sfffashion

[sfffashion]

Star Wars Month Day 25: Best Song

I'm reblogging myself because this is just the best. THE BEST. I love the Force leitmotif and this is one of my favorite renditions of it. 

“Bastila Shan” from the soundtrack of Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic. A beautiful reworking of the Stars Wars theme. 

[sfffashion]

A discussion of Renly's armor from Season 2 of Game of Thrones! Very nice. It looks like velvet, but there's metal underneath.

[sfffashion]

Here's a reader submission from the lovely sendmedaughters. It's pretty great!

Laura Michelle Kelly as Galadriel in the London production of the "Lord of the Rings" musical. As befitting the Lady of the Golden Wood, her entire outfit is gold, but I also love the different textures of her dress from the net-like or spider web-like cloth that covers her upper torso and arms, to the etched bodice, and finally the crinkled gold skirt that is linked to her sleeves. The dress is utterly designed for Galadriel and for this version of her only: in her entrance in the musical, the actress descends, spotlighted, sitting on a swing made of swaths of golden silk amid the boughs of the trees of Lothlorien. As she sings her oath to Lothlorien, she moves the silk so that at the end, she is pulled upward with the silk behind her arms, her skirt train trailing in the air underneath her like a nimbus of light.

I also love the details in her outfit such as the gold foil make up near her eyes and the golden bird wing in her braided hair. The costuming for the "Lord of the Rings" musical seemed to use Native American or Gaellic influences for their elves' costuming, but whereas Legolas might wear coarser clothing and Arwen wears more muted colors similar to the movies, Galadriel's palette is unmistakably otherwordly almost to the point of being heavenly. Does it make me a bad LOTR fan that I think I might prefer this costume to Cate Blanchette's costume in the movies?

I don't think it does, because this is stunning!

[sfffashion]

Promotional images from  Tarsem Singh's Snow White, starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins. 

The blue with the orange!! I'm dying of awesome. 

She has a SWAN on her HEAD. I will be seeing this film. Who's with me??

[sfffashion]

Elven beauty queen! As the main girly-girl female character in Lord of the Rings, Arwen gets the widest variety of dresses. Believe me, I have a whole folder of them. Anyway, one thing I've noticed about a lot of her dresses is that they tend to run big. Look at the way this dress is hanging off her. It's an interesting styling choice because obviously these outfits were made specially for Liv Tyler. I kind of like it though, because it's sexy in a different kind of way. I mean, look at her shoulders. The neckline literally cannot get any wider. Sexy without being vulgar. Very Elven. I also love the color palette here: the muted blues and greys are very Imladris* and match her coloring very well. The huge sleeves and looseness of the rest of the gown counterbalance the wide neck, really drawing attention to her face. The beadwork is lovely as well. 

* I like to think of Lothlórien and Imladris as being rival fashion houses. Am I right? I'm right. 

[sfffashion]

Another from the Game of Thrones! Contrary to what one might think based on this outfit, Daenerys Targaryen here is royalty. The Dorthraki don't seem to be very big on finery, do they? The most decoration she has is the link belts, which while nice blend into the brown of the rest of her outfit. It doesn't really shout "monarch," but that lack shows what it means to be a leader on the grass sea: actions, not fancy appearances. This outfit is basically something to wear so she's not naked. Luckily, Dany here has a great carriage. This skimpy nature of this outfit also emphasizes her sexuality, which is where she derives a large part of her power in her early days with Drogo - a bit reminiscent of the sheer dress she wore to first meet him. It will be interesting to see how her wardrobe changes as she grows into a leadership role in her own right.

[sfffashion]

Om my god I love your blog! Just found it, I am always looking for stuff like this.I love looking at the costumes in Sci-fi and fantasy films/shows closely. Will you be doing more GOT clothes?

Thank you!! So many of the costumes are so beautiful. I will most definitely be doing more GoT clothes! I think the costume department on that show has put so much careful effort into the design of the clothing, it's just fascinating. I'm glad you like my little project!! :D

P.S. I do have some trouble finding good quality screencaps/pictures of whole outfits, so if you see any you want featured, please submit them!! 

[sfffashion]

Ah, the lovely Tully sisters. Could they be any more different? Let's take a look at their sartorial choices. 

Catelyn (on the left) is wearing a relatively simple green dress. The shape is characteristic of Northern dress with the large, fur-lined bell sleeves. The modest cut and muted green color shout "practical matron!" There's little ornamentation other than the brooch and the fur cuffs. The bunched collar is probably for warmth - kind of like long underwear. She's well dressed, but not flashy. Fitting, since she's been traveling through dangerous country and she is, well, a practical matron.

Lysa's clothing shows her motherhood though the way it matches what her son is wearing. Both are sewn out of the same cloth and have a similar draping motif. I really like the unique cut of Lysa's dress. The high collar and shoulders are particularly sharp. The shape kind of looks like a tortoise shell, which interestingly enough matches the way Lysa retreats into the safety of the Eyrie. She's also much more fashion forward than Catelyn: the pattern of the cloth plus the interesting cut and exposed arms reveal that this is a dress for people to look at. Her hair is also done in a more stylish way, with the twin rope braids coming down the side of her head. Their neatness is ruined by the fraying at the ends though, much like Lysa herself is a bit unraveled ...

[sfffashion]

This is a fierce bitch. Tilda Swinton, man, she's a force. The first time I saw this ensemble I gasped.

Anyway, I think it's interesting that here the White Witch has dropped the whole 'ice and snow' theme and just gone for 'straight up ass-kicker' instead. That makes sense since her reign of eternal winter in Narnia has ended rather prematurely. The main theme she's taken up in its place is "I KILLED ASLAN." The fur around the collar and in the head piece matches her hair and makes it look like she has sprouted a lion's mane. It's very evocative of Hercules and the Nemean Lion.

It just occurred to me that the White Witch might actually really be wearing Aslan's fur. She chopped it all off, didn't she? Yeah.

That woman is a BAMF. Her clothes show it.

Edit: Word on the street is that this dress is made of chain mail. BALLER. 

[sfffashion]

Idris, the woman on the left, only appears in a single episode of Doctor Who: "The Doctor's Wife," written by the excellent Neil Gaiman. The feminine touches of the ruffles and the bows on the shoulder and bust contrast nicely with the ragged appearance of the rest of the dress and her hair. She's been wearing this outfit for a long time. 

When Gaiman was asked where Idris was before she ended up on the junkyard planet and why she was wearing a Victorian party dress, he simply responded that she was at a Victorian party. Of course! The point isn't who Idris was, but who she comes to be: the physical representation of the TARDIS. Her dress is old and raggedy, yet still beautiful - just like the TARDIS itself. Eccentric and wonderful, not conventionally perfect. Think of all the times the TARDIS malfunctions. Furthermore, look at how well her ensemble matches the Doctor's. They complement each other wonderfully - fitting for the Doctor's wife. 

[sfffashion]

Here's Sansa on the Kingsroad with poor Lady, en route to King's Landing. It's interesting to note that the women in Game of Thrones sport two hairstyles in general: a fancy updo-type thing with braids coming off it, and this one where the front of the hair is pulled back and the rest goes free. Sansa doesn't start wearing the updo until she gets to the capitol.

She looks very young in this picture. The solid color and the shape of the dress don't accentuate her figure, and her hair is styled kind of childishly. The classic medieval shape of this dress is characteristic of the North. Cersei, on the other hand, has an interesting collection of wrap dresses. 

[sfffashion]

This dress has become pretty iconic, and for a good reason. For starters that scene was fantastic, but the dress is beautiful and captures Éowyn's character wonderfully.

Consider:

Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood (The Two Towers).

For some women a bright white dress like that might scream VIRGIN BRIDE, but Éowyn is working it on a much more sophisticated level. She is cold and fair and fierce. The intricate gold work on the belt matches the carvings on Medusled (not to mention her hair). The overly volumous sleeves are balanced by the long, snug bodice. Arwen should take note ... sometimes those elves get crazy with the draping, you know?