In the mood for dragging outrageous costumes today so I made a little comparison :)) Left is what comes to my mind when I think of 1930s Chinese fashion, particularly the early 30s, and right is what you usually see in popular portrayals of the 1930s in media in the 2010s and 20s. This portrayal is not limited to tv and film, but also commercial photoshoots involving “Republican era aesthetic”. Oftentimes when I write costume reviews, I feel like it’s very difficult to describe the differences between actual 30s fashion and incorrect costumes, but the differences look so much more prominent in artistic representation when shown side by side. I personally think right is of extremely questionable taste, but if you think that’s pretty I really don’t care, that’s completely beside the point. The point is: how did costume designers go from the left one to the right?? It’s just so wild to me that costume designers will look at artworks from the 30s, end up making something like the right figure, and think they did a good job at accuracy?
“And they jumped and it was…everybody was just open mouth. It was so beautiful. In this moment of pure cinema magic, it was really real.” - Lana Wachowski
Tori