The Red Shoes: costumes

I'm feeling rather guilty about going completely AWOL from the blog recently, mostly because the whole point of starting it was to make myself do more writing, and, um... it's not really happened. However, I do have an excuse - A levels will be well and truly upon me in the next month or two, and I have an offer from Cambridge (eek). This means I have to work my backside off to get the grades they want, and even then I'm not sure I'll do it... Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to hear about that. Onto more inspiring topics!

I rewatched one of my absolute favourite films the other day. The Red Shoes (1948) is a visually stunning film based on a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, with gorgeous dancing and costumes. As a dancer myself (not a patch on Moira Shearer though), this film has basically everything I think a perfect film needs: amazing costumes, dark fantasy, and a healthy smidgen of dancing.

Because I love this film so much, I'm going to do two posts on it. This one will focus on the costumes, and the other one will have a short creative piece focusing on the dancing. Because of course they are the most important things ;)

Anyway. The COSTUMES. (This is going to be extremely picture heavy, so I'll make them smallish to save you scrolling too much.)



I want her hair.



In all the rehearsals and classes the dancers are in, they wear the most fabulous warm up gear. It's all scarves tied in interesting ways and cotton blouses and extremely short shorts. I feel I should try this for my ballet lessons, although I can imagine all that fabric getting rather annoying.

The stage makeup and costumes for the actual ballet are incredibly inventive and dreamy - a lot of them look as though they could come from a modern musical.

And of course we can't forget the everyday clothes of the characters. If I had Victoria Page's wardrobe I would be a very happy woman.

So yeah. Go and watch the Red Shoes, it's not the most cheerful of films but I can guarantee you will be swept away by its sheer awesomeness. I will be back hopefully soonish with some more of my own stuff! I do have a couple of posts lined up, but one needs some photos and the other needs some writing... I'm sure I'll find the time from somewhere. I think I shall have to steal the TARDIS. That's the only way it's possible for a human being to pass A levels and keep up a semi-functioning social life.