the importance of scarlett's dresses in gone with the wind 🔥🎬🎞

the importance of scarlet's dresses in gone with the wind if you've seen other videos on this channel then you might know that i have a huge appreciation for the costumes in the 1939 gone with the wind film i'm convinced that walter plunkett's work resulted in the best costume design ever put to film and i doubt it'll ever be topped do both the film and book have some serious issues indubitably but that doesn't make the costumes any less great before we get into the rest of the video i want to make a few things clear i'm going to be focusing on scarlett's dresses all of the costumes plunkett created for the film are fantastic but scarlets take the cake and i'll be focusing on the dresses in the film adaptation not the original source material times are a-changin the film begins in 1861 when scarlett is 16 and ends in 1873 when scarlett is 28. plunkett's costume design subtly and brilliantly reveals this passage of time through either the silhouette fabric or color of scarlet's dresses known for paying particularly close attention to historical accuracy especially when compared to his contemporaries plunkett's design follow the time period pretty closely here's what scarlett's dresses look like at the beginning of the film she wears hoop skirts to help her achieve the fashionable circle shaped style of the 1850s to early 1860s they also show her wearing accurate undergarments which include a chemise corset and drawers because scarlett is incredibly vain she is shown with her corset tight laced a habit from the book which was actually an uncommon practice during the time period as the large skirts already created the appearance of a strikingly small waist as the film moves into the post-war era scarlett is pretty much exclusively shown wearing this patterned purple dress her hoop skirts and colorful dresses have been lost and this is now her sole article of clothing plunkett supposedly made over a dozen copies of this dress in various states of disrepair to get this point across scarlett marries frank kennedy in 1866 and with his added finances she returns to her habit of dressing stylishly and while her gowns still feature the large skirt there's more of a focus on the rear than her previous circle skirts upon frank's death and her subsequent marriage to the extremely wealthy rhett butler the extravagance of scarlett's dresses gets multiplied tenfold besides featuring vibrant colors more expensive fabrics and a lot more trim scarlet's dresses actually change in silhouette over the years the full skirts of the 1860s are replaced by the popular bustle style of the 1870s with the volume gathering at the back of the dress and a slimmer tight-fitted appearance from the front even scarlett's millinery shows the passage of time from the bonnets of the 1860s to the tiny hats of the 1870s here are all of scarlett's morning dresses side by side you can easily see how they differ from one another as a reflection of the changing times and trends it's so well done color symbolism in both the book and the film scarlett's dresses are specific colors that represent her state of mind and emotions it's an age-old technique that plunkett uses to his advantage green in the film green is used to symbolize when scarlett is scheming being vain greedy or jealous besides being the color of scarlet's eyes green also makes up her most memorable outfits let's start with perhaps her most iconic one the barbecue dress the white and green dress is gorgeous but it's also wildly inappropriate during this time period a day dress would actually have a high neckline and long sleeves which you can see on every other woman at the barbecue scarlett showed up in her evening wear this is why mamie doesn't want her to wear it to begin with and why india wilkes makes a pointed comment about it when scarlett arrives at the barbecue the color of scarlet's dress not only reveals her desire to be the focus of the barbecue but it's also when she first confesses to ashley wilkes and attempts to convince him to choose her and not melanie following this scarlett is shown wearing green again when rhett butler gifts her a green velvet bonnet while she's in mourning as rhett says himself it's fake morning and her immediate love of the bonnet is her admitting to this she wears the bonnet again when she picks ashley up at the train station another weak attempt to draw attention to herself and away from melanie a dark green dress makes an appearance on christmas day as she pines for ashley who once again can't be bothered with her the next dress is another iconic one the green curtain dress in case you haven't seen the film scarlett is attempting to convince rhett butler to loan her money and she knows she can't do it in the ragged dress she's been wearing the green curtains the last bit of opulence the o'haras have left are what she decides to make a dress out of the ensemble is a lot to look at but it gets the point across scarlett is pretending to be better off than she really is and it's so apparent that it looks tacky rhett sees through her deception and she's quickly spurned but this is followed by a chance encounter with frank kennedy her sister is beau who scarlett decides to deceive in order to get the money she needs and it works the final ensemble of note is this green velvet dressing gown with yellow details as you could probably tell green comes up most often when scarlett is pining after ashley this is a moment where despite the happiness she's found in her new marriage she's unable to forget about ashley and pushes rhett away as a result red as is often the case in films the color red is used to symbolize love lust and scandal it's first used in the film on scarlet's ruffled white dress albeit sparingly while the dress gives off a very young and innocent impression at first glance the pops of red are an ode to scarlet's desire to be loved and let you know that there's more to her than their appears she wears rat again at christmas when she tells ashley once again that she loves him and pleads for him to leave melanie they wind up sharing a kiss which scarlett takes as evidence of his love for her even though he never actually confirms it red appears again when she confesses to her family that she's married frank kennedy a man she doesn't love but whose money she needs she spends some time away from the color for a little bit but it reappears when she and rhett's marriage begin falling apart first is this gorgeous red dressing gown which she wears during a particularly heated argument with rhett about ashley then there's this gorgeous maroon evening gown the dress is picked for her by rhett who forces her to attend ashley's birthday party alone after the two of them were caught embracing the dress isn't subtle white in the film white is used to represent innocence youthfulness and naivete understandably it's used rarely on scarlet as i mentioned earlier the first dress we see scarlett in is white it's the perfect ensemble to introduce her with as it seems like the exact dress a spoiled 16 year old girl would pick out she's shown wearing white again to her first wedding representing her naive notion that this decision would make ashley jealous and force him to admit his love for her but instead she's locked in a loveless albeit short marriage with charles hamilton the dress is also more of an off-white as opposed to a pure white she wears the color a few more times in the film but it's always paired with something else revealing how scarlet is a complex character that is neither innocent nor evil they just look good i mean do i really have to explain look at them the construction and design is flawless you don't see any weird outlines or awkward seams walter plunkett is truly a god i hope this video helped you understand how important costume design is and what a fantastic job walter plunkett did because i truly think he's underappreciated don't forget to like and subscribe and comment down below which of scarlett's dresses was your favorite [Music] you

Channel: ModernGurlz

Views: 1,006,306

Rating: 4.9495339 out of 5

Keywords: style, internet girl, modern gurlz, informational, fashion montage, movie montage, 90s fashion, fashion, 90s tv, delias, dollskill, movie review, movie commentary, moderngurlz, egirl, tiktok

Id: KzeHOHOQQbg

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Padme501st]

that was a great video!

[u/MyNamesChakkaoofka]

Wow this was excellent. The costume design in the movie never fails to take my breath away and knowing all these details makes me appreciate it even more. I never noticed the little knowing look belle gives at the green curtain dress!