#costume designer: gabriela reumer | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

archduchessofnowhere · 2 years

Text

That Vogue interview annoyed me so much that I have to comment it in more detail, so semi rant incoming lol. The translation was made by @sisionscreen (you can find the whole interview in their blog, I also reblogged it earlier). Thank you for enduring the job of translating this mess!

To show the desired modernity, costume designer Gabriela Reumer took a central role. The Swisswoman is known for her work on TV productions like Soko Wismar and movies like “Rabbit without Ears”,“Guardians” and “Traumfabrik” and had to familiarize herself with the 19th century royal fashion first - and wasn’t too fond of some of the things she found. “I immediately had the ambition to choose a different approach to the costumes than the classic-historical one.”

You see the thing about this is that there isn't a single piece of Elisabeth centered media that has historically accurate costumes. The closest one is the 2009 mini series, which respects the silhouttes of the time and recreates some of her most known looks - but it still plays loose with history. There isn't anything groundbraking in modernizing Elisabeth's dresses.

Reumer: Today it is desired in period dramas that everything is modern and different in terms of film making or production. That is a great undertaking and not easy to do. But you have to adapt a bit to the present and adapt the story for the eyes of today because a lot just doesn't work anymore. About 1850, women were like furniture. They were adorned, one could say decorated, so you look at them. The most important thing was that it was a lot. Actually this is unbearable, the women were like dolls. At this time, the crinolines, a kind of hoop skirt, were like a sphere and gave the women this doll likeness. But this didn't fit the story of Sisi for me, this woman, that emancipated herself and freed herself from the oppression and power plays. So I asked myself how could one dress women more dynamically. So I changed the shape of the crinolines towards something that came into fashion in the 1870s: flat in the front and a bit elliptical in the back. I used this shapes for Sisi and Sophie.

I will ignore the whole "women were furnitures" take and just focus on the second part, about crinolines not "fitting" Sisi's story. Because if Sisi is meant to be this free spirited girl that was thrown into a gilded cage, and this is a coming of age story of her emancipating herself, then wouldn't it make perfect sense for her to wear the 1850s crinolines? If your take is that crinolines were oppressive, and that Elisabeth was oppressed at court, then her wearing them to represent that is a no brainer. Then you can signify her freeing herself by having her not wear them anymore by the end of the season (or at whatever point in the show this happens). Forget historical accuracy, giving Elisabeth a 1870s bustle doesn't make sense narratively.

Vogue: So did you also see the originals clothes of Empress Elisabeth?

Reumer: Yes, at Schönbrunn, but I found them awful. Everything was so tacky. I'm usually very minimalistic when it comes to my costumes.

Well Gabriela, Elisabeth didn't dress having in mind getting your approval. Nor should you expect a rich royal woman from the 19th century to have the same taste in fashion as you.

Vogue: Then why did you agree to be the costume designer after all?

I wonder the same thing.

Reumer: At the beginning, I wondered what I was actually doing here. But then I viewed it as a challenge. There are also very nice great from this time. The men's clothing is awesome with its frock-coats from great materials and high tophats. It is crazy what one can do with shapes.

You can tell that Reumer isn't into historical fashion at all because she likes Victorian male fashion aka literally the Most Boring Male Fashion in history.

Vogue: Was there a character you found difficult to dress?

Reumer: In the beginning, this was the case with Emperor Franz. He always showed himself in uniform and we had to figure out how to show him without a uniform. How do you show what kind of person he really is? That wasn't simple. Also to make the uniform fit in a way he can move like an emperor was a challenge. For example, he wears a corsage underneath it to support him.

Ok I actually like this! Men wore corsets too! I hope this makes it into the screen, we have way too many scenes of women being tightlaced and not any of men wearing corsets because they were a practical undergarment that gave support.

Overall this interview deeply annoyed me because the way Reumer talked about it, it seems that the modern look of the costumes (which is a trend in period dramas that recently has become very popular thanks to shows such as Bridgerton) is solely due to her just not liking 1850s fashion. Modernization can work for narrative purposes, Bridgerton is a full-on romance fantasy that has nothing to do with actual history so the glittery dresses work to enphasize that. RTL Sisi is also so loosely based on the actual Elisabeth of Austria's life that the modern fabrics and designs work to separate it from real history. Even the Sissi Trilogy with its Disney-princess-like dresses does this. Many times this is not even the designers fault, usually the director has a vision for the story and the designer has to work around that. But I do expect at least some respect for the source material. To say that you hated what the actual woman wore and instead you took inspiration from random moments in fashion history that you liked is just tasteless, what can I say.

That being said I do hope that the final look of the show's costumes is at least cohesive and do make sense within the narrative of the story. But yeah this was dissapointing.

#imagine seeing a dress worn by the woman whose story you're helping to tell and going #`terrible taste gotta change it to something that I personally like´#btw western male fashion peaked during the 18th century and the regency everything went down hill afterwards #costume designer: gabriela reumer #vogue germany #die kaiserin (2022)#the empress (2022)

20 notes · View notes

sisionscreen · 2 years

Text

"The Empress" on Netflix: We show you the first pictures of the actors and actresses in costume

Written by Maria Hunstig for Vogue Germany | Translated by SisionScreen

The release of the first Sissi movie was 67 years ago and despite the female lifestyle of "marrying a prince/emperor and for the rest of time mostly strolling about a palce in frilled dresses, giving birth and looking pretty" gratefully becoming antiquitated, the interest in royal movie stories has become no less. The success of "The Crown", the many recent movie adaptations of the life of Princess Diana and the fact that the Sissi movies continue to be a staple of Christmas TV programming just like "Home Alone" and "Three Wishes for Cinderella" (also a princess narrative), are only a few examples of it.

Now Netflix has dedicated themselves to the life of Sisi as well (the spelling "Sissi" is only used in the period dramas of the 50s) and releases the series "Die Kaiserin" (working title: The Empress) this fall. In for now six episodes it tells the complicated love story of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, Princess of Bavaria [sic! Elisabeth has never been a princess of Bavaria since she is *just* the daughter of The Duke in Bavaria. Her mother Ludovika and aunt Sophie are princesses of Bavaria by birth because they were the daughters of its first king] - and the sister of the woman Franz was supposed to marry. The makers put a special focus on showing the complexity of this relationship and its protagonists who feel partly crushed by the strict rules at the 19th century court.

To show the desired modernity, costume designer Gabriela Reumer took a central role. The Swisswoman is known for her work on TV productions like Soko Wismar and movies like "Rabbit without Ears","Guardians" and "Traumfabrik" and had to familiarize herself with the 19th century royal fashion first - and wasn't too fond of some of the things she found. "I immediately had the ambition to choose a different approach to the costumes than the classic-historical one." Reumer said. She told us how that looks like and what kind of work went into the impressive dresses of the series.

Vogue: Usually you work on modern movies. How did you approach costumes for a historical productions?

Gabriela Reumer: First I went to Vienna. There I visited all the places of action for a week - from Schönbrunn over Sisi's hunting cabin to the Hofburg - and walked through these castles for hours. "How can one live here?" I wondered - because it is crushing, these massive hallways and the gardens that never seem to stop. This was my first try to get closer to the soul of this time period. Of course I also read a lot of books and looked at many haute coutoure shows, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen...there were many sources of inspiration.

Vogue: What is this approach?

Vogue: So you in hindsight you improved fashion history for women.

Reumer: Yes! (laughs) The shapes of this time are great, the small wastes and the big volume are incredible. It is like building a house. I did respect these shapes because else you end up somewhere entirely different. The "rea" Sisi's waiste measure 46c, that is unbelieveable!

Vogue: So did you also see the originals clothes of Empress Elisabeth?

Reumer: Yes, at Schönbrunn, but I found them awful. Everything was so tacky. I'm usually very minimalistic when it comes to my costumes.

Vogue: Then why did you agree to be the costume designer after all?

Reumer: At the beginning, I wondered what I was actually doing here. But the I viewed it as a challenge. There are also very nice great from this time. The men's clothing is awesome with its frock-coats from great materials and high tophats. It is crazy what one can do with shapes.

Vogue: How about the costumes, were many newely or are many vintage dresses among them?

Reumer: For the main roles, most things were made new. There aren't many costumes from this time in archives. Sometimes you can find great individual parts: Lace blouses with very delicate lace fo example, capes or pieces with great decorations. I found many things in London. But it isn't too much since a lot is broken, the most beautiful things are so fragile that you can't use them anymore. The manufacturing studio Costumes Couture in Vienna made nearly all of the dress of Elisabeth and Sophie. It was great collaboration, they also made the wedding dress. The lace was stitched in original Austrian fashion in Vorarlberg and many of the fabrics for Sophie came from a manufactory in Vienna.

Michaela Meyer from Costumes Couture also makes a lot of evening dresses for the Vienna Opera Ball. She has special way to fold and knows the skirts and the volume. A skirt of Sisi uses 10 metres of fabric and she works very differently with it than my wardrobe director in Berlin, who sews in historical accurate way. We then brought all materials to Berlin and fitted them to the actors and actresses here which was very work intensive.

Vogue: How long does work take on one dress?

Reumer: It differs. The Team of Costums Couture is incredibly fast because they have a modern approach. They took about two weeks per costume and about four weeks for the wedding dress. In the studio in Berlin, it sometimes took a month.

Vogue: How many costumes were needed overall?

Reumer: For the complete series we had about 2000 costumes but among them were many extras which were fitted with costumes from costume houses in London and Rome. At Tirelli in Rome, they have many great things from movies I used to dress the "poor people", for example we borrowed a lot of costumes from "Gangs of New York" which was set in a similar time and the dresses a nice patina.

Vogue: What were the actors and actresses reactions when they were allowed to wear the dresses for the first time?

Reumer: They were very happy since it is of course very hard to imagine yourself in such a time period. Suddenly being laced up, wearing this huge volume, crinoline and corsage - it helped them immediately to get into their characters. The role of Sophie for example, who is portrayed as a power player, always wanted tight, high-necked dresses, and we did that. And then she became greater and stronger in the costumes. It was really interesting to see what one can do with historical costumes. The job of a costume is also to help the acting person to play their part. So it is important that they have say.

Vogue: Was there a character you found difficult to dress?

Vogue: What was your process in designing the wedding dress of Sisi?

Reumer: Actually there isn't a single photograph of Elisabeth's wedding dress, there are only drawings/sketches from the wedding at the church.

We wanted to created and show something depressing: Her wedding days is a horror, the entire realm attends and wants something from her. The extras were supposed to look like grimaces. The costumes was supposed to be high-necked and tight, we made a kind of turtle neck from lace and a huge crinoline. The circumference of the skirt is 167cm, it is incredibly heavy. On top of that there is the very long train which was secured at the waiste. For Devrim, it was very tedious to wear this wedding dress during filming, so you can see it in her that Elisabeth's wedding wasn't a happy day..

Vogue: How did your picture of Elisabeth change because of the work on the series?

Reumer: I mostly knew her from the moies with Romy Schneider. Only when I was working closely with the fabric, I understood Sisi's history of suffering, what a fight she fought for her entire life to be free. The poems she wrote are so touching. I became aware then that she tried to not assimilate all the time. Back then it was incredibly difficult to be "different."

The Empress will release on September 29tb, 2022, on Netflix.

Further comments that were used as captions on pictures:

"I was lucky that I was working on this production for nearly a year. Due to the delays, we faced, there was more time to think and to look for fabrics which was a challenge during lockdowns. We were busy with preparations for about six months."

"Most of the fabrics we purchased in Vienna, many also in Rome. There we found a great store which collects fabrics since the 60s, including Haute Couture fabrics. And of course in Antwerpen, there are many great stores, which for example stock Dries-van-Noten fabrics whose colors are ones again totally different."

"I think such a production comes twice or thrice in one life. I couldn't get enough, it was really fun from beginning to end."

"Sissi [sic!] is the kicker, this is the cherry on top of the cake. It was a gift. I surpassed myself and didn't think myself that the costumes would become so strong/great."

[picture of Elisabeth and Franz] "Here we see a moment towards the end of the season, Elisabeth and Franz at Schönbrunn Palce - in an emergence..."

"We worked closely with the set design. It was very important: For them everything is over the top too, and when then an over the top costumes enters the set you must take care for example with the colors."

[picture of Esterházy] "Here we see Countess Esterházy, the Oberhofmeisterin [lady high chamberlain/Mistress of the Robes] - she tries to tame Elisabeth for court with strictness and rules."

#The Empress #The Empress (2022)#Die Kaiserin #period drama #costume drama #historical drama #Gabriela Reumer #Vogue #costume design #Netflix #german series #german tv

21 notes · View notes