I don't know if you are as excited about the return of Fashion Friday as I am but I sure hope so!
I know I still owe you the last post from my Great American Tour, but I just missed Fashion Friday so much I haven't gotten to it yet. I've not forgotten, yes it's coming.
So let's recap, when we left off I'd just completed my Mystery Box Sewing Challenge which took me about a year to do. I was also in the middle of recreating French Post Cards even if I wasn't really writing about but if you follow me on IG I was posting on it. Well Covid happened, the world stopped and I made over 400 masks, which are available in my shop for purchase. And while quarantined my family and I started a a new routine. Lunch takeout on Sunday's (Local Small Business's ) Monday night game night, Tuesday's and Wednesday Dystopian/End of the World Movie, Thursday possible game or K Drama, Friday Wild Card any of the above, and Period Drama Saturday.
Why am I sharing this? Well out of these happenings an idea was born. What if I created some Apocalypse Chic looks based on these Futuristic Dramas? BOOM Challenge Accepted!
Now that I've set the Stage things are starting to come together.
First Movie : Planet of the Apes 1968 version starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, and Kim Hunter. The movie takes place in a future where Apes are superior and ruling over their enslaved Human counterparts. The film (and franchise) is chalk full of complex sociological themes. John Chambers was the makeup artist behind these extraordinary makeups, and Morton Haack the man responsible for the Costumes. Often times in productions like this the makeup and costumes must go hand in hand, and this film is the perfect example of this.
Me personally am crazy about costumes and clothes, and I could go through every grouping and character breaking down what I like. But at the risk of this going on to long I would like to just focus on Cornelius and Zira the inspiration behind today's look.
So let me start of by saying I did not replicate these outfits, my goal was to take elements from these costumes and create my own garment that would fit both in their world, as well as ours.I did this by looking at the garments picking out design elements/ features that stood out to me and putting them into my pieces.
I was immediately decided to make a tunic and pants for those of you who've been following me for awhile you are probably aware by now this is something I'm found of, and those of you who aren't I've included the video below of a mini collection of mine.
Anyways pants + tunic = thing I like, I actually started with the tunic because I knew that would be the more challenging draft. What stood out to me about both Zira and Cornelius's looks was the Asian feel they possessed. It's harder to see on Cornelius but on Zira the built up overlapping collar is very similar to a kimono or hanbok. It is somehow done out of this leather and suede (I don't know that it is suede it just looks like that to me) very heavy fabrics and I didn't want to try to figure out how they did that. I do like the look and decided to give my tunic and Asian feel as well.
I opted to go for the Chinese cheongsam style which in retrospect I'm not sure was any easier than the collar Morton choose. I told myself it would be easier because I've done it before, but doing it out of leather is something I hadn't done before and no surprise, was not easy. Well actually I was surprised.
When drafting this pattern I used the same pattern block that I used for my Sassanach dress,
it's a little over designed with a bunch of darts. I made it from a polyester knit that I bought off a vendor in the Fashion District of LA in like 2016 or something like that. The color is absolutely perfect, and fabric easy to work with. I didn't want something as heavy as they used for the movie because my poor machine, and also it's hot here in the valley. Why costume designers got to put people in hot heavy clothes in the desert? It's not something I could easily leave out. So I had to play with it during the design process, and try to find it a place. I eventually decided on doing the underlapping portion of the cheongsam as well as the collar. Since I was happy with the sketch, I tried to translate it to reality 😳
I choose this particular piece of leather because it was soft, and felt very close to real leather, but once I got home and started working with it I noticed I'd made a mistake. Typically faux leather is usually pretty thin, oftentimes it's also very plasticy in touch which is why I opted for the one I did, despite it being on the thicker side. I realized of course at home that the thick fabric was not only thick, but difficult to manipulate and incompatible to the knit I was already using. That paired with me not being able to press it (no high heat on leather) made it so I wanted to abandon the tunic all together. I even snapped at my mom because the difficulty made me irritable. But I had spent the money on that leather, and I was gonna use it, at 35.99 a yard this was going to work! I'm not exactly sure how I got these fabrics to blend the way I did (sheer power of will) but it worked however
it did.
Another thing I noticed about both Cornelius and Zira, was the sleeves. They're cropped with a slight flare. I also went with a cropped flared sleeve on my tunic which is a little 70's but fit the top well. I bought some pretty gold clasps to hold everything together. Really I wanted leather toggles, but couldn't find them in the right size, the gold did accent everything well so I'm happy!
For the trousers I used a heather brown suiting also purchased from Joann's, I ended up using a ready made pattern because most trousers without a front fly are more or less the same. I picked this fabric for the color and went with a tapered pant on account of it's very Cornelius.
I used vintage Simplicity pattern 5075 to make these trousers.
The beauty of this pattern is the pants have only 5 Pieces which makes it a good pattern for beginners, these vintage pattern's tend to be good starters, they really new what they were doing back in the day.
These pants were very refreshing after struggling through that tunic. It is unlikely that I will be making anymore of those tunics in the near future, if ever, but these pants are here to stay! And can be ordered from me if you like!
The best part of these trousers is this Vintage metal zipper I found in my stash. I love little details like that, they really bring a garment to life!
Both of these garments are available in my shop for purchase so feel free to go check them out. Below I have included a photo shoot of the look. What do you think? How do you compare my overall look to the reference photo? Did I pull off this Planet of the Apes look or is it a little too Star Trek?
Let's talk about styling, in the world of fashion styling I an make or break a look!
For the photo's I was really fighting a losing battle, unable to recreate the hair and make up the apes wore I settle for slicked back hair, and a very neutral makeup. In the movie, though the apes are more advanced they are still stuck in a very primitive society with lots of desert. So finding a backdrop was difficult. More difficult was the power of that sun bearing down on me. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I normally do, and of those most of them are not very nice (squinty eyes). But I did what I could I captured a few okay ones, that hopefully did justice to the movies.
Well thanks for stopping by! I'll see you next week when we talk about another movie from the POA Movie Franchise! If you want to talk more about this look head over to the Forum, I'd love to chat more with you about my look and the costumes of this movie!