Vintage Circus Glamour

Barnum and Bailey Showgirl in a bunny costume. I love the pink giant bow.

Birthday girl. Circus show performer receives flowers.

Show Performer Lottie Burnn juggling. 

Circus couple.

Halloween is two days away and here I am trying to come up with a last minute costume. It seems like every year I have aspirations to dress in a vintage circus themed costume. I always find myself looking through Taschen's The Circus: 1870's - 1950's book over and over again. It is an incredibly beautiful book. Each page translates history with nostalgic images and art work, and makes me feel like I am there watching The Greatest Show on Earth. Check out this beautiful three and half minute documentary on The Circus produced by Taschen, click here.

Vintage Circus Flair. Shop these pieces here.

1. ETSY vintage showgirl costume, 2. ETSY 1950's vintage costume, 3. Bordello Sequin Shoes, 4. Vintage sequin top, 5. ETSY Metallic blue petticoat, 6. Feather Boa

Diary of a Teenage Nobody

Last summer I designed the costumes for the Diary of a Teenage Nobody pilot. A coming of age webisode about the dreadful high school years narrated through the voice of "Riley", a beautiful, but rather misunderstood teenager, whose dark personality is highly influenced by Edgar Allen Poe. Her best friend Leila, is somewhat the opposite of her and she is known as the hopeless romantic character.

I really enjoyed designing the lead character's costumes. The contrast of personalities are shown in what they wear and how they wear it. Even though, Riley is considered the "goth" girl in the script, I didn't feel the need to dress her in all black. Her dress says so much about her, and her eclectic taste in literature. The light blue in her dress brings out her innocent and whimsical side, while the red/gold showcases a more dark sophisticated other half. 

Leila on the other hand is more of a "happy go lucky" fashionista. She lives in a fantasy world that is constructed by romantic ideals and the hope to marry Ryan Gosling one day. It obvious that her look is more on the softer naive side. Her vintage inspired blue/yellow striped dress and light colored cardigan gives her the ultimate sweet and innocent look. 

Behind the scenes. I love these candid shots. The character in the pink blazer is Janelle, the "popular girl". Her and her gang of mean girls go out of their way to make Riley and her friend's lives utterly miserable. 

Behind the scenes continued.  I love this long shot. They're is so much color and pattern mixing going on. I even like the mint green walls, it gives this scene a nostalgic feel.

    

Make sure too watch the pilot here. Too find out more about Diary of a Teenage Nobody, make sure to visit the website here.  Don't forget to like them on facebook and follow them on twitter. 

This Week on Instagram

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend. Here are my favorite pictures on Instagram this week.

1. Weekend getaway to Santa Barbara!
2. I finally got to visit the Santa Barbara Mission.
3. The Book Den. A great used book store that I stumbled upon.
4. Macaron alert! Bought these at Chocolate Opulence in Santa Monica.
5. A great article on Edith Head from Angeleno magazine.
6. Punch, a cute vintage shop on State street in Santa Barbara.

Marie Antoinette

Happy Friday. Can't wait to start the weekend. Here are some images from the 2006 film Marie Antoinette directed by Sofia Coppola. I love these costumes, but who doesn't? Italian costume designer Milena Canonero is amazing. Her work always puts a smile on my face!

Image: 1 /2/ 3/ 4

Comic-Con

Is anyone going to Comic Con this week in San Diego? This year I am attending as part of the Costume Designers Guild Committee. I have never been to Comic Con before and I am very excited to attend. I can't wait to see all the fans dress up in their eccentric costumes. As a way to honor all the hard work that goes into creating costumes, the Guild put together a Costume Designer Panel for Television and Film. They will both be held on different nights. If you are in San Diego and do decide to attend make sure to join us. In the meanwhile enjoy some vintage Catwoman circa 1966. Isn't Lee Meriwether lovely?

Television Panelists:

Friday July 13, 2012

Room 32AB

6:30 - 7:30

Costume Designers

Chrisi Karvonides - American Horror Story

Jenni Gullett - Fringe

Audrey Fisher - True Blood

Illustrators

Imogene Chayes - True Blood, American Horror Story

Film Panelists

Saturday July 14, 2012

Room 24ABC

5:00 - 6:00

Costume Designers

Shawna Trpcic - The Cabin in the Woods

Lisa Tomczeszyn - X-Men, Punisher

Mayes Rubeo - John Carter

Illustrators

Christian Cordella - Snow White and the Huntsman

Constantine Sekeris- Green Lantern, Thor

Rosi Gabi - xXx, Mission to Mars

Brian Venezuela - Star Trek, The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Philip Boute - Inception, Captain America

Colleen Atwood: Snow White and the Huntsman

A few weeks ago, FIDM and Universal Pictures invited me to meet three-time Academy Award winner Colleen Atwood. I was beyond excited when I first received the invite. The event was an exhibition of her original designs for Snow White and the Huntsman. It was such an amazing experience. She explained her design process on all of her costumes seen here. I was blown away with how detailed she was, but not surprised. 

I am obsessed with all of these costumes, but this wedding dress just takes my breath away. Ravenna (Charlize Theron) wears this costume when she marries Snow White's father. I love how this dress looks and feels so innocent, but the caged sleeves give it a wicked quality.

Sometimes the smallest details don't get appreciated. The gold findings were purchased on one of her trips to Turkey. So beautiful. It's amazing how such a small detail like this can really change the whole costume. The leather trimming and embroidery was also lovely. 

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The beetle dress. A masterpiece.

There is a lot of emphasis on the sleeves as you can tell. The sleeves on this costume resemble bug wings. I also love all the distressing. My favorite detail on this dress is the beetle wings. Yes, these are actual beetle wings.

The Armor dress. Ravenna fights her last battle in this dress, seems appropriate.

This handmade chainmail armor helps give Ravenna a reptile quality to her character. The piece in the middle are hand twisted leather scraps. 

Colleen Atwood is one of the reason why I pursued a career in costume design. I first fell in love with her work on the film Edward Scissorhands, but who didn't right? Bondage suit, buckles, pointy boots, pale face and Robert Smith hair, who can forget this amazing costume. I have been following her work ever since and will continue to do so. I am positive that Snow White and the Huntsman is going to be epic. I can't wait to see all of these couture like costumes on the big screen.

Spring Inspiration

"a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world" ~ Oscar Wilde

"she's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; she is a woman, therefore to be won" ~ William Shakespeare

"her angel face, as the great eye of heaven, shined bright, and made a sunshine in a shady place"~ Edmund Spenser

Happy Friday. I hope you enjoyed these images from Sensual Fairy Tale.

FIDM Debut 2012

Last week I attended the FIDM Debut 2012 Runway Show at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. As a tradition all Debut shows open up with costumes designed by Theater Costume Design students. The theme this year was musical The Phantom Of the Opera.

So many amazing fashion designers, but Alejandro Ortega was one of my favorite designers. His collection reminded me of the Rudi Gernreich sixties look with a Andy Warhol twist. I loved his use of bright colors, patterns, shapes and textures. I have a feeling that we are going to see a lot of him in the near future. Speaking of amazing designs, MOCA (The Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles ) is currently exhibiting some of Rudi Gernreich's work in collaboration with model Peggy Moffitt and photographer William Claxton. The exhibition will run until May 27.

Victorian Dress

I stumbled across these pictures from one of my last costume construction projects at UCLA. The assignment was to create a period dress. At the time I was inspired by fashion from the Victorian Era. After conducting some research from this time period, I began creating my pattern from scratch. I  designed a dress similar to the one in this illustration (on the left). The waist is very narrow and the bodice is very pointy at the center front. To create this illusion my darts have a curved shape to them. I used a black marking tape to create these lines as a point of reference.

With my guide lines in place, I began draping my muslin fabric on the body form. After all of the darts were pinned and smoothed out, I began shaping my design and cutting off all the excess fabric.

Once I finished marking my darts and seam lines on the bodice, I then laid it out on a drafting table and began connecting of all my pencil marks and notches together. From this point on my pattern was begining to take form. After completing this step, I added the seam allowance to to my sample and proceeded by transferring all this information to a paper pattern. Although I didn't take a picture, I cut and sewed my first sample out of muslin fabric. After fitting the sample on myself and making some adjustments, I drafted my final pattern.

One of the most exciting parts of this process was the final fitting. Here is where I finalized all last adjustments before sewing, hand stitching and hemming the final dress. At last all my hard work came together, now I can say that I designed and constructed my very first Victorian dress from start to finish.

FIDM: Costume Design Exhibition

On February 11, FIDM hosted the opening reception of The 20th Anniversary Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition. The event was such a treat. FIDM always puts on the most extravagant galas and I feel so lucky to be invited every year. This beautiful exhibition celebrates and honors the art of storytelling with selected costumes from this years Academy Award Nominated films for Best Costume Design. Other costumes from films like My Week With Marilyn, Water for Elephants and The Help are also displayed. If you are in the Downtown Los Angeles area, I highly recommend that you stop by the FIDM museum.The exhibition runs thru April 28. 

From top to bottom: Posters for the films of 2011/ Anonymous designed by Lisy Christl/ Water for Elephants designed by Jacqueline West/ My Week With Marilyn designed by Jill Taylor/ The Artist designed by Mark Bridges