'Snow White and the Huntsman': Colleen Atwood on Creating the Fairytale Costumes (Video)

Colleen Atwood on her inspiration for wardrobe of Rupert Sanders' 'Snow White and the Huntsman'. She shares that she made over a thousand costumes for the movie and co-star Charlize Theron's initial reaction to her outfit.

 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Atwood -- who has won three Academy Awards for best costume design for Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha and Alice in Wonderland -- explained that she based her ideas for the costumes first on the script and Sanders’ vision.
The most dramatic collection of costumes went to Theron, whose Queen sports some stunning gowns, including Atwood’s current favorite, an off-white and gold wedding gown with an intricate collar.
Atwood says that the gowns mirror the progression of the Queen's mental state. “She comes from kind of a hopeful place, thinking she’s going to be a queen again,” Atwood said of Theron's character.
“Her costumes kind of crumble along with her. They go from light to dark to very dark at the end,” she added.
The wedding gown features a collar that Atwood says was inspired by “a skeletal cage.” It’s made out of parchment paper that has been manipulated into a complicated structural shape.
The costume designer also told THR about the unique detail she added to one of Charlize’s costume: dung beetle shells. She found the item at a Thailand market, and each one had to be individually drilled to put on the bodice of one of the gowns.
In contrast, Stewart’s Snow White spends most of the film in just two outfits: a earth-toned frock and a suit of armor. The frock, which is a green tone that Atwood said went well with Stewart’s eyes, starts out long, but gets a makeover from Hemsworth’s huntsman.
“Once she escapes and meets up with the huntsman, he actually cuts off her dress and makes it so she can run, and move, and do all the things that she has to do,” Atwood said.
The other outfit that Stewart wears is a suit of armor, which Atwood revealed was designed to look like several different types of armor made into one. “So, it’s armor of the people,” she added.

Watch THR’s full interview with Colleen Atwood above.

Fernando de Szyszlo

          

          Fernando De Szyszlo Valdelomar (born July 5, 1925 in Lima) is a Peruvian artist who is a key figure in advancing abstract art in Latin America since the mid-1950s, and one of the leading Abstract artists in Peru.

                Untitled                                                      

  

          Szyszlo studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. At the age of 24 he traveled to Europe where he studied the works of the masters, particularly Rembrandt, Titian and Tintoretto, and absorbed the varied influences of cubism, surrealism, informalism, and abstraction. While in Paris he met Octavio Paz and André Breton and frequented the group of writers and intellectuals that met regularly at the Cafe Flore engaging in vigorous discussions on how they could participate in the international modern movement while preserving their Latin American cultural identity. Upon his return to Peru, Szyszlo became a major force for artistic renewal in his country breaking new ground by expressing a Peruvian subject matter in a non-representational style. He was married to a Peruvian poet Blanca Varela, with whom he has two children.

 

                                                  Casa de Venus

           Fernando de Szyszlo is a parsimonious octogenarian but a gentleman. He’s not just an artist, but an intellectual at the forefront of Peruvian culture for the past 50 years, a keen observer of his country’s political and social life. At times, he has been critical of what has happened around him, at other times laudatory, but never indifferent.

             Route to Mendieta                             La Habitacion

 

            Szyszlo has been painting for nearly 60 years, confronting the canvas on a daily basis. He tells me that he has kept some 40 pieces and that he is always sad to part with his works. He feels that they are never finished, a poignant source of dissatisfaction for an artist who has produced over 2,500 paintings, which are on display in museums or part of private collections all over the world.

 

           Spain                                      El Lugar, Los Instrumentos VI

            He started out studying architecture, but explains, “To improve my drawing, I took a night course and then changed my career goals.” He traveled to Paris in the late 1940s and eventually had to face a difficult choice: to remain in a challenging but stimulating environment or to return to his native country. He decided to come back home to Peru, because “You can’t contribute to progress from a Parisian café.”

         El Innombrable (The Unnameable)                                  

 

           Lyricism of color enriched by rich textural effects and a masterly handling of light and shadow are hallmarks of Szyszlo's painting. Highly identified with the linking of ancient cultures to a modernist artistic language, Szyszlo's art reflects a broad culture that draws on many sources from philosophy and science to literature. His evocative allusions to rituals, myths, and the geography of sea and desert landscapes are often associated with pre-Columbian sacred sites. Since his first solo exhibit in Lima in 1947, Szyszlo has had over 100 individual exhibitions in museums and galleries in Latin America, Europe and the United States and has participated in the prestigious international biennials of São Paulo and Venice. His work is represented in important public and private collections throughout the world.

             Ceremonia                                       

 

  

   Getting out of the Labyrinth                        Ronda Nocturna

     Dos Camino a Mendieta                                                

                    Pasaje Paracas                                            

                               Fernando De Szyszlo