Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-08-12 06:25 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-08-12 06:25 am
I love the smell of irrelevant ranting in the morning.
At some point last night I was poking through my closet and I found something I thought I'd lost months ago--my Eponine hat. I saw it on the shelf of some big-box store during a completely unrelated shopping trip sometime in January and couldn't resist. And now I've found it again. So, with way too much caffeine in me and a night to kill, I dug up my steampunky tatterskirt, sliced a white t-shirt to ribbons, rummaged around in my closet some more and stumbled upon a belt and a likely-looking wig... and before I knew it I had an Eponine costume assembled. Gee, that wasn't too hard. Camwhoring almost ensued, but I have an awful and cheap digital camera that does not do well in non-natural lighting. And so here I sit waiting for morning to dawn so I can pose in the overgrown garden out back, taking pretentious photographs and generally looking like a twit in a costume I don't even like the design of that much.
Now, I am not a costumer. I don't design them, I don't make them, I don't even do reproductions. Just clumsy attempts at evoking the general look of the costumes. But you know what? I may not be a costumer or a fashion designer, but I am a history nerd. And the costumes in the musical piss me the fuck off.
No, it's not the ridiculous vest that makes Enjolras a moving rifle target. It's not even the exaggerated, stylized whores. I can deal with that. I might not approve too much, but I can put up with it for dramatic effect. But you know what? Anachronistic hoop skirts at the wedding are not dramatic effect. Girls walking around in vaguely old-fashioned-looking skirts and white blouses are not dramatic effect. Cosette's ass-ugly dress might be dramatic effect, but its ridiculously un-1830s cut sure ain't. Things like that aren't stylized inaccuracy. They're just plain laziness on the part of the costume designers. There was absolutely no need to stick those hoop skirts in there thirty years before they were due to appear--they serve no purpose other than to irk historical fashion nerds.
Needless to say, if I ever directed an amateur production of Les Mis the female ensemble would all want to murder me for stuffing them into ugly puffy-sleeved Romantic Era dresses. Of course, if I ever directed an amateur production, the whores would sing Turning, the Bishop would come out at the end instead of Eponine, and I'd probably end up cutting On My Own and reinstating L'un vers l'autre. But shh, that's a post for another day.
Now, I am not a costumer. I don't design them, I don't make them, I don't even do reproductions. Just clumsy attempts at evoking the general look of the costumes. But you know what? I may not be a costumer or a fashion designer, but I am a history nerd. And the costumes in the musical piss me the fuck off.
No, it's not the ridiculous vest that makes Enjolras a moving rifle target. It's not even the exaggerated, stylized whores. I can deal with that. I might not approve too much, but I can put up with it for dramatic effect. But you know what? Anachronistic hoop skirts at the wedding are not dramatic effect. Girls walking around in vaguely old-fashioned-looking skirts and white blouses are not dramatic effect. Cosette's ass-ugly dress might be dramatic effect, but its ridiculously un-1830s cut sure ain't. Things like that aren't stylized inaccuracy. They're just plain laziness on the part of the costume designers. There was absolutely no need to stick those hoop skirts in there thirty years before they were due to appear--they serve no purpose other than to irk historical fashion nerds.
Needless to say, if I ever directed an amateur production of Les Mis the female ensemble would all want to murder me for stuffing them into ugly puffy-sleeved Romantic Era dresses. Of course, if I ever directed an amateur production, the whores would sing Turning, the Bishop would come out at the end instead of Eponine, and I'd probably end up cutting On My Own and reinstating L'un vers l'autre. But shh, that's a post for another day.