Fashion in Film: Romeo + Juliet (1996)

I have always been transfixed by clothing in films, and over the years I’ve read everything I can about costume design. I was inspired to start a Twitter thread, but wanted to explore the topic without a word count. And this series, Fashion in Film, was born! Here we will take a deeper dive into notable costume design in film.

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) has frequently been touted as Shakespeare for the MTV Generation for its wholly unique way of telling the classic tale of star-cross'd lovers. Today we will be throwing the spotlight on R+J's costumes, which serve as eye candy with Hawaiian shirts, angel wings, and reoccurring motifs of flaming hearts, crosses, and other religious iconography (bringing the religion focused Elizabethan era into the 21st century).

On Beauty Standards & Hamlet Inspired Self Portraits...

To sleep,
perchance to dream --

Sometimes, I have a hard time feeling like I need to be all these things - youthful, pretty, soft, small. While taking photos the other day, I was trying to project all of that: but after looking at the photos I wanted to cry. I began hyper focusing on the lines under my eyes, how tired I looked, how my body looked.

So I decided to hell with it - I put my hair up, smoked out my cried off eye makeup, and started taking portraits - only this time, instead of worrying about looking pretty, I decided to try to look annoyed, confident, bored, smug… Slowly, I realized I was trying to emulate a bit of a Shakespearean hero - think Romeo’s bravado or Hamlet’s weariness.