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“May I touch your... wolf” CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED LINE PEDRO
she didn’t need to do all that…… but she did THAT
#queen of subliminal undertones#argelladurrandon#melisandre is such an underrated troll icon in general#I have to stan forever
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THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT: THE SUBLIMINAL NARRATION THROUGH FASHION
2 Jan 2021
In the second part of this three part series, we will discuss the colour and motif utilized in Gabriele Binder’s costume design to elevate the profound portrayal of Beth’s struggles and growth throughout the show.
Green
The captivating curated colour palette of Beth’s wardrobe in The Queen’s Gambit is one of the most subtle, yet significant story-telling devices of the show. In a panel moderated by Oscar-winning costume designer, Ruth E. Carter, for the Brooklyn Museum, Binder, the show’s costume designer, mentioned how light green seemed to encapsulate Beth’s character. Binder wanted “to find out what makes her stronger, what makes her weaker and what are the points where maybe the same colour gives her power”, and this pale green motif magnetized Beth.
In the first episode, a young Beth dons a dress of this colour, with her name tenderly embroidered on it by her mother, one of her very few belongings. The colour perhaps symbolizes Beth’s sense of home and comfort. When she arrives at the orphanage in Kentucky, the headmaster, Mrs. Deardoff, forcibly takes the dress away from her, stripping her of any sense of home and identity that she once had and in lieu, giving her a grey hand-me-down dress of identical design to her fellow orphans.
It is interesting to note that as soon as Beth has lost all autonomy over herself and sense of comfort, this control and comfort is somewhat regained through the consumption of the tranquilizing pills, corresponding in colour to that of her pale green dress.
As the show progresses, we see Beth struggle with her addiction to these pills as she matures. This idea of the sense of comfort and control this pale green gives Beth is demonstrated as we see her failed attempt to get sober the night before her biggest match to date in Paris. Hungover and late to her tournament, and with a demeanour of distress and disarray, Beth clings to this green, adorning a dress of similar colour to her pills to her game against Russian chess Grandmaster Vasily Borgov, perhaps seeking the sense of assurance the green seems to govern.
The dress is too a motif for the tranquillizers, which Beth believes she needs to succeed in the game. However, Beth ends up losing the match, indicating that the substance is not in fact synonymous success.
Binder mentions how she wanted a moment in the shows conclusion where Beth could finally feel like she was “home” and had a sense of self. This is notable as we see Beth’s dress as she wins her final and biggest tournament in Moscow. We get a cyclical sensation as she is yet again perceived in the same pale green as in the beginning of the show. The pale green collared dress is an homage to home.
Binder confirms that “at this moment, she is not afraid of the man she has been most afraid of. In the beginning, it's a colour that makes her really fragile, but in the end, the same colour is a sign of her strength; it is symbolic of a homecoming.”
The pale green follows Beth through her pits and peaks and acts as that of a mirror to her character trajectory.
Chess board motif
Beth’s commitment to the chessboard is such that she subconsciously sports one.
Plaid is a pattern that becomes a patent of Beth. The very first outfit that she buys for herself is that of a checked pattern from Ben Synder. Beth is so consumed by chess that it her natural intuition to dress like the game, perhaps out of a desire, having always been an outsider, to fully submerge herself into the one world she feels she belongs in.
In the brittle chill of Moscow, she approaches her victory in a remarkable cream-and-black vintage checked coat with patent piping by André Courrèges, foreshadowing her life transforming win. Binder described the outfit choice to Vogue as “a very self-confident piece”, one that represents the strength of Beth’s character growth.
It is also interesting to note the undertones of Beth’s checked garments. When they have a predominantly black colour pallet, Beth tends to lose, but when white exists at the forefront of the design Beth’s victories are invigorated.
This is most notable when Beth wears her all white heavy wool coat and matching hat, presenting as the white queen herself, perhaps the white also symbolizing Beth no longer being stuck in a bashing ballad of her brain, but much like the pale green, finally at peace. The world is now her chessboard. She is now confident in her sense of home.
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