Costume Designer Kym Barrett shares all of the details with 14 fun fashion facts about the '90s film, from hidden messages in Claire Danes'
This interesting article speaks of the fashion facts around the costumes worn by the actors of the 1996 Romeo and Juliet as well as some Easter eggs even I did not know. 🤯
Out of 14 facts shown there, I'll post here only 4 that I find them interesting, to read the full list, click on the article above!
DANES’ ANGEL DRESS HAD A SECRET MESSAGE EMBROIDERED ON IT.
After reading the play, Barrett decided that Romeo and Juliet’s costumes should directly reference them as being an “angel” and a “knight,” respectively. But she also incorporated the “angel” line in a Phantom Thread-type of moment. “On Juliet’s dress, which I don’t think you can see, I printed written lines from the script in white. Romeo says in the script, ‘Oh, speak again, bright angel,’ which is why I dressed her as an angel, but I also printed that dialogue from that scene into her dress with white print,” explains Barrett. “I tried to do things for the actors that only they could see or have as their own thing. I thought that it would be an important kind of touchstone for them to have, things like pieces of jewelry and writing engraved on their guns, and in the Capulets’ case, it’s scriptures.”
THE HAWAIIAN SHIRTS HAD REFERENCES AND FORESHADOWING.
“We were trying to think what the Montagues would dress like. They’re just as religious [as the Capulets], but they’re also a different gang. I wanted them to feel like Miami Beach, like they probably surfed, they went to the beach, they wore Hawaiian shirts, they maybe could have gone into the military,” says Barrett. The result was a complete juxtaposition of the Capulets’ Latin cowboy style.
Barrett put the Montague dudes in brightly colored Hawaiian shirts, accessorized with dog tags and lots of jewelry. She also found the blue Japanese blossom-printed shirt that Romeo borrows from Father Laurence and wears through the end of the film at a shop in Miami, but everything else was hand-painted by Barrett’s team. The boys have references to Verona Beach, such as palm trees, the enormous Jesus statue, and other religious icons. However, Romeo’s shirt has other illustrations, such as the flaming heart (one of the movie’s recurring symbols) and lilies, which foreshadowed the movie’s tragic ending as the final scene shows Juliet holding the flowers when Romeo finds her seemingly dead in the church.
THE PARTY WAS A BIG OL’ SHAKESPEAREAN EASTER EGG.
Many of the party looks also paid homage to The Bard. While Lord and Lady Capulet were dressed as Shakespearean characters, so were many of the extras, giving sort of a meta nod to the scene. “I tried to populate the party with characters from Shakespeare’s plays,” explains Barrett. “If you look at the party guests, you’ll see that most of them were A Midsummer Night’s Dream characters. But I think in those days, we didn’t call them Easter eggs, right? It was just part of what we did; it wasn’t intentionally planting Easter eggs. But when I did Us, Jordan wanted to plant Easter eggs, that was a fun part of the process for him them, whereas when we did Romeo + Juliet, it was just part of what we felt would strengthen the visual story.” (During the fish tank scene, you can see a man at the urinal dressed in Renaissance wear, which is supposed to be William Shakespeare.)
MERCUTIO’S SHEER SHIRT WAS SYMBOLIC.
With his unforgettable drag performance singing “Wild Hearts” at the costume party, Mercutio’s look was one of the best in the film. But aside from his sequined costumes, his sheer shirt stood apart and had a special meaning, according to Barrett. “Harold is, of course, a beautiful person, as well as a great actor, and I wanted you to see how vulnerable he was, so I used sheer fabric a lot of the time with him,” she explains. “It was like a veil; we could relate to him and he didn’t wear any armor, and that’s why he in the end was one of the strongest and the most heroic characters in the show, because he let his true self out.” For Mercutio, Barrett forwent the typical Hawaiian shirt in order to make him stand out from his Montague brethren. “He was different, and he embodied the better traits of both of those groups, but he was unfortunately sacrificed,” she says.
the poetic cinema of the montague boys all hanging out at an abandoned playhouse by the beach, and when mercutio is stabbed he runs “off stage” trying to escape his fate — but his ending has already been written
Lore Olympus, the groundbreaking feminist comic that began with an old man thirsting over a barely legal teenager in a skimpy dress and ending with those two having a Christian wedding and becoming a nuclear family.
Sorry it’s early but you really can’t use fanfiction terms in a non fanfiction context like if someone is trying to sell me a book to read and they tell me there’s an enemy to lovers I would be annoyed because why are you spoiling the story lol
sorry op this is kind of a tangent but this is why i hate how booktok has not only affected how ppl talk about their fave stories, but how it's basically gnawed its way into how publishing companies promote books. it basically encourages authors to build their entire story entirely around marketable tropes so that they turn more of a profit
"it has enemies to lovers!" "it has friends to lovers!" "this is a slow burn!" WHAT IS THE PLOT??? what makes your story unique?? why should i read it??? describing your story entirely in tropes and fanfiction terms makes your story sound extremely uninteresting lmfao.
Fanfiction is for when you want to read familiar characters in a setting where you already know what's going to happen. I care about this coffee shop au because I already love these characters and just want to see them in fun familiar situations
Books are original content for new stories new characters in new situations. Why should I care if it takes place in a coffee shop? Give me a reason to love these characters!
You can see in the background here that my shelving style is ‘alphabetical at one point, then just shove books in at random’ it means you get a lot of the same author in the same place, but that they could also have a book on an entirely different bookcase.
Oh i love them so much. Of course he puts a ring on her finger before consummation. Of course he takes his socks off for this. Of course she's on top and he's so happy about it!
fucking love when I'm on a call with someone and they start to do a little errand or go somewhere else and they say "and you're coming with me" like. absolutely I am let's go on an adventure I've been spirited away
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