Buttons, Pearls and Bedazzlers-Oh My!

I have been pouring over old portraits from the 1500’s looking for patterns in the jewelry and meaning in the colors. It feels a little like the The Da Vinci Code, but much better dressed. If you accept the idea that clothing, like art, is symbolic; then the tension becomes how to reconcile the clothing code of Tudor England with that of the modern day audience. During the reign of Henry the VIII, purple was a royal color and ‘real’ men wore pearls. Imagine Steve Jobs in a purple turtle neck and pearl bedazzled glasses (yes Bedazzlers can do that). See what I mean about tension? 

In a perfect world, the color of your shirt or the length of your skirt should never define your character. But that’s another blog for another time. Costumers could be seen as code-breakers. You take old images and symbols of power, break them down, and then translate them into new symbols of imagery that make sense to the audience. How did we do it in A Man for All Seasons? Take a sneak peak at some of the rehearsal photos in this week’s Entertainer. I won’t give it all away but the characters wear clothes, jewels and colors that speak to both worlds with fewer pearls and none of the 12 pounds of underwear typically worn at that time. 

Fun bit of trivia, did you ever wonder why women’s shirts have buttons on the left hand side and men’s shirts have buttons on the right? Way back in the day, buttons were bling. Wealthy women of history needed servants to help them dress. The buttons were put on the left side of the garment so the right-handed maid could do them up more easily. See you on opening night, Dec 2^nd.