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breakinglight11I am procrastinating my grading for the day, so I'm going to make good on my threat to write about my approach to low-budget costuming for a large number of people for a period piece— the gentlemen this time.
As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I did costuming for a period film set in 1915, "The Fair Fight" from Narrow Street Films. I spoke about how I handled the womenswear already, but now let's talk about dressing a large cast of men.
They are at once both easier and harder than women, depending on the issue. Menswear has not hugely changed over the course of two hundred years— the basic features of the suit have been fairly constant beyond minor aspects of detail and silhouette. The male uniform for this period is even more narrow and conformist than it was for women, basically a close-fitting structured wool suit in three pieces, with tapered trousers and a button down shirt with stiff collar and cuffs. Details and quality of fit vary with social class and time of day, but some variation on that was necessary for all the men.
The typical modern men's suit is descended from the sack suit of the time, a casual daytime outfit with a more relaxed fit and no tails, but modern jackets tend to have the top button way too low. Similarly, period trousers ought to sit at the true waist rather than the lower modern preference, and while we find a break in the pant leg appropriate, period cuffs should hang straight and terminate right at the bottom of the ankle. The easiest way to recreate this with modern clothes is with formalwear, which has changed very little over the past century. Tuxedo pants tend to have the right rise and taper, wingtip tuxedo shirts simulate the right collar, and morning coats and frock coats really make the silhouette. So I have amassed quite the collection, along with a bunch of vests in as many colors as possible.
But because there is such a uniformity among menswear— and a difficulty in finding tuxedo pieces in anything but black or gray —it often leads to a lot of men in the same dark suit, with no distinctive look or expression of character personality. So I bend the dressing rules a little, or a lot, for the sake of creating variation and saying something about the character. I had to interchange as much as I could— jacket style, vest color, tie color, tie style, hat or no hat —to make as many vaguely appropriate combinations as possible.
Take these four men. Three are wealthier and more upperclass, high-ranking soldiers and the brother of the wealthy industrialist, while the last is a respectable working class man. The upper class men are all in jackets, specifically frock coats, which these days are worn as outer coats for tuxedoes, and have that very high vamp. It looks like what such men might wear for a more informal occasion like a country fair, while the working class character is just in shirtsleeves. I specifically asked most jacket-wearing gentlemen not to button their coats, however, because I wanted the colors of their vests to be visible for distinction. I would have liked there to be a larger array of colors, but I was limited by fit. There's also a lot of variation in the ties, both in color and style; we have a cravat, two ascots, and a puff tie, which I did my best to coordinate with the vests. The millworker, played by Chris Dovidio, is also wearing a casual hat, in this case a Greek fisherman's cap.
This shot contains some of the same gentlemen, including Dan Dovidio and Ted Siok, but you'll also notice the one in the morning coat, played by Ken Neenan. His character is the head of the family at the center of the story, the rich owner of the mill, so I decided he could be more formally dressed than the others to present himself to the village. This brings in the gray of the morning coat along with its swallow-tailed shape, contrasting with the frock coats, and his gold striped vest and tie also helps him stand out.
Frock coats again, except for the gentleman in the center, played by Robb Buckland, who is actually wearing a sack coat, a less formal option. He's also in a bow tie and my only pair of hickory striped trousers, which properly probably are too formal for sack suiting, but I was limited in what fit who. I do like the look of them and wish I had more, but it's rare for people to own morning dress anymore so it's quite expensive to pick up. For the gentleman on the left, the pretentious rival mill foreman played by Chris Dubey, I wanted him to look like he was flashy and trying too hard, with his garish blues and awkward ascot. I usually use plain black Oxfords for shoes, as the low-heeled leather ankle boots more appropriate to the time are harder to find, but as you can see some people preferred to wear their own.
A drunk and a cop. The cop, played by Caio Avraim, is wearing the bobby-esque coat I use for London police officers in Mrs. Hawking. His cap doesn't really go, but unfortunately nothing more appropriate fit him and I felt like he needed a hat. The drunk, played by Dan O'Brien, is a mishmash of my rougher-looking stuff, and I made a point of not ironing anything he was wearing.
The one cheat I was most annoyed at having to make was for Terry Traynor, playing Terrence O'Neil the butler. I knew the director KJ Traynor wanted him in livery, but I didn't have a black morning coat that would fit him, which would have been standard for the uniform during the day. So he's wearing evening tails. It doesn't look out of the question for what the casual eye would expect for a butler in livery, but it's not right if you know what to look for. (You can also see the maid and the housekeeper characters in casual daywear in this shot.)
Overall, I'm pretty pleased. Didn't have to resort to a sea of uniform black suits. But I have put off my grading long enough, and ought to get back on it.
As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I did costuming for a period film set in 1915, "The Fair Fight" from Narrow Street Films. I spoke about how I handled the womenswear already, but now let's talk about dressing a large cast of men.
They are at once both easier and harder than women, depending on the issue. Menswear has not hugely changed over the course of two hundred years— the basic features of the suit have been fairly constant beyond minor aspects of detail and silhouette. The male uniform for this period is even more narrow and conformist than it was for women, basically a close-fitting structured wool suit in three pieces, with tapered trousers and a button down shirt with stiff collar and cuffs. Details and quality of fit vary with social class and time of day, but some variation on that was necessary for all the men.
The typical modern men's suit is descended from the sack suit of the time, a casual daytime outfit with a more relaxed fit and no tails, but modern jackets tend to have the top button way too low. Similarly, period trousers ought to sit at the true waist rather than the lower modern preference, and while we find a break in the pant leg appropriate, period cuffs should hang straight and terminate right at the bottom of the ankle. The easiest way to recreate this with modern clothes is with formalwear, which has changed very little over the past century. Tuxedo pants tend to have the right rise and taper, wingtip tuxedo shirts simulate the right collar, and morning coats and frock coats really make the silhouette. So I have amassed quite the collection, along with a bunch of vests in as many colors as possible.
But because there is such a uniformity among menswear— and a difficulty in finding tuxedo pieces in anything but black or gray —it often leads to a lot of men in the same dark suit, with no distinctive look or expression of character personality. So I bend the dressing rules a little, or a lot, for the sake of creating variation and saying something about the character. I had to interchange as much as I could— jacket style, vest color, tie color, tie style, hat or no hat —to make as many vaguely appropriate combinations as possible.
Take these four men. Three are wealthier and more upperclass, high-ranking soldiers and the brother of the wealthy industrialist, while the last is a respectable working class man. The upper class men are all in jackets, specifically frock coats, which these days are worn as outer coats for tuxedoes, and have that very high vamp. It looks like what such men might wear for a more informal occasion like a country fair, while the working class character is just in shirtsleeves. I specifically asked most jacket-wearing gentlemen not to button their coats, however, because I wanted the colors of their vests to be visible for distinction. I would have liked there to be a larger array of colors, but I was limited by fit. There's also a lot of variation in the ties, both in color and style; we have a cravat, two ascots, and a puff tie, which I did my best to coordinate with the vests. The millworker, played by Chris Dovidio, is also wearing a casual hat, in this case a Greek fisherman's cap.
This shot contains some of the same gentlemen, including Dan Dovidio and Ted Siok, but you'll also notice the one in the morning coat, played by Ken Neenan. His character is the head of the family at the center of the story, the rich owner of the mill, so I decided he could be more formally dressed than the others to present himself to the village. This brings in the gray of the morning coat along with its swallow-tailed shape, contrasting with the frock coats, and his gold striped vest and tie also helps him stand out.
Frock coats again, except for the gentleman in the center, played by Robb Buckland, who is actually wearing a sack coat, a less formal option. He's also in a bow tie and my only pair of hickory striped trousers, which properly probably are too formal for sack suiting, but I was limited in what fit who. I do like the look of them and wish I had more, but it's rare for people to own morning dress anymore so it's quite expensive to pick up. For the gentleman on the left, the pretentious rival mill foreman played by Chris Dubey, I wanted him to look like he was flashy and trying too hard, with his garish blues and awkward ascot. I usually use plain black Oxfords for shoes, as the low-heeled leather ankle boots more appropriate to the time are harder to find, but as you can see some people preferred to wear their own.
A drunk and a cop. The cop, played by Caio Avraim, is wearing the bobby-esque coat I use for London police officers in Mrs. Hawking. His cap doesn't really go, but unfortunately nothing more appropriate fit him and I felt like he needed a hat. The drunk, played by Dan O'Brien, is a mishmash of my rougher-looking stuff, and I made a point of not ironing anything he was wearing.
The one cheat I was most annoyed at having to make was for Terry Traynor, playing Terrence O'Neil the butler. I knew the director KJ Traynor wanted him in livery, but I didn't have a black morning coat that would fit him, which would have been standard for the uniform during the day. So he's wearing evening tails. It doesn't look out of the question for what the casual eye would expect for a butler in livery, but it's not right if you know what to look for. (You can also see the maid and the housekeeper characters in casual daywear in this shot.)
Overall, I'm pretty pleased. Didn't have to resort to a sea of uniform black suits. But I have put off my grading long enough, and ought to get back on it.
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