Rethinking the Classics: A blog reviewing costumes of classic villains and heros.
In this blog, I will be reviewing costumes of classic villains and heros. But instead of using the same costumes that we’ve seen in the films, I want to reimagine them with a different color scheme and/or design. How would they look if they had different outfits? What symbolism might their new clothes have? (Note: This is a purely hypothetical exercise.)
I decided to start with Maleficent from “Sleeping Beauty” since she is one of my favorite Disney villains. Before her current outfit, she used to wear a black dress in the movie as well as one of the Disney Parks. However, after “Maleficent” was released in 2014, her costume was changed to match Angelina Jolie’s well known horned headdress and black dress with purple accents.
Maleficent’s traditional outfit is very imposing with its tall horns and dark colors. It definitely makes you feel scared when you see her. Her new outfit has more of an air of mystery about it with several layers of fabric draping from her arms like wings, which adds to her intimidating presence.
The theme for this redesign was inspired by the film “Coral
Maleficent Costume
Rethinking the Classics: A blog reviewing costumes of classic villains and heros
Since the release of Maleficent, a movie about the villain from Sleeping Beauty, I have been contemplating the costumes in this movie. I love that Maleficent wore a black dress with a high collar and low waist. The only downside was that she wore it through out the whole movie. I would have liked to see her wear more dresses.
Maleficent also had amazing horns and wings. They were so pointy and dark that they seem intimidating. Her makeup was also simple but scary. She had red eyeshadow and red lipstick which added to her “don’t mess with me” attitude! The only thing I didn’t like was that she never changed her look or her style!
In conclusion, I really like Maleficent’s costume because it is intimidating and simple at the same time.
Maleficent is portrayed as the villain who cast an evil spell on Princess Aurora in Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty. However, her costume tells a different story. Maleficent looks like a hero, not a villain.
Imagine that you were going to design a costume for the hero of a story set in the middle ages. You look back at history and see what people were wearing then. You see that knights were wearing armor with heraldic symbols, so you put your hero in armor with heraldic symbols. But what about villains? If you’re designing costumes for a movie, you have to make it obvious who’s good and who’s bad, so you put your villain in all black, the opposite of white armor with heraldic symbols. And if the villain is female, maybe you stop there, or add something gaudy and ridiculous like horns.
I’m not going to say you should have done something different; this is just to illustrate how easy it is to overlook the obvious when you’re designing things by analogy to existing designs. If I had been designing Maleficent’s costume I would have stopped at “villain” and then thought harder about what made her different from other villains.
Maleficent is one of the most iconic villains in Disney history. She’s the evil fairy that cursed the infant Princess Aurora to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die before she reached her 16th birthday. Maleficent is a force to be reckoned with, as she’s able to transform into a dragon, thunder and lightning appear when she arrives at places, and she has a black staff that seems to be able to do just about anything.
As I researched Maleficent’s costumes, I realized that her costumes are different than many of the other classic villains. She has more than one costume because she appears in the beginning of the movie as a good fairy, then transforms into an evil fairy.
In the beginning of the movie, Maleficent is shown as a young woman with a beautiful green dress. She keeps this green theme throughout all her costumes. The first costume is white and green with a tiara adorned with flowers on her head. As she grows older, her hair gets longer and she wears it down with two green horns coming out of her head which are intertwined with ivy vines. This gives us an idea of what kind of person she is – nature-oriented and mischievous.
Maleficent is one of the most iconic villain costumes. I’m not sure if it’s because of how memorable the character was in Sleeping Beauty, or how easily recognizable her costume was. The headpiece, with its horns and tall black feathers, has become a staple of Halloween costumes and has even been used in Halloween decorations. It’s safe to say that this costume design has been cemented as a classic.
Maleficent’s costume consists of a floor-length black dress with a high collar, long sleeves, and an ankle length skirt. The bodice of the dress is made from a tight-fitting fabric called “bengaline” which is an elastic fabric with a slight sheen (similar to satin). Over the top of this is a flowing layer of black chiffon (a sheer fabric) which starts at the waist and extends all the way to the floor. This layer has longer sleeves than the bengaline bodice and also features a high collar.
The costume also features elbow length black gloves, and a headpiece made from three large feathers (two black feathers on either side and one white feather in front). These feathers are attached to a headband made from wrapped wire and
As the release of Maleficent draws closer, fans of the Disney franchise are clamoring for ways to incorporate the classic villain into their daily lives. For those who would like to channel the evil fairy without showing up to work in her iconic black cloak, we have just the thing: a Maleficent-inspired makeup look.
Start with a fresh face, and apply your usual foundation and concealer. Then, using a neutral shade as a base–we used Mac’s Naked pigment–lay down some color on your eyelids. After you’ve covered your entire eyelid with this color, take a darker shade and brush it onto the outer half of your eyelid, creating an ombre effect that is darker toward the outside. We used Maybelline’s Taupe For You shadow here, but any dark gray will do. Blend well so the colors don’t seem too harsh.
Next, take a black gel eyeliner (we’re using Covergirl’s Line Exact in Very Black) and line your upper eyelid, starting from the inside corner and going all the way to the outside corner in one fluid motion. The thicker you make this line and how far out you extend it is up to you–the more dramatic you want to
When looking at the image you can see that the pink dress is just a sheer overlay, with a light blue lining underneath. The sleeves are similar to the sleeve of a nightgown, but with a sheer overlay that extends past the end of the under-sleeve part. This print is very common in women’s fashion right now, and adding some sheer material to it would make this costume easy to find on clearance racks in nearly any clothing store.
The makeup she has on is very simple. It consists of rosy cheeks and dark eye shadow. The eyebrows are darkened slightly, and she has lipstick on with some gloss over it. Her hair is also relatively simple, although if you want to recreate this look be sure to use lots of hairspray to keep it in place!