loony_moony

I seriously do. And this post reminded me how much I love seeing Elizabethan costumes with a flair for fantasy done well, most especially in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, with the genius of Alexandra Byrne, one of the big go-to designers in Hollywood these days.

In fact, I loved her costumes for Elizabeth I in this movie so much, I'm going to picspam them. :)

So, Elizabeth leaves the audience with one final image of the queen, looking pretty much like she's her own wax statue, wearing regal wedding clothes that look more like a funeral dress, tbh.

Her face isn't much better.

So before The Golden Age, according to Byrne, director Shekhar Kapur wanted a complete 180 on the costumes, in terms of colors, fluidity and lightness. She came up, along with him, with a series of absolutely dazzlingly beautiful dresses and costumes that fit Kapur's fantastical sense of style.

Behold:

We have the memorable dress from the trailer (I wish I could find a gif of the 360 shot they did on it), which I nicknamed the "angel wings" dress, for very obvious reasons:

It's a creme-and-gold colored dress, multi layered to the extreme, with two different, substantial collars.

And the collars are all made to the tiniest detail.

Then we have the red dress,

which despite the severity of its collar and heaviness of its fabrics,

is in fact quite a flirtatious dress. The red is light, a shade specifically designed to make Elizabeth I more lively:

Then we have this moment of the travel in boat, during which we don't see a dress, but we do see what is quite possibly my very favorite crown ever. It's just so ornately inventive, you guys.

Nnngh. Okay, so now we come to the blue dresses. Now, according to Byrne, blue was a very un-Elizabethan color, and she tried to avoid it a lot, but Kapur insisted, and so she made a series of blue dresses made for more intimate occasions, all of which appear while she has her nonexistent crush on Sir Clive Owen, and proceeds to play a totally creepy voyeur to his affair with her lady-in-waiting. Hey, you gotta sacrifice a lot to be the Virgin Queen.

When it comes to public occasions, nothing is spared in terms of grandeur to the point of absurdity.

Observe, this fabulous canary-to-mustard yellow dress -

- and the poor bird that died on top of her head while wearing it. Seriously, only Cate Blanchett can pull that off.

When it comes to Srs Bznis, however, the chosen color is deep purple, in very heavy fabrics, and a super conservative wig.

But then there's also the "I am a woman-queen, hear me ROAR" dress, during which Elizabeth I roars at The Evil Catholic Spaniards (well, it was the height of the Inquisition, so they were pretty evil, but then, she was ruthlessly violent as well).

Now, there's the Attempted Assassination Dress, during which I'm pretty sure the desired effect was saintly and vulnerable.

And then we have the "Wtf Elizabeth I Never Wore Men's Armor" armor:

Rigid built, flowing hair. She's a regular combo of a valkyrie and Jean D'Arc.

And finally, we have the "Transcendental Dress", in which Elizabeth I blesses the new baby of her ex-lady-in-waiting and Sir Clive Owen, and once again, the costume seems to aim a heightening of her above the average person. Someone untouchable, virginal and very rigidly set. She almost looks like a figurine.

I like to believe this is the moment she relinquishes all thoughts of having children, a struggle the movie has put an emphasis on.

Listen, I know this movie is oh so very fictional, and that mostly, the dresses are actually not very period-correct, but by everything that is artistic, these costumes are sensational. They are riveting, epic and they leave an indelible impression.

I have to say, I can only hope that when Kapur and Blanchett team up for what is supposed to be the last installment of the Elizabeth trilogy, Byrne will come back and try to outdo what Sandy Powell did for Dame Judi Dench in Shakespeare In Love: