Tombstone Meets Star Trek…

And for something a bit different today…Star Trek meets the Gunfight at the OK Corral! This was a popular post a few years back so I thought I’d bring it up again. And for bonus points, here’s a behind-the-scenes picture of our favorite Vulcan going “heeled”… 🙂 Enjoy!


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Today we return briefly to Tombstone through the medium of television and specifically the episode of the original Star Trek television series entitled “Spectre of the Gun.” First aired on October 25, 1968, the episode centered on the inhabitants of planet Theta Kiokis II using an episode out of earth history, the gunfight at the OK Corral, as a means of punishing Captain Kirk for attempting to establish contact with the Melkotians in spite of being warned away by them.

The sets are somewhat surreal with incomplete walls, clocks and pictures that hand in mid-air, etc. because the Melkotians are using Kirk’s thoughts as the basis for Tombstone and the gunfight to recreate them as an illusion. The premise is a cleaver one and one can see it reflective of the spirit of the late 1960s with references to Man’s tendencies towards violence and killing, often for little reason.

In terms of props and costumes, this was no doubt easy to put together since Paramount Studios still had a large collection of wardrobe and props suitable for Westerns (after all, this was the tail end of the heyday of the television Western). Also what is interesting is that while this was filmed on a soundstage, they actually have a live horse or two as background- nice touch that you probably would not see if it were filmed today.

Turning to the costumes, it’s pretty much television B-Western stuff but in context of this being a Star Trek episode, it works. Here are some shots of Ensign Chekhov with Sylvia, the love interest:

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We first meet her in a saloon girl style dress that’s right out of B-Western Central Casting. Unfortunately, I could not get a good screen shot of the whole dress but it’s short and the color is appropriately bright and gaudy.

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Chekhov with his love interest Sylvia.

Here we see Sylvia in something more demure, a generic bustle dress. Once again, I was unable to secure a screen shot but it’s a pretty generic B-Western look for the 1870s or 80s. Like much of this costuming of this era, the actresses did not wear any period undergarments (like say, a corset) and it’s evident in this picture. The hat appears to be something from the 1930s or 1950s that’s been reconditioned.

Next we have the Enterprise landing party. No surprises here and they’re all wearing the stereotypical buscadero rigs for their guns, a look that was invented for Hollywood in the early 1920s. The web belt on Spock is interesting though- no doubt they all were simply dug out of the prop room with little thought except that they fit.

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Now let’s take a look at some of the other characters:

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The Earps, from left to right: Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil.

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Morgan Earp

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Virgil Earp

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Wyatt Earp

And of course no gunfight at the OK Corral is complete without:

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Doc Holliday

And we can’t forget:

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Johnny Behan

Kind of a contrast to this: 🙂

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Johnny Behan as portrayed in the movie Tombstone.

And for a few more shots:

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Doc Holliday and Dr. McCoy

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The “walkdown” to the OK Corral.

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Morgan is about to get his chance to settle the score….

The above shot of Morgan Earp, framed by lightning is very effective in revealing his character, a manic individual who is bent on a gunfight no matter what.

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The OK Corral complete with live horse as background set dressing. 🙂

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No getting out of it now…

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And the fight is on!

From a costume perspective there’s not a lot going on here but as a Star Trek episode, it was imaginative and fresh for the time. In some respects it hits on themes that are still relevant in later film versions of the Gunfight at the OK Corral and the events leading up to it.


And It’s That Time Again- Lily Absinthe Goes To The FIDM Museum, Part 2

12th Annual Art of Television Costume Design

And to wrap things up, here’s some more commentary on our latest trip to view the 12th “Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibit” at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles. After viewing the wardrobe from The Alienist, we then moved on to viewing the latest wardrobe installment from Game of Thrones:

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First up is one of Daenary’s winter looks…not your typical medieval fur coat look.

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Power dressing for Sansa…

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Cersei’s latest look…

And then we saw some interesting outfits from Season 3 of Westworld:

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We have to admit that although we pretty much lost interest in the show after the first season, we did find these costumes compelling from an aesthetic perspective. 🙂 Well, that pretty much concludes our trip to this year’s Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibit at the FIDM Museum. We are looking forward to next year’s exhibit.

 

And It’s That Time Again- Lily Absinthe Goes To The FIDM Museum, Part 1

12th Annual Art of Television Costume Design

Today we decided to avail ourselves of a last opportunity to view the 12th “Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibit” at the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles and while we had to deal with some large crowds, it was definitely worth the time. As a general thing, we like the costume exhibits that are put on at the FIDM Museum because the location is convenient, parking is relatively easy to find, and the admission is free. Yes, free! 🙂

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Getting in a quick picture between mods of visitors…

Although we tend to focus on shows set in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, we’re not oblivious to other eras and genres and upon entering we were greeted by some artfully designed outfits from the show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel:

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While 1950s fashions may seem to be light years apart from the late 19th Century, they both share the characteristic of carefully sculpted silhouettes (helped along by proper foundation garments) and as such represent the design ethos of careful, deliberate design effects, something that was not to re-emerge until the 1980s (albeit in a somewhat re-worked form).

Next, were the costumes from The Alienist. We’ll start with the men’s outfits:

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The above is a fairly functional sack suit and it pretty much fits for 1896 although there’s a couple of details that we find questionable. First, the use of bright colored and/or patterned silks, wools, and cottons for vest fronts was more of an 1860s style and by the 1890s, fabrics tended towards more conservative patterns and colors, often matching the rest of the sack suit (but not always). Second, the use of insets on the collar/lapels is somewhat questionable- from the extant period examples we’ve examined, this seemed to have been a style element reserved for more formal frock and tail coats. Perhaps this was an attempt to emphasize the character John Moore’s upper class status.

Next, we see a frock coat suit worn by Dr. Lazlo Kriezler:

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The use of a bottle green wool is interesting in that it’s a little outside of the norm but not implausibly so and the silhouette holds up well. The button holes on the collar is an odd embellishment but it’s hard to notice on screen.

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Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans in *The Alienist*

And now for the women’s costumes, at least those worn by Dakota Fanning as Sara Howard. First up is a day dress:

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In terms of silhouette, this dress follows a fairly conventional 1890s day dress style and the silk brocade fashion fabric suggests a better sort of afternoon/visiting dress. However, the sleeves seem to be lacking for a dress that’s supposed to date from 1896. The mid-1890s saw the gigot, or leg-of-mutton, sleeve in full boom and for the most part, had far more fullness than what’s on this dress. Granted, some gigot sleeve styles could get seriously over the top but nevertheless, for a dress worn by someone of means, this is not an area that would have been skimped on; these just appear perfunctory. Finally, in its defense, the plum and magenta color combination is an excellent one and the hats further enhances this although the hat doesn’t appear to have been worn, at least to the best of our recollection (somehow, when it comes to film and TV, hats are usually the first thing to be discarded).

Final note: When we first viewed this costume at the FIDM Museum, we noticed that the bottom of the bodice was unbuttoned. We thought this was some attempt to model the bodice details but when we found the above picture, we saw that it had been worn that was in the production. The only reaction we can summon is NO. These dresses were meant to be work with all the fasteners closed; it simply doesn’t read correctly. Perhaps there was a fit issue that prevented full closure and there was no time to fix it but still, it’s simply sloppy.

Next, we seen an evening dress:

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Due to the crowds, I was unable to get a good frontal view so here are a few additional ones that we found online:

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The concept illustration.

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One interesting thing we noticed with this evening dress was that the bodice included spaghetti straps in the production but this was lacking in the actual garments when it was on display. Style-wise this evening dress does give a very rough 1890s silhouette but that’s about all that’s 1890s about it. The worst element is the pleated bodice- the pleats are not only not historically correct, but they make the bodice look ill-fitting. The sleeve and neck treatment also don’t help- The strips of velvet swags are loosely tacked onto the bodice front and limply hang off the shoulders with no attempt to really follow the wearer’s silhouette. The overall effect just looks sloppy. Finally, no real attempt was made to properly create the gored skirts that were the basic element of any 1890s evening dress:

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Here we see a loose gathering of fabric. Once again, sloppy. Just for comparison, let’s take a look at an original evening dress circa 1892 – 1896 that features a pleated bodice:

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M. Laferriere, Robes et Mantaux, Evening Dress, c. 1892 – 1896; Kent State University Museum (1983.001.0173)

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Evening Dress c. 1892 - 1896

Close-Up, Rear View

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While style elements may vary, the key is that the total dress is tidy with smooth lines. Nothing appears to have been added without purpose. Now, perhaps the rumpled bodice in the production was hiding a lack of corseting (can’t say for sure here but often leading actresses insist on not wearing corsets in productions and usually the director will go along with it, even though it ruins the bodice silhouette).

In contract to the ball down is this walking suit that unfortunately got almost no air time:

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Overall, the silhouette reads mid-1890s and the construction is excellent, especially in lining up the stripes between the sleeves and cuffs. The jacket/skirt/waist combination was very characteristic of 1890s day wear and the costume designer definitely got it right. The only issue is, like the above day dress, is the sleeves- they could have been larger, extending out from the shoulder more.

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Overall, it was a commendable attempt and definitely deserves recognitiion. Well, that’s it for now- we’ll have more soon.

(To be continued…)

The 11th Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibition At FIDM

Yesterday, we decided to take a small break and head down to Downtown Los Angeles to check out the 11th Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design Exhibition at FIDM. This is a display of costumes from various Emmy-nominated television shows and serves as the television counterpart to the Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibitions. Now we fully admit that we tend to be somewhat subjective about what catches our eye and most of the shows that featured are ones that we have not seen so with that in mind, let’s proceed…

From a 19th Century standpoint- sort of- the first stand-out were two outfits from the HBO series Westworld:

The first is worn by one of the principle characters, Maeve:

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And here it is on the show:

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The outfit is also seen with a full skirt:

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And just because, here’s a close up of the fabrics from the FIDM Museum Blog:

And then there’s Maeve’s companion Clementine:

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Moving on, here’s an assortment of pictures from a variety of shows…

Now for something different, here’s one of Queen Elizabeth’s gowns from the Netflix series The Crown:

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And “live”…

Elizabeth (Claire Foy) and Philip (Matt Smith) smile for a paparazzi moment. Photo: Netflix

I’ll admit, the reasons I was drawn to this one was because of the color combination of a dark celadon/gray combined with taupe bodice and overskirt. Very simple, yet elegant, and it’s a color combination that may make an appearance in one of our designs. 🙂

Now for something different, here are two costumes from the Amazon series The Collection:

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And a close-up, courtesy of the FIDM Museum Blog:

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What is especially striking is the coordinated arrangement of the various striped fabric pieces combined with the use of lavender- it’s very striking and overall dress silhouette gives a “New Look” feel (well, the show IS about a Paris fashion house in the Postwar years… 🙂 ). Now for something a bit more dramatic:

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And here’s a picture of the dress “live”:

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We really need to watch the show… 🙂

Well, that’s a brief look of what we saw at the FIDM Museum and as usual, we were not disappointed and it definitely held our attention. From a period (i.e. 19th Century) perspective, there was little that grabbed our attention but we take  our inspiration from all periods (especially 1946-60 recently) and don’t be surprised if some of that appears in our designs. That’s all for now! 🙂