Liana’s paperdoll blog

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So I’m a big Watchmen fan, and it is with some trepidation that I look towards the new movie. When the trailer came out I watched with joy that was dampened when Brian pointed out that everything looked really shiny and, well, essentially too polished and good; for example, the Night Owl of the comic carries a spare tire, who was this dude in a Night Owl costume looking so svelte? I liked to think that it was a flashback to the younger Night Owl, but I’m not so sure. The comic shows that a bunch of humans dressing up and fighting crime is probably not so cool as we might like to think it is; the movie is positioned to show that wow, it really is badass after all. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, we’ll see.

Of course, I am content to leave most of the obsessing about the content to Brian and the other fanboys and I turn to what I fangirl best, obsessing about the costumes. Already I can tell you I can’t forgive the new Ozymandias — that is, the dude on the far right of this Entertainment Weekly Watchmen cover. My Ozymandias dresses like wacked-out royalty, and it’s not meant to offer protection or hide his identity because he doesn’t need either. So we can get right past that and look at the girls. I’m torn about the original Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter) — the paperdoll for today is based on her outfit in the comic book, and the new version is even more sexed up — particularly I think the stockings are too over-the-top for her times, although I do like that they connect her outfit to her daughter’s. I like the yellow part better in the movie version, though — very cute and feminine. The original stockings plus the original yellow top would be my favorite version. Laurie’s version of the Silk Spectre outfit I don’t like much, but I wasn’t really a fan of the original version either, so it’s a bit of a wash. I like the new design well enough on its own merits, actually, but I don’t think it fits the setting; Laurie’s mom picked out her costume for her, and her mom would have had an eye for what was sexy and showed off her daughter to best advantage. The movie version of the costume is significantly less soft and vulnerable looking — and really, probably more like what Laurie would have picked out for herself. But it’s too serious; Laurie wasn’t serious about the job of being a superheroine (one that her mom chose for her, essentially) until she was in her 30s.

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Brian and I went to go see Wall-E yesterday; these red jumpsuits are what the humans on board the Axiom wear. (And don’t forget, blue is the new red.) I don’t remember exactly how they look, and it’s impossible to find pictures of the humans, so it might be slightly off. I truly enjoyed it; it was less preachy and not as cruel about fat people as I had feared it might be. For one, it’s not as simple as “everyone would be better without any STUFF” — Wall-E treasured some of the things he found, using them creatively and learning from them. I don’t have a problem with too much stuff, myself — two moves in seven months will do that to you — so I didn’t go home with a burning determination to reduce my wasteful ways, although I do want to get my compost bin started… The heart of the story, of course, was Wall-E and Eve (and the other robots, too, were a lot more important than the humans — but I can’t very well make an Eve outfit, just cut out an oval, give her a monitor face and little blue eyes…) and that was really quite sweet. Brian, of course, nitpicked the mechanics of space travel, but that is Brian. The movie made me quite sad that the apartment landscaping people weed-whacked our growing flower bed that morning, but in the spirit of Encouraging the Green Growing Things, we went right back out and bought some more seeds…

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“Do you like our owl?”

Yeah, this owl, the Official Kerr Family Owl:

Brian and I saw Blade Runner on the big screen the other day, and it was glorious, much like Rachael’s hair when it’s freed from those tight rolls. I don’t know if the book described really ugly clothes as Ubik did (now there’s a paperdoll I haven’t done yet that cries for a yellow houndstooth poncho and green leather boots!), but if it did the movie was ever so faithful to it. I just about cried whenever there was a closeup on Deckard’s shirt, that thing was perfectly hideous. But this outfit that Rachael wears in the beginning I liked, even if I can’t quite add the achingly noir cigarette smoke, and even if it did turn out a shade more “grey” then “black,” and even if the shoulder pads aren’t quite padded enough…

(Yes, incidentally, Brian is a graduate of the Calvin School of Art…)

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Erin at A Dress A Day linked to this video from the 1930s, “In The Year 2000: Clothing Of The Future” and, well, convertible sleeves FTW. Or, to quote the video, “One idea is a dress that can be adapted for morning, afternoon or evening. It’s the sleeves what does it!” So the white part is actually the inside of the sleeve, secured by the little silver hangy thing at the top and threaded underneath the belt. You’ll see if you watch the video a couple of times. We didn’t really get a good look at the skirt, and I think the original is a little fuller, but what the heck, I lived through the year 2000, I can take some liberties.

The rest of the video, which promises to show us “what Eve will look like in AD 2000,” is well worth a watch, too. I wish we got a better look at the aluminum dress…

Oh, and Go Fug Yourself is holding the Fug Madness tournament soon, so if you have a high tolerance for fugly, don’t forget to vote. I predict at least one paperdoll will come from the contest. (I’m not so sure they’ve got room to talk with those horrendous American Apparel dress ads on their site, but I guess money is money. Ooh, I hope that doesn’t show up in my ads now…)

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I read Solaris carefully, but all we know is that when Rheya returns, she wears a white beach dress. No visible fastenings — the buttons are ornamental — and short sleeves that hide the evidence of her suicide. I drew this days ago and went back and forth about posting it; I’m influenced in my image of Rheya by the 1972 movie, and this seems too cheerful for Rheya somehow, but it creeped Brian out, so that’s in its favor. The only other thing she wore that was described was the orange-and-brown striped bathrobe… In the movie, she has a lovely brownish dress, but I can’t do that from memory and I can’t find pictures of it. (decent ones, at least. it’s partially visible here and here.)

And you, my dear, what would you see of me? What would be missing, what would I not recognize?