The big news in women's fashion is the replacement of high heels with ultra high heels (above). 



The newest shoes are thick and high, and are usually black. I saw women wearing shoes similar to these (above) at the mall today. 


Wednesday, December 04, 2013

COSTUME DESIGN FOR THE MOVIES

There's a new book about costume design called, "Hollywood Sketchbook: a Century of Costume Illustration." I'm no expert but I'll be very surprised if this isn't the best book done on the subject in decades. Take a look at a few pictures and see what you think.

That green dress above looks like something Ginger Rogers might have worn. I like the slanted pose.


Haw! I wonder what film this dress was for.  Well, costume design for film isn't the same as fashion design. Costume design for the movies is supposed to heighten our understanding of a particular character in a particular situation in a particular story. It doesn't always aim to make that character look good.


Okay, I recognize these dresses (above) from Caberet. 



Yikes! Stork legs!


I know I've seen this (above) design somewhere...maybe on Eve Arden in a 40s film.


 What were these sketches for? Commenters said they're Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz.

I threw this (above) in because I liked the back shot of the girl.


Holy Mackerel! This (above) looks like something Bakst would have done, but it's by someone else.


Thursday, December 13, 2012

CHRISTMAS GIFTS: ETHNIC CLOTHING

If you're lucky enough to live near shops that sell ethnic clothing (above) you might consider giving your significant other a folk costume gift. You don't have to buy the whole ensemble, just a nice element, something that looks good all by itself. 

Me, I think the Poles beat everybody in Europe, or at least they beat other women's designs. You'd never know it to look at the Polish girls in the picture above. They seem downright miserable. I wonder why? 


Here's (above) some Hungarian designs with a Gypsy influence. I wonder if traditional skirts were that high? Maybe they were.


This beautiful design looks like a synthesis of Polish, Russian and Scandinavian influences, so I'll guess that it comes from a place where all those elements merge, mmmm....maybe Latvia or Estonia. 

Boy, it's elaborate! Costumes like this were more common before The Reformation. After that designs were more austere.


Geez, one of the sexiest things a girl can wear is a simple white blouse (above).


Above, more white blouses set off with dark vests and embroidery. The country of origin? Maybe...mmmmmm...Danish???


So far as I can tell the best costume designs for men (above) come from German speaking countries. The problem is that they favor leather jackets and pants and those can be pricey and difficult to alter.

John gave me a whole outfit like this once. If I can lose some X#@%*& weight I'll wear it.


Fortunately Germans also make great woolen jackets and vests. The green makes a nice contrast with the red, white and black.



Now where do these (above) come from? East Europe? Armenia?


Above...Finnish?


Here's (above) a dress from Ireland. Wow, a nice blend of Celtic and Viking. I like the suggestion of lightning on the bodice. I don't know why, but the design reminds me that the true art of that country is storytelling.



There are lots of outlets on the internet (sample above) for this type of clothing. According to the ad embroidery is used as a protection against evil spirits.



Monday, October 29, 2012

BEATNIK COSTUMES


Three girls who are going to the same Halloween party might try something like this...The Three Bored Beatnik Girls. It's important to look bored and aloof if you're going to be a beatnik. 

Geez, I wish I hadn't shaken the camera when I took this. Thanks to Mike for revealing his p....to Theory Corner readers. Oh, "P" is for porcelain. I had to look up the spelling.


Here are the same girls, only in color this time. How do you like "Darn-Old Duck" in the background at the top?


That's all I have on beatniks, but I do have more pictures. What do you think of this painting by Carl Barks?  I stole this from Michael Sporn's site. Michael says its his favorite Barks Painting. It's one of my favorites too, along with the "Scrooge in the Klondike" pictures.

Michael's site: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/


Above, old crones from a dark ride that I can't identify. I have a great idea for a dark ride. Maybe I can work it into a story.


Where would Halloween be without spiders?


This (above) looks like an amusement park ride that takes its passengers straight to Hell then returns for more victims.

Nice!


Can't think of a costume?  Maybe a hat is all you need.


Sometimes (above) it's only necessary to cover the back of the skull. 


For outdoor work on hot, sunny days I could actually see having a hat like this. 


Thanks to TCM we have lots of Halloween movies to choose from. Here's a still from "The Innocents." 

This (above) is from my favorite horror film, "Burn Witch, Burn." It's based on a terrific book by Fritz Leiber, "Conjure Wife," and a wonderful screenplay by Richard Matheson.




Then there's the wordless underground classic (above), "Dementia."

Can you find the face in this Baroque wall detail?


Here's a couple of my favorite sequences from James Whale's "Old Dark House." Start at 49:00 and end with 106:00. I'm a big fan of the The eccentric/elocution-acting style that preceded modern acting styles and that method is vividly on display here. 

Watch for it in the character of Sir Robert (The old man in bed, played by a woman) and the in character called Saul. Melvyn Douglas was one of the finest practitioners of the smooth elocution style that replaced the old style so we have a clash of acting styles that produces lots of fireworks.