Review of Heroes and Heroines Exhibition- Leeds City Museum.

The heroes and heroines exhibition was an exciting and rewarding experience for any fashion student or person interested in clothing and fillm, as it showcased some of the most highly recognised costumes featured in recent film and television, Most famous being Orlando Bloom’s Pirates of the Caribbean costume, Madonnas silk gown from Evita and Keira Knightley’s Dress from the period drama The Duchess.

The Exhibition also showcased numerous other costumes such as the shirt worn by Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice, Daniel Craigs Costume from Defiance and Cate Blanchett’s extraordinary dress from Elizabeth.

The exhibition created a great opportunity to focus on the intricate detail of the garments, as well as looking at a wide range of fabrics and construction methods. It was particularly interesting to see how the clothing had been adapted in order to match the time period of the film or television programme, as they were created in the twenty-first century (Film/ Television) but reflected a time period that occurred many years prior to this.

Having such open and exclusive access to garments worn by some of the world’s most famous film stars became an attraction and somewhat a fascination, whilst at the same time adapting knowledge and understanding of the type dress worn in different eras. The museum displayed original historic pieces to communicate the high level of accuracy (of film/ television pieces) when comparing garments intended for the screen and garments that are in fact historical.

The 18^th century focussed film the duchess was the height of the Georgian period, as well as a period that was important for fashion, social and political status, which is evident to see when looking at the dress worn by Keira Knightley, Bustle and pannier style skirts were very popular during this time, with the bustle being more popular towards the end of the 1700’s

Daniel Craigs World War two focussed film defiance costume depicts a military inspired code of dress, which signifies the event the film is based around, which is about a group of Polish Jews and their fight against German occupied eastern Europe. The look of a worn leather was an created by a textiles artist which ages the look of leather, making it fit to the film. The use of khaki pants and boots accompany the jacket which completes the world war two based outfit.

Cate Blanchett’s film costume for Elizabeth, reflects costume of the mid 1500’s , her dress is very extravagant as her role within the film is being the character of Queen Elizabeth the first during her early reign. From looking at the dress at the exhibition it is clear to see how an abundance of layering has been incorporated into it in order to reflect that of the 1500’s where dresses and womens clothing was very voluminous. The use of contrasting colours was also recognised throughout this time.

Overall this exhibition ultimately gave you an insight to the history of fashion, and how it is now cleverly interpreted and accurately reproduced for modern film and television.

EXHIBITION AT:

Leeds City Museum