Wednesday, August 12, 2020 at 10:45PM 
Our look back at the cinematic year of 2005 and its Academy Awards continues. This time, we're examining the work of two titanic talents who battled for the Oscar in the Best Costume Design category as they were prone to do. We're talking about the magnificent Colleen Atwood and the sublime Sandy Powell…
Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 10:36PM 
As previously mentioned in my "Emmas of Yore" miniseries, Clueless is one of the best cinematic adaptations of a Jane Austen novel. By modernizing the core narrative of Emma and stripping it of historical detail, Amy Heckerling was able to create a teen movie classic whose biting satire exists hand-in-hand with a sense of overwhelming affection for every character on-screen. Humor and romance are well-balanced, with the comedic element always taking precedence over the love story – as it should be when tackling one of Austen's prickliest and funniest novels.
That being said, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Clueless' release, we're not going to focus so much on its genius screenplay or how it updates Regency-era social commentary to the Beverly Hills of the 1990s. Fashion is our concern this time around or, more accurately, we're exploring the costume design of Clueless. Since 1995, Mona May's colorful stylings have become as iconic as the screenplay's witty dialogues and, in a fair world, they might have even won the designer some well-deserved Oscar gold…
Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 6:30PM 
The voting period for the Emmy nominations is coming to an end. It's true that, now, a FYC may feel a bit late, but I can't let go of the opportunity to shine a light on one of the most impressive achievements in recent television. While I love to explore the marvels of acting, costume design will forever be my main passion when talking about the performing arts. The Emmys are particularly interesting when it comes to the honoring of costume excellence since, unlike the Oscars, they have categories separating Period, Contemporary and Fantasy designs, not to mention separate prizes for live specials. In theory, that makes it somewhat easier for great costuming to be honored but that's not always the case, especially when the clothes being considered are more subtle than showy. Sometimes, sheer flashiness can blind people, and subtler creations are left unrewarded.
Hopefully, such an unjust fate won't happen to the wondrous Mrs. America…
Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at 2:00PM 
Throughout the histories of cinema and fashion, there has seldom existed a more glorious collaboration than that of Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy. The English actress and the French couturier first worked together in the 1954 movie Sabrina, a costuming masterpiece whose iconic fashions and contentious crediting have been previously written about at The Film Experience by abstew. After his uncredited contribution to that Billy Wilder classic, Givenchy would go on to dress Hepburn on and off-screen many more times, though he always got the credit he deserved after the Sabrina kerfuffle.
That was wise of him since, in 1957, he received an Academy-Award nomination for what is one of Audrey Hepburn's most stylish screen adventures, the indelible Funny Face…
Sunday, July 5, 2020 at 8:00PM A Must Read
• Tom & Lorenzo "One Iconic Costume" a fascinating funny and poignant piece on Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz
More Links
• Paper terrific piece on the new generation of queer comedy: Matt Rogers, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Alex English, Cole Escola, and many more.
• Cartoon Brew despite Academy efforts toward gender parity the animation and visual fx industries are still struggling with inclusion of women. (Only 1 in 8 people invited to join the visual effects Academy branch are women this year.)
More after the jump including Hamilton, Netflix hit 365 Days, best of the first haf of the year and more...
