Ok, we've fought about this before, but I think because we have become forum friends, we can talk very nicely about this now. If you don't consider me a friend, ok, but, I still know you want to speak nicely to me, and I hope you don't find this mean, but a friendly discussion!Disney's Divinity wrote:I thought Belle's yellow dress was fine, but I didn't care for the wedding dress. And this doesn't look as bad as the dramatics are making it out to be either. But the only live-action remake outfit I actually loved was Jasmine's pink and gold outfit in Aladdin.
To me, the worst dresses are between Cinderella and the hideous one we saw for Ariel recently (the one that was pink and yet looked nothing like the pink dress from the original film--and wasn't even different in a way that was flattering to the actress, it was just plain ugly all the way around).
I want to get to the bottom of the live-action dress debate!
First of all, I thought Jasmine's pink dress, while overall lovely in effect, was, in detail, all these lines crossing and even some color-blocking that was just altogether all over the place! But that is my opinion. I didn't like many costumes in Aladdin.
Ok, Cinderella's dress. Why is it one of the worst? It's got a delicately draped neckline that also serves as puffy sleeves with a nice off-the-shoulder effect, at least in some scenes it is off-the-shoulder, which always looks beautiful. Yes, it has butterflies, but they are not huge, they are small details, and they don't look bad. And the skirt may seem plain, but it has many, many pleats going all the way around. Here, you can see the pleats as she enters the ballroom:
Ok, so her sleeves sometimes look bad in a shapeless way. They kind of look like horizontal tear drops, like triangles:
But sometimes they have more shape to them, kind of tightly gathered on her neckline, and flairing bigger on her shoulders:
How is Cinderella's dress in any way egregiously ugly? I'd say the worst thing you can say about it is it's plain, which was the point -it's simple, like the character is supposed to be. The costume designer said that was why she made it that way. Do you find the butterflies egregious? Is that it? They're small, not that many, and not even that noticeable except in extreme close-ups!
So, I explained why I found the dress beautiful, in fact I think it's the best live-action Disney dress, why do you think it's one of the worst?
Now Belle's dress. It has a vertically layered bodice with a horizontally layered stomacher (the middle of the bodice). I don't mind those, really, though I'd rather a more historically accurate bodice, with 3/4 sleeves. Actually I'd like a way more historically accurate dress, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. I'm trying to make a point about what's pretty. The next element of Belle's dress is of course the skirt and overskirts. The skirt of course would be fine if it had some structure to it, but it doesn't. And the overskirts. They are cut straight across, making rectangles! Here is Belle entering the ballroom. Belle's dress looks flat. It looks better in motion, where the overskirts are lifted a bit, but when the dress is still, the overskirts just hang there, and they look ugly to me! The overskirts are like flat, hanging triangles!:
Another case of the dress looking flat when still:
I said it looks better in motion, and it does. I suspect it's because it makes her dress look like it has structure to it, because the skirts going out give an appearance of volume:
So, I have made my case for why I think Cinderella's dress is not the worst, and Belle's is one of the worst. But the worst one is Ariel's pink and white monstrosity. I have no idea why that dress looks so bad when it's from Colleen Atwood, who I have never seen a bad costume from, though I have not seen nearly all of her work. I am so sorry Ariel got treated so badly when she's one of Disney's best characters. Oh well, I like all of the original Ariel's dresses, the most important ones!