colleen atwood

These are some images from the 2012 film Snow white and the Huntsman, that I absolutely love. The sketches are gorgeous and show so much character in the facial expressions but also in the costume. You can see in the stiff, dark costumes with pointed frills that they are designed for a particularly evil character, where as the lighter colours with flowing materials automatically represent the costume ideas for a nice warm character. All the designs flaunt femininity often through the patterned details which are quite floral, but also in the fitting of the dresses. The long skin tight black dress design flaunts sexuality and immediately smacks you with the idea of a powerful woman. The white dress on the other hand portrays a younger, girly, loving character with the flowing white dress which in history would often represent purity.

The costumes themselves flaunt many of the characteristics that the designs do, however the white dress here portrays more power with the large puffed sleeves which is similar to what previous Queens, or women in power would have, which now makes this character appear to have more importance, than say the more naive design. The details are amazing in all the dresses and all speak for how the characters are. She is a costume designer I definitely admire.

Here are some more images I love from the classic Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The Queen and Alice's costumes are so vibrant which suggests two powerful characters, and the bright red can also suggest that both characters can be quite dangerous. In addition to this, The Queen of Hearts's dress is longer which suggests a more mature lady, and again has the puffy sleeves and large collars which would be worn to portray power and wealth in the past, like wise to Queen Mary/Bloody Mary which was a big inspiration for this character. Unlike this, Alice's dress is shorter and therefor portrays a younger character and the white strands on her dress suggest purity and perhaps that she's naive, although the bold red suggests that she's a lot more powerful than perhaps is initially thought. The white Queen's costume is long which suggests maturity and is also completely white to imply purity and a good woman. The dress again exaggerates the hips and small-ens the waist which was fashionable to powerful women in the past which suggests that not only is she in power as well, but also wealthy and fashionable.

 These are just some designs by Colleen Atwood from Dark Shadows which I just think are gorgeous and are full of character. The colours and details even in her designs are just incredibly beautiful.