Fashion Costume - Essay Example

Fashion Costume Fashion is the holding style or tradition, as in dress or in their action or it is also defined as the latest and most valued style in clothes and in their behaviour. To some people, fashion is a form of art but to others fashion is nearly a religion but for most people it is way of using clothes. You can use fashion to carry yourself and also to describe your personality. Fashion ideas can be made with clothes, supplements, shoes, hair style, and your make-up and even with your mobile set also (Cynthia Nellis 1999,p.1). Fashion plays an essential part in this modern world but people have different poses towards fashion. Some are like that they do not care what they should have to wear. Others like women are very choosy in their clothes and other things but particular on their clothes and used to spend a lot of money on their clothes. The styles of clothing have been determined by different factors such as geography, religion, poorness and also money. The styles of dressing which we used also depend on the season, and social occasions. Another aspect of fashion is that, we have to be careful that if we are over weight so we have to wear plain dark clothes so in this way it will give us a slim and smart look. On the other hand, the clothes which are of light colours it will give us effect of over weight or broadness (Meredith Moss,p.10). The colour of clothes also acted upon our feelings, mood and also to our personality. For example, green colour is soothing so that’s why surgeons wear green colour gown, white is the colour of honour and intensity, red and black colour is a sign of danger that’s why mostly these colours are used by the sports man or they are very famous among the sports car (Laver,James,p.62). Length of the clothes, their styles and designs are changing very quickly now-a-days as these become a very popular business today. Fashions often turn back to the older styles. There may be a wide range of styles of clothes: such as there are different types of neckline (V-neck, U-shaped neck, with collar and sometimes with collarless) and different cuts of sleeves are also inn now-a-days such as (inset, batwing, and dropped shoulder) (Fernand Braudel, p.317). The dress can be made of various materials such as natural materials like cotton, linen, and wool, silk and huge collection of new clothes which is based on the man-made fibres. Before choosing any dress to wear we must first notice what season is it, if its summer then we obviously prefer wearing light clothes such as shirts-shirts, shorts, Kutras, sandals and sunglasses as well to avoid harmful rays of scorching sun. Automatically, our choice will be changed according to the winter season. We most likely prefer to wear such clothes which keep us warm such as mufflers, gloves, warm coats, boots, overcoats etc. Similarly, in rainy season it’s best to wear a long raincoat with a hood or to use an umbrella . On special occasions, we liked to be dressed up properly as we wear decent and stylish suits with high heels sandals. At home, we feel like to be comfortable and wear simple and plain suits. Costumes and uniforms are included in the special kind of clothes. Uniforms are particularly worn by students, police officers and health officers, nurses etc. Tradition of wearing uniforms is also present in some schools. A person who designs costumes is called costume designer and he will perform following steps: 1. First he outline his ideas 2. He draws designs to make sample of garments. 3. Then he chooses fabric of best quality. 4. Then he applies tailoring principles to make a suitable dress. 5. Qualify the completed garment. 6. He regularly visits different textile showrooms in order to get acknowledged by latest designs and fabrics (California Occupational Guide Number 185). Designers play a great role in telling other people and introducing fashion which is in. Media is the main source to introduce new fashions among common people. That’s why media and fashion are interrelated because one can not perform its job without the presence of other. Because the celebrities are the first one to adopt new trends and common people will automatically get influenced by them. If some one wants to adopt fashion industry as a profession so it is necessary to remember that education is a vital ingredient as many universities have introduces fashion courses and degree programmes as well (John Patrick,p.3). Fashion reflects not only personality but also thoughts of a person. If you easily accept new trends and ideas it means that you are more flexible and modern and accept everything with broadsides. It also helpful in dealing situations under great pressure. Most designers’ clothes are so immoderate because their collections are a part of marketing to grab media and consumer attention. But by the time as this collection reaches the ordinary shops or stores, they are being altered to make them comfortable and moderate for the common people. There are many hypotheses of fashion. For example, the people with high status and occupation will wear the clothes which other people expect from them to wear. They will not give a chance of criticism to other people by wearing incorrect clothes. Clothing is also a sign of respectability (Pauline Weston Thomas,p.12). Another theory describes that wealth is necessary for maintaining clothing. Well-dressed person never wants to engage himself/herself in manual labour (Thorstein Veblen,p.34). Changes are coming in lifestyles which include fitness and health pursuits, car and air travel and centrally heated environments in everyday life (Pauline Weston Thomas,p.11). Colours are necessary for our life because they make us feel brighter and fresh. He is well known how to make new things. Dress designer plays a very important role in film making/drama making or stage play. Without wardrobe area no film/drama/stage-play can be created. Costume designer is the person that gives requires getups to the characters. And he/she fills colours in the scene of any film/drama/stage-play. In film-making many departments such as direction, production, writer, editing, choreographer, cast are important but besides these departments wardrobe area also counts a special position. There are some names that occupy a great position in fashion world (as fashion industry is related to the film or drama industry) such as: Howard Pyle, James Laver, Frankenstein, Pam cook, James Cameron, Edith Head, Jane Gaines, and Grace Kelly. Grace Kelly is considered as one of the famous actress and fashion icon. Kelly attended various fashion shows as a model at local social events. At twelve years of age, she played a lead role in a play. She was a superb actress and played great roles in many films which get extreme popularury.Beside an actress she was a model too and attended various fashion shows(Robyns,Gwen,p.10).She got the NBR award for best actress. Kelly was ranked at no.13 amongst the Greatest Female Stars of All Time by The American Film Institute (Cassini, Oleg,p.1). James Cameron is also an award winning Canadian-American director, producer and the screen writer. He is famous for his action/science and fictitious films which become very popular. Once James said that: “People call me a perfectionist, but Im not. Im a rightist. I do something until its right, and then I move on to the next thing."(Amazing Cameron,p.1). Among his famous films are The Terminator, Titanic, Judgment Day, True Lies etc. Now-a-days, he is working on a return to feature film making which will make use of Fusion Camera Technology(Andrew Gumbel,p.5). Gangster no.1 is famous movie starring Malcom McDowell and Paul Bettany.Costume designer of this film is Jany Temime.He is a very famous costume designer costumes.In this film, guys were in good looking clothes and spread crimes in the streets. The main characters which was played by Malcom McDowell in Present and Paul Bettany in the past in stylish 60’s flashback Sequences. The sequences of Bettany and co-hort’s, they were in the cool ice blue three button suits and chasing some poor mug through a tower block of the flats. The wardrobe selection for this film was appreciated by the people as they never expected gangster in such dressing (Bill Luther,p.50). In The Mood For Love is a sad movie written, produces and directed by Wong Kar-Wai.The costume of this movie was designed by William Chang Suk-ping.He designed very attractive and beautiful dresses worn by Cheung.They reflects different shades of personality. Those costumes are complete portray of elegance. William Chang Suk-ping deserves high praise for his splendid costume designing especially for Maggie Cheung (David Walsh,p.30).William designs both traditional and modern looks for her attire, which perfectly suit to her slender figure which made her more graceful. Her dresses are memorable and distinctive. Maggie Cheung’s costumes clearly showed that she wore different dresses in every single shot. Most of the shots are artistic with entirely costumes and make-up. The only criticism for this film was that the sad, depression story of the ships that passing in the night carries through to the end (J.Robert Parks,p.23). The Crying Game is a movie written by Neil Jordan. The Soldier’s Wife is the original working title of this film. Sandy Powell designs costumes for this movie. "Im attracted to projects that involve taking risks of some kind," Powell says, "And ones that might upset some people." Powell designed such dresses that never deluge the story of relationship between the ardent cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her sister, but instead lend a keen visual intensity to the women’s profound differences (Ebert, Roger,p.31). In the end, we can conclude that fashion is a never ending human attempt to give us a better and different look. Fashion is not only a source of beauty but it is also a form of free speech. But one thing to be remembered that we should always do fashion that best suits on us (Nix,p.40). Bibliography: 1. Fernand Braudel, For a discussion of the use of the terms "fashion", "dress", "clothing" and "costume" by professionals in various disciplines,Econ Journal Watch, 2004. 2. Andrew Gumbel.Titanic King James Camerons Big Comeback - Movie News Story,2005. 3. Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979. 4. Bill Luther.Synopsis Of Gangster no.1.The Independent-London. June 9,2000. 5. Meredith Moss,Decoding dress codes.The Sydney Morning Herald.November 29,2007. 6. Cynthia Nellis, Fashion matters,crazy clothes.Public company;Online media industry,1999. 7. John Patrick,Ireland,Encyclopedia of FashionDetails.London:Batsford.1987,2004. 8. J.Robert Parks.An Exchange On The Wong Kar Wai’s film.In The Mood For Love.The Independent London.21 May,2001. 9. Thorstein Veblen. The US economist. The Theory Of The Leisure Class.Dress As An Expression Of The Pecuniary Culture.1899. 10. Pauline Weston Thomas, Costume and Fashion History.Fashion-Era.com,2000. 11. David Walsh.Review of the film In The Mood For Love.The Independent London.October 29th,2000. 12. Ebert, Roger. Review of the Crying Game. December 18, 1992. 13. Amazing Cameron. Retrieved on 2008-03-10. 14. Amazon.com, April 15,2005. 15. California Occupational Guide Number 185.Interest Area Artistic.2002. 16. Cassini, Oleg. In My Own Fashion: An Autobiography, 1987. 17. Nix.The Crying Game.Hollywood.com.April 10,2002. 18. Robyns, Gwen. Princess Grace, New York: David McKay. 1976. Read More