Yesterday’s post was somewhat somber but that’s only because of the compelling subject matter of the Roots, one of the productions whose costumes are being displayed at the 10th Annual Art of Television Costume Design at the FIDM Museum, With that said, today’s post will be on a somewhat lighter note so please stick around. 🙂
Today’s post is more of a hodge-podge of commentary in that not everything at the exhibition was equally compelling to us (that’s just a nice way of saying that there was a lot of costumes we simply didn’t find interesting 🙂 ). To begin, we have some costumes from Mercy Street, a medical drama set during the Civil War :
And just because, here’s the dress with concept sketch and fabric swatch:
This is an interesting design although the fabric does appear to be somewhat late for the 1860s- perhaps more late 1870s or beyond. We like the fabric but it just doesn’t read “1860s.” However, the trim on the front of the bodice simply doesn’t make a lot of sense from an aesthetic perspective and especially when compared to originals from the 1860s (we’ll leave it to you to chase down specific examples 🙂 ).
While the above dresses appear fine from a “fit” perspective, this one simply does not reads well. While it may be just the display, the fit on the bodice looks unshaped and ill-fitting, certainly not the standard found in ballgowns of the 1860s. It’s simply too flat and could definitely use some darts. Also, this bodice style was considered more of a young girl’s. Ultimately, the costumes from Mercy Street were interesting but there was nothing really compelling and some of the style choices appeared to be questionable for the 1860s.
And finally we switch to complete fantasy with a few costumes from Game of Thrones:
Here’s a group shot that we borrowed since the exhibit hall was beginning to get crowded and we couldn’t get a clear shot of the group:
We have to honestly say that the Game of Thrones costumes on display were disappointing, especially when you see pictures of some of the others that have appeared on the show. This was definitely not their “A” game here…
Overall, the exhibit at the FIDM Museum was well done and especially for the Outlander and Roots costumes. Some of the selections for the other shows gave us the feeling that we were seeing the “second string” and were merely selected as placeholders. However, in spite of this we feel it’s definitely worthwhile viewing and that everyone will take away something positive. We hope you’ve enjoyed our somewhat biased review of the Art of Television Costume Design exhibit and look out for more of these reviews in the future. 🙂