The Hunger Games-Effie Trinket Inspiration

Film Inspiration: The Hunger Games

My concept for the visual product is of a headpiece that is inspired from the Victorian era and Steampunk. When I saw the first film from the trilogy of The Hunger Games I fell in love with the edgy and eccentric costumes especially of Effie Trinket's character who she wear outrageous outfits at all times. I chose these to two styles of Victorian and Steampunk because steampunk is inspired from Victorian and the film portrays steampunk a lot especially when it comes to fashion and technology.

Victorian Era Fashion 

Crinoline skirt flatted
from front. Winterhalter
painting, 1865

When Queen Victoria reigned in England she was still  very young just 18 years old so she was adventurous,creative, innovative and fearless to try out new things. During the period she reigned, fashion was launched that would be an inspiration and phenomenon till present. Basically the Victorian era was split up into two periods early period ( 1837-1860 ) and the mid-to-late period ( 1860-1901 ).

  Before the Victorian era dresses were much elaborate and huge, in fact they used to wear a crinolines under the skirt to make it look fuller, these were like cages . The sleeves were puffed and created broad shoulders. When the Victorian era developed, dresses by time started to become much more practical and narrower sleeves, tight-fitting boned bodice, narrower skirts with ruffles and frills. In the mid-Victorian era (1860-1880) the sewing machine was invented, fashion became more couture design, synthetic dyes were available for intense colours and the crinoline skirt was flattened in the front but showed the garment from the back. 

Soft polonaise bustle.

In 1875, they were in vogue the soft polonaise bustle this was a draped and frilled train at the back of a dress.With the invention of the sewing machine it made easier to add frills, pleats, ruffles braids and fringing and made it heavily ornamented until later were replaced by the Princess sheath garment. By 1880 the silhouette was getting longer ans slimmer even more by the train. These lasted for three years only though. Followed by in 1883 the hard bustle which made the women's silhouette look like the hind legs of a horse. 

Tailored made suits
of the 1890's 

Tailored made garments were introduced in 1874 that led to fashionable tailor made suits in the 1890's . Fashion now became more plain, simpler and tailored yet still elegant and neat.Sharp tailored jackets were popular and embraced by the late Victorian women, it made more confident and a different posture. Women were showing their strength as a gender in their workplace with Power Dressing, which was similar in 1985, through women wearing masculine tailored and shoulder padded jackets.

The gowns of the 1880's were made from two colours and one material, colours usually were vivid such purple, royal blue, deep red, peacock blue, bright green and many more sometimes the combinations were rather strange. In contrary to day dresses the night gowns were made in softer hues and contrasting fabrics.

Modern Fashion Inspired from Victorian Era

Although its been over a 100 years since Victorian era fashion was developed, it remained a phenomenon and an influence with modern fashion designers and society. Famously worldwide fashion designer used Victorian styles in their haute couture collection,ready-to-wear collections,editorials even for wedding gowns. Making a good observation one can notice the influence of Victorian fashion in fairy tale themed shoots, Gothic editorials and in movies such as The Hunger Games, Marie Antoinette, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd amongst many others. Detailed pieces such as lace, ruffles, frills, tulle and many more add that beautiful and elegant touch to modern collection. 

Atelier Versace Spring 2011,

Bridal Collection, Yolan Cris Spring 2013

The incorporation of details such lace, tulle, corsets, slim-fitted gowns and extravagant headpieces will attract the youth generation.  Its a way of keeping  the historical  Victorian era fashion alive by combining the traditional of the nineteenth century with modern fashion. 

Effie Trinket- The Hunger Games

As I mentioned in the beginning my main inspirations for the visual concept the headpiece is Effie Trinket, one of the main character in the Th Hunger Games trilogy who she has the role of an escort in district 12. I fell in love with the costumes that Trish Summerville created for the cast especially for Trinket. Trish Summerville is the costume designer for this trilogy, she confessed that her main inspiration for Effie Trinket's outfits were Marie Antoinette and Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.Summerville wanted to create something silly and fun for Effie.  Trinket's was considered as a style icon in the Capitol city, she is an eccentric with a unique and flamboyant outfits and always changing stylized wigs and make-up.Her character is one of a perfectionist and always prim and proper and hate bad manners, this qualities reflect in her outrageous outfits that are always matching, sophisticated, and neat. The Victorian influence can be seen in her outfits very clearly such as the tailored suit with puffed sleeves, ruffles, extravagant headpieces, tulle, wide skirts or dresses, vivid or pastel colours, flower patterns, collars and even permed  coloured hair. 

The poster for Catching Fire 

Effie Trinket 

Wearing a tailored made suit. 

Thomas.,P, 2001-2013. Early Victorian Costume and Fashion History 1837-1860. [online] Available at: <http://www.fashion-era.com/early_victorian_fashion.htm > 

[Accessed 18 December 2013]  

Thomas.,P, 2001-2013. Mid-late Victorian Fashion and Costume History 1860-1901. [online] Available at: < http://www.fashion-era.com/mid-late_victorian_fashion.htm > 

[Accessed 18 December 2013]

Trend Hunter Inc,n.d. 100 Victorian Inspired Styles.[online] Available at: < http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/victorianinspired-styles >
[Accessed 19 December 2013] 

Art in Vctorian Age-Inspiration

Victorian Age Inspiration

The Victorian Age was a period were changes occurred due to inventions of technology started to take place followed by a change in society too. Queen Victoria reigned for 64 years in the nineteenth century and Britain went to an  expansion in art, fashion and high prosperity which led to the use of bright and vivid colours in paintings representing all this. In art they returned to classic realism which was popular with Roman and Greek societies. Due to the changes, the public, artists and scientist portrayed art and aesthetics in a different manner due to the technological advance which were made during that era. 

An example of Victorian paintings
portraying the countryside: 'On the Avon near Bath"

 Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 till 1901 and Britain was one of the most powerful. The Victorian art saw different movements and these were all produced during the Victorian era, they consist of  Classicism, Neo-Classicism,  Realism, Impressionism followed by Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and Victorian. Classicism was influenced by many movements along the time and from realistic it changed to vivid colours and emotional strokes and replaced the realistic form and shadow.Post-Impressionism ended the era of Queen Victoria's reign. 

The growth and prosperity during the era in Britain, inspired many artists to focus  on high fashion and modern elegance. The Victorian artwork which was produced was very elegant and popular and made Britain popular for their finery, modernity and elegant etiquette in the world and as a result Victorian art portrayed high-class events in bold colours showing how wealthy and happy people were.They also depicted scenes from the English countryside, this was a point of view for many people

High-class society

During the 64 years Queen Victoria reigned,many advances in photographic and architectural technology affected changes in art styles  that occurred in Victorian art. Changes happened in form and decorum due to technologies that were getting invented.

High-class events

Contemporary Art Inspired from Victorian Era

As time went by, Victorian art always remained popular and inspiring to design or art. Many art movements got inspired and developed from it such Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The Arts and Crafts movement (1860-1910)  which was set-up by William Morris was inspired from the Victorian era and created many patterns and designs. Contemporary artists such as photographers, fashion designers, graphic designers as well as product designers produced collections with  Victorian art but with a contemporary twist.

Victorian art made a boom in history since the changes took place and people woke up on their feet to work and produce art and coming up with new, innovative concepts. Along the time  photographers did reapplications of paintings in their photography, fashion designers produced haute couture collections inspired from Victorian clothing or paintings.As seen in many of the paintings, women wore bright or pastel colours combined with flowers on their head or the painting scene set in the English countryside. Later in the twentieth century  modern Victorian was invented and this was the Steampunk. Although steampunk is much more based in design we can find some contemporary paintings with this new theme. 

Helen Warner, 2012, inspired from Millais. 

An example of reapplication of a photo. 

'Opehlia', John Everett Millais, 1851-1852

Victorian Art Inspiration 
in my Visual Product

My idea for the visual product is a headpiece that is inspired from steampunk and victorian art. These two movements although they a different from each other still there is a link between them because both of them are a revolution in art and design. Headpieces were very popular with the high society class in Victorian era, they used to be adorned with flowers, lace and comes in different shapes and sizes. They used to wear hats and headpieces for particular occasions yet some used to always wear. 

Lady in a Rose Hat by Sue Halstenberg (n.d )

This painting above is a modern painting although no date was given. What I liked in this painting is the lace on the decolte up till her neck, it inspired me to add lace in the design of the headpiece and have a combination of an edgy and fashionable headpiece combined with classical and soft look that make it very femminine. Lace is one of my favourite materials because it's very classic and makes any clothing looks timless, on the other hand steampunk is very edgy and modern. 

avictorian.com,2009.The Victorian Artists.[online] Available at : < http://www.avictorian.com/victorianart.html > 

[Accessed 17 December 2013]

Visual Product-Steampunk Design

             Steampunk Design Inspiration 

After thinking and coming up with different ideas for the visual product I chose to do a women's headpiece as a finalized concept. My aim is to create something original,edgy but fun at the same time.I am also thinking of doing an outfit that matches the headpiece.The theme I chose for this unit is TIME. I found steampunk as a good source of  inspiration for the theme and concept and inspired me for the headpiece. 

                 The Origins of Steampunk 

Steampunk nowadays is a popular sub-culture, as we can find clothing, shoes, literature and many more related to steampunk which is ispired mostly from the 19th century, the  Victorian era to sum it up it's Victorian science fiction . It all started in the 1870's as a science-fiction sub-genre with fundamental inspirations from authors Jules Verne ( 20,000 Legueas Under the Sea) and H.G Wells ( The Time Machine), these inspired the following century due to steamed power objects and Victorian era settings in their tales and made history with Victorian technology reigns over the modern technology. The development of modern technology and machines started during the Victorian era. 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

During the 19th century, cheap novels called Dime Novels were really popular as their stories were full of melodromatic roamance,adventure. In these novels there were elements of steampunk known as "Edisonades" these were steam creatures. There are a lot of things related with steampunk but there is no evidance from were they got inspired the first sub-genres authors apart from the fact that it is inspired from the Victorian Age ( 1837-1901) . Steampunk predicted that the people and inventors of that time  would be like nowadays controlled by modern technology.

 The term steampunk is a compound word of steam and punk, the steam is a reference to technology and the steam engines that were vital in this industry. It revolutionized every aspect of life because people had work and afforded to consume goods, increase in production, and forming a modern society class of workers and professions and these changes of society are all associated with the Victorian age. The term punk is a reference to the equivalent of the twentieth century punk and the street cultures of both centuries. 

Steampunk Fashion 

Fashion for Men 

Fashion for Women

Steampunk is very vast, some love it for the Victorian period others  for the technology aspect and even other like the aspect. People who love steampunk and follow that type of fashion, they combine clothes accessories inspired from the nineteenth century.It is like a neo-vintage movement because it has that vintage elements yet it appeal to everybody style.People can get fashion ideas from characters or scenes or photographs from the nineteenth century and adapting  according to their taste and style.Mainly to adopt a  steampunk look it  consists of corsets, long ruffled skirts, shirts worn under corsets, big collarss, military jackets, leather, goggles, waist jackets,  and accessories with clocks or engines symbols

Clocks and engine

that can be seen on necklaces, brooches, top-hats, bracelets, gloves and many more.

Goggles 

Contempory Steampunk 

Nowadays we find many books, art, films and many more related to steampunk, some popular films such as The Hunger Games, Sweeney Todd,Sherlock Holmes, Hugo. Also many artists produced paintings with steampunk theme and inspired many for product

Why it Inspires Me  

This style always fascinated me because it has that vintage element plus it is very unique and original to wear but can be modified in many ways. My visual product is going to be a headpiece inspired from this perios, and the theme Time. Mainly I chose steampunk because it matches perfectly with the theme of time since many of the accessories have the clock symbol or the engine symbol. Apart from the symbols, it was during the Victorian era when the revolution took place and The Machine Age started.People had work, factories were built, many inventions of technology happened such as the telephone, camera and many more. By time everything was changing to a modern and fast life, mass production reached it's peak and people started to produce and buy. For my headpiece I am thinking of adding the steampunk symbols or clocks and engines to represent time and change combined with ruffles and style worn in the Victorian Era

Google Sites,2013.Steampunk History/Origins.[online] Available at: < https://sites.google.com/a/depauw.edu/airships-and-corsets/history-origins >
[Accessed 16 December 2013]

G.D Falksen,2009.Steampunk 101.[online] Available at:< http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/steampunk-101 >
[Accessed 16 December 2013]