When creating costumes for Alice in Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland, Costume Designer Colleen Atwood didn’t want Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) to wear the same blue dress in the entire movie, so the crew decided to use “the shrinking and growing as an excuse to get rid of that dress,” said Atwood (Barrera, 2012).
Read: Tim Burton, a monograph by acclaimed film critic Antoine de Baecque
On little Alice the dress echoes a gown. On large Alice it’s a camisole tutu.
Alice (Mia Wasikowska) in "Alice in Wonderland"
During her adventure in Wonderland, the growing and shrinking Alice is dressed by the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), and White Queen (Anne Hathaway). “We were able to incorporate all that in the story so I had a lot of fun playing with scale with [Alice], also with the Red Queen, whose head was larger than her body,” noted Atwood. “So I had to do a lot of cheating on her costume.”
Atwood continued:
I got rid of her waist by making it black on the sides, so it would be easy to take out with effects, and I cheated the neckline down, otherwise, all you would have seen was a head sitting on top of a body.
All those little things were professional challenges, but we worked them out and then plugged in the design with visual effects.
The intricate and whimsical costumes in Alice in Wonderland landed Atwood her third Oscar in 2011, adding to the two she already took home for Chicago (2002) and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design
Get an up-close look at the Oscar-winning costumes at 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design, an exhibition held at the FIDM Museum & Galleries in Los Angeles, United States. On view now through April 28.
Characters in "Alice in Wonderland"
Paying homage to the artistry of film costume designers, 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design features more than 100 costumes from twenty films released in 2011, including all five 2012 Oscar nominees for Best Costume Design:
- Anonymous by Lisy Christl
- The Artist by Mark Bridges
- Hugo by Sandy Powell
- Jane Eyre by Michael O’Connor
- W.E. by Arianne Phillips
Classic film costumes donned by such Hollywood legends as Fred Astaire and Marlene Dietrich, including costumes that were featured in the first Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition in 1993, are also on display.
Appreciate the costumers’ art in person. Plan your trip to Los Angeles now.
Reference
Barrera, S. (2012, Feb. 11). Oscar-nominated costumes wear well in Fashion Institute’s free exhibit. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2012, from Daily Breeze: http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifeandculture/ci_19945699
| When: | Back to Calendar » February 14, 2012 – April 28, 2012 |
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| Cost: | Free |
| Contact: | http://fidmmuseum.org/ 213.623.5821 |
| Categories: | United States |
| Tags: | Anne Hathaway Colleen Atwood Helena Bonham Carter Johnny Depp Lisy Christl Los Angeles Mia Wasikowska Tim Burton |
| Where: | FIDM Museum & Galleries 919 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90015-1421 USA |
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