Pink Goes Good With Green!: June 2009

28 June, 2009

Glinda Popular Dress Lookalike?

I really think this beige (sand? What colour is that?) "strata" dress by ModCloth looks remarkably like Glinda's pink popular dress!

24 June, 2009

Elphaba Album

I've uploaded my Elphaba Research Photos. Find them here.

23 June, 2009

Susan on Glinda and Elphaba (from SusanHilftery.com)

From SusanHilferty.com (check it out for info on Wicked's Costume Designer, Susan's sketches, interviews, and more!):

Glinda is the epitome of good, so I did research by asking little girls what goodness looks like. They said like a princess, like a bride. I collected and studied pictures of Queen Elizabeth II from her coronation, Lady Diana’s wedding dress, and all of the dresses that are emblematic of perfect femininity. When you look at any of the English coronation images, it’s hysterical, because it’s all about impressing in a certain way. Even Queen Elizabeth, in the 1950s, wore a crown and a long robe and held her scepter, and I wanted to tap into that. Glinda is also connected to the sky, sun, and stars. That influenced her tiara and wand. The sparkles on her dress are all about that, too. She symbolizes lightness, air, bubbles. Kristin is someone you know loves costumes, because she comes from a beauty pageant background. She can wear any kind of heel, and she knows makeup and hair. But she wanted to be transformed to be Glinda. We did a lot of fittings. I had to find just the right proportion in her Glinda dress, because she is tiny, tiny, tiny. She can get swallowed up in a second. It’s like one ruffle too many and you’re over the top.

I didn't even know that about Kristin being in pageants... you'd think she's too short; I thought they had to be like eight million miles high and two wide. Haha.

Elphaba is exactly the opposite. I see her as connected to things that are inside the earth. So the patterns and textures I wove into her dress include fossils, stalactites, or striations that you see when you crack a stone apart. I mixed different colors into her skirt, so everything is literally twisted. And there was no issue with Idina about whether a costume was or wasn’t flattering. Idina is unbelievably gorgeous, but she’s not at all obsessed with her looks. When I designed her clothes for Shiz, I gave her heavy boots, so right away she’s connected to the earth, and then a cap that she pulls down low. Plus, she keeps her hands in her pockets. Idina completely embraced the idea of a young girl trying to hide herself. Now, by the time she gets to the Emerald City, she feels she belongs. I change her shoes so that she has a lighter pair. We take her glasses away, her hair comes down, and she’s wearing a lighter color. And suddenly she feels accepted and even, you could say, fashionable. Glinda tells her at the end of Act I not to be afraid and she answers, “I’m not.”

Livejournal!

Also, "Pink Goes Good With Green" is duplicated on the livejournal "Musical Costumes"; I'm hoping to garner more interest by increasing my mediums. Join!

So, I have put everything i have in the way of reference photos into a Photobucket Album. As time allows, I'll put links in the costume directory and individual entries to the costume being researched, but in the meantime, here's just a general link. (Yes, I have only done Glinda so far, and yes, I AM biased. It's my blog. Go away!)

12 June, 2009

Wicked: Costume Directory: Elphaba Thropp

A rundown of the costumes Elphaba wears in the musical.

Her Shiz Uniform is navy, in direct contrast to Galinda's cream.
On her First Day, she wears a navy blazer with black (or maybe a darker navy?) piping over a pleated dress and a dickey. She also wears a knitted cap.
Article (coming soon!) Gallery

For the Ball, she takes off the dickey and blazer, and adds the hat Galinda gives her.
Article (coming soon!) Gallery

After becoming "Galindafied", she wears a different blazer (presumably of Galinda's) which is highnecked, form-fitting, and mutton-sleeves.
Article (coming soon!) Gallery

When she goes to the Emerald City, she wears a very Victorian black gown. It has a mandarin collar, mutton-sleeves, a light, swishy skirt, and a pointed waist with buttons to the neck. She also wears the hat, and during Defying Gravity, Glinda gives her a black cloak, she magics a broom, and presto! becomes the "Wicked Witch" we all know and love.
Article (coming soon!) Gallery

During Act 2, she wears the same dress as before, only, due to her rampaging across the country saving animals she's never even met, it's ripped, patched, and turned on itself--Susan Hilferty says there are 14 different fabrics, which is 5 more than Galinda's bubble gown. I also heard a rumour that it weighs 95 pounds and that Shoshana Bean lost 45 pounds while playing Elphaba... but who knows whether these are true.
Article (coming soon!) Gallery

07 June, 2009

Wicked: Galinda's Shiz Uniform

"Magic Wands: Need They Have A Point?"

This is the cream skirtsuit that comprises Galinda's Shiz uniform. Susan Hilferty said that she made the school colours of Shiz navy and cream, with students wearing various combinations of the two, so she could set Galinda and Elphaba up as contrasts. Galinda always wears cream (as the light, fluffy character); Elphaba in navy (as the darker, outsider character). It has changed over time... In its original form, this costume was comprised of a pleated dress, not unlike Elphaba's navy gown.

The dress is a very basic collared shirt up until the bustline, when it becomes a very complicated dress made of horizontal pleats. There is a navy and blue tie fastened at the collar (which is an adorable peter pan style, with navy trim)

The blazer, as worn in the original Broadway production, is a cream, long sleeved blazer with the fastenings horizontally to the left. It's skewed, not unlike the Politician Gown. The Shiz Uniform Now is composed of a blouse/vest combination, a fluffy skirt, and a blazer, all in shades of white. Julia from the Stuttgart production of Wicked wrote in to say that during NOMTW Glinda wears her Shiz skirt & shoes underneath the Bubble gown, and during her 25 second change, she simply takes off the skirt, puts the jacket on over the Bubble Gown bodice, and changes her wig. She didn't say for sure, but I would assume she changes into the vest during "The Wizard and I".

The vest is a cream, matte fabric. It buttons diagonally, not unlike the original incarnation of the Blazer (see above). There are five small white buttons (you can see four, but I think there's probably one underneath the tie. She wears the vest over a white, blue pinstriped blouse.

Above--closeups on the pinstriped fabric and her tie. It looks like some kind of medallion...?

The new blazer is very straightlined, not as random as the old version. It has slightly flared sleeves, and silver trim. (The one on the dress form is from the Australian production, I believe). It has three buttons down the front.

The skirt is probably my favourite part about the new look. It's a fluffy a-line skirt, with lots of ruffles. Dianne Pilkington calls it a "kick skirt" and says that it moves beautifully. Details! She always carries a bag, says Dianne. "Any time she doesn't have a wand, she has a bag."