The Great Gatsby - Remake in the Works

[rue]

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The costumer should be sent to jail for banging audiences over the head with too-obviously vulgar, historically inaccurate outfits:

I'm guessing I was right when I thought that was a bit too much?

 

[rue]

Sure.


The jacket's shoulders are too extended --and padded-- for the period (1921, yes?), even if Tom had his suits made in Savile Row. The sleeves are also too loose. The waistcoat's closure is too high. The necktie's knot is far too fat for the era. At the time, brown shoes were not worn with dark blue, grey, or black trousers.

Should his vest be pulling like that?

 

[hatophile]

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The costumer should be sent to jail for banging audiences over the head with too-obviously vulgar, historically inaccurate outfits:

It does kind of remind you of Laugh-In, doesn't it?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Should his vest be pulling like that?

His vest is too tight for him.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'm guessing I was right when I thought that was a bit too much?

Going for the obvious is not the hallmark of a good costumer (except in a comedy).

 

[rue]

Going for the obvious is not the hallmark of a good costumer (except in a comedy).

Maybe they're thinking that if they don't make her look like a whore, no one will get it [huh]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It does kind of remind you of Laugh-In, doesn't it?

...........

......

 

[Edward]

The jacket's shoulders are too extended --and padded-- for the period (1921, yes?), even if Tom had his suits made in Savile Row. The sleeves are also too loose. The waistcoat's closure is too high. The necktie's knot is far too fat for the era. At the time, brown shoes were not worn with dark blue, grey, or black trousers.

1922. Thanks - that's clearer now. How about the trouser width? That looked rather too narro to my eye, but I don't know if I'm applying a Thirties idea to the early twenties - I know Edwardian (1910s) trews were of a slimmer cut than the thirties, Not so clear on when the transition point was, though.

Actually, that pairing was sometimes done. However, the color of the solid waistcoat and trousers is too similar to the color of the striped jacket. When a striped jacket was worn with, say, solid colored trousers, those trousers would be either notably lighter or darker than the jacket.

Yes, I should have been clearer - that's what I meant. The pairing of a blue pinstripe jacket with a very similar blue but unstriped other pieces. Gives it something of the look of an am-dram production with no budget and where they have put the pieces together to try to make them look like a matching suit, as opposed to deliberate contrast.

I'm guessing I was right when I thought that was a bit too much?

Period accuracy (I don't claim to know women's clothes from that era) would be the issue. Myrtle should be a little bit much, but strictly in the context of her own period. She's as much a dreamer as Gatsby, and comes from the same working class background, equally striving, in her own way, to break into the world of the rich. He is perhaps more successful at it than Myrtle, though ultimately getting in with those "careless people" kills them both. Myrtle I always read as a beautiful woman who has the misfortune to be born with the perfect hourglass figure in an era when the overriding beauty ideal is to have no figure - no bust, and no hips, both of which she definitely has. Twenty years later she'd be the ideal, but not in the day in which she lives. She's a trier, so she'll have some approximation of high society fashions, cobbled together from what bits she can afford, the bits Tom buys her (which, given his nature, are unlikely to be what suit her figure or have much if any thought put into the buying of them), and inspiration from what the big Hollywood names are wearing in Town Tattle and the other magazines she buys.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The costumer is the director's wife Catherine Martin. She's done the costumes for his earlier films - Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia, etc., - so I wouldn't expect accuracy or understatement!

Am I the only here worried that it's the STORY that isn't going to be better served this time around, even more than the look of the film?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

How about the trouser width? That looked rather too narro to my eye...

Luckily, the trouser width is accurate for 1922.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Am I the only here worried that it's the STORY that isn't going to be better served this time around, ...

IMO, "Gatsby" is a book that doesn't lend itself well to film. It's sort of a given that it will suck this time around, as it has in previous movie versions.

 

[Chasseur]

I am not an expert in women's early 1920s clothes, but that outfit she has looks awful. It looks like someone was trying to recreate the 1970s take on 1920s clothes, but not in a feature film like The Sting or The Wild Party, but how a 1970s made but 1920s themed adult movie would look...

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It's a mess of an outfit.

Look, if the screenplay is going to suck, the very least they could get right is the eye (and ear) candy: the costumes, sets and props, lighting, and music! Let's hope for more hits than misses.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Wow Marc, that's a bit harsh.

I kinda liked the 1970s version... but I have a much lower opinion of the original novel than most of my English-major bretheren.

 

[rue]

I kinda liked the 1970s version...

Me too. I actually liked Robert Redford in it, but I can't stand Mia Farrow as Daisy.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Wow Marc, that's a bit harsh.

I'm just getting started.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Well, Carey Mulligan is a very good actress, judging by her heartbreaking performances in An Education and Never Let Me Go (two of the best films I've seen in the last year.) She should be a more interesting Daisy.

 

[rue]

I'll take your word for it DS

After all she couldn't do worse......

 

[Marc Chevalier]

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Why, oh why didn't they cast Justin Timberlake (or David Beckham) as Gatsby, Beck as Nick, Paris Hilton as Daisy, Victoria Beckham as Jordan ... and Snookie as Myrtle? That would have been hilarious and in keeping with the costuming we've seen in the set photos.

 

[LocktownDog]

Someboday hold him back! He's slavering like a rabid beast!