First Design Project - Drawing a Character in a New Outfit
Reflection: In this design project, the class was assigned the task to create a new outfit for an already existing character . Previously in the class, we had learned about the effects of color or fabric choice and the influence it has on the viewer’s opinion of a character. For the project, I decided to base my character off of Mrs. Cheveley from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. In the play, Mrs. Cheveley acts as a villain as she plays a twisted game with Lord Goring and a few other characters. Because of Mrs. Cheveley’s malevolent attributes, I decided to make her dress red because it generally communicating a villainous character when the color is worn by a female. I decided to make the necklace green because it would draw attention to her neck and bust which might attract male attention, which she seems to often long for. The overall dress may be a bit risky for the time she lived, but I think it suits her character due to her often acting independent, careless about others’ opinions, and manipulative. Everything went according to plan throughout the project, although I wish that I had included more about the back of the dress because of the time period of Mr’s Chevely’s was not as apparent.
"You Can't Take it With You" Costume Design Reflection
Reflection: In class, I was assigned the task of creating two characters outfits based off of a play called "You Can't Take it With You". I was given the task to design costumes for Rheba and Donald. Rheba is an African American woman who is a maid for the Sycamore family and acts as one of the minor characters in the play. Rheba is a charming character that seems proper at times but overall has a unique youthful quality to her. David, her boyfriend, seems kind, gentleman-like, and helps Rheba and the Sycamore family throughout the play. Both of their costumes are meant to be their best daily outfits.
Rheba wears a cotton voile, dark blue dress to hide the dirt that collects on her clothing throughout the play. Rheba's dress is made out cotton voile because it was common in the 1930s, which when the play was set in. Her cuffs, collar, apron, and headpiece are white to show a form of refinement and cleanliness. She launders these often. These bright whites on her clothing accentuate the color of her skin, prompting the narrator of the play to describe her as “...a very black girl somewhere in her thirties.” (page 6). With this mature outfit, her youthfulness and outgoing character shine through more than ever.
Donald wears more of a farmers outfit because on pages 11 to 12 there is mention of him carrying a straw hat and a bottle of flies he caught for Grandpa Sycamore’s snakes. I assume he worked on a farm where he might have more access to areas that contained flies. In addition to the idea of him working on a farm, Donald carries a straw hat that could keep the sun out of his face while working in the fields. Donald wears a cotton button-down shirt that is rolled up past his elbows, allowing him to have an easier time in the summer heat and give him more mobility of the arms for working. Donald’s wool pants are held up by suspenders. He wears plain brown shoes. I choose these specific fabrics because they were popular in men's clothing at the time. I also chose all brown tones to help hide away the dirt from his daily work and those colors were common for farmers at the time.
Reflection on Historical Context Choice for Romeo and Juliet
The class was assigned the project of redesigning the play “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare. The main objective was to create new costume designs for the battling sides of Romeo and Juliet’s families when placed in a different time period. The first task in the assignment was to create a new backstory due to being in a different time period and adjusting who the characters were in our version of the play. In the group that I was in, we decided to place the play in the 1930s with Romeo being a wealthy white doctor and Juliet taking place as an African American maid for Escalus, the Mayor of Scottsboro, Alabama. The feud between Romeo and Juliet's families, the Montagues and the Capulets, began far back into their ancestry when the Capulets farmed for the Montagues. One day the fields that the Capulets had been working on caught fire and all of the crops were destroyed. The Montagues did not believe in the Capulets word that they had not started the fire, so they were brought to trial and due to extreme racism during the time, were given an unfair trial and severely punished. Still angered by the incident, the two families continued to live with hatred for one another. Romeo was the only one who disagreed with both of the families’ opinions about one another but keeps quiet as to not come into conflict with his father, who was still fuming about the incident. As well as having conflict between the two families about their ancestors, the segregation of the families due to race caused even more conflict in the plot. The group decided that having the warring families be different races at the time would have fit well with the time period because of mixed-race couples being almost unheard of at the time and being heavily discriminated against. The group also agreed that having Romeo and Juliet be different races, as well as having them live completely different daily lives would have added more depth to the plot and allowed the families to be differentiated easily when creating costume designs.
Justification of Concept
After being given the assignment of reinventing the background story of “Romeo and Juliet”, the class was given the opportunity to create costume designs with our groups based on the new time period we had placed the story“Romeo and Juliet” in. The first step that was taken in the group that I was in, was assigning characters and creating a color palette for the two families in the play; the Montagues’ and the Capulets’. The Montagues’ were assigned a cooler palette due to having a “colder” tone in the reinvented version of the play and the Capulets’ were given spring colors because of being more closely associated with the earth and farming. As well as due to the characteristics of the families, having two separate color palettes for both families allowed them to easily be differentiated from one another. This can be seen in the designs above, where Romeo Montague is wearing mostly greys, while Juliet Capulet is seen wearing a bright yellow dress with orange and red accents.
Focusing more on Romeo, he is dressed in a grey wool suit with a cotton lab coat. During the 1930s, doctors commonly wore suits that were made of wool with a white lab coat covering the top half of one’s body, which was the main reason for this choice of clothing. He adorns a red tie to break the family’s color palette which symbolizes that he is breaking the family’s “code” by falling in love with a Capulet and secretly disobeying them by marrying her. Romeo wears black leather shoes. All of the fabrics used throughout Romeo’s costume design were commonly used in clothing throughout the 1930s.
Moving on to Juliet, she wears a cotton yellow dress with orange and red detailing. The orange shoes that she wears match with the rest of her dress. Juliet’s outfit still fits in with her family’s color palette, but the hints of red in her outfit once again symbolize romance or that she is in love. Although Juliet was a maid, I pictured her as wearing a uniform that was mainly worn when the mayor was hosting important company or events. As well as wearing the uniform on important occasions, the group’s version of the play took place in the summer which was very hot, giving us reason to not put Juliet in a black dress. Colorful cotton dresses were also very common during the 1930s, making it understandable that Juliet’s dress would be made up of dyed cotton.