Captain Hook - Showing his heart

This is something I noticed while watching the season finale: like Rumpel, Hook has a Red Waistcoat o’ Love, which only shows up when he is having emotional scenes with people he cares for.

In his first scenes with Milah, Hook is all black-clad bad-boy. No colour for him, no sir. He’s a bad and naughty man, bad to the bone. But next time we see him, he’s still a twunt, but he’s a twunt who has some red in his life. Red for passion, emotion, love, and in this case desire.

Milah was the first cause of the red waistcoat.

The next time we see it, it’s in his scenes with Baelfire in Neverland, which are even more emotionally charged. Here’s the son he never had, the son his lover left behind, the son that Hook openly admits that he wanted to bring aboard and raise as his own when he was old enough.

And the moment things fall apart for them, the moment Bae backs away from him, the moment any chance of the dream he had with Milah is gone, Hook is reminded of his sole purpose: to kill your father.

He dons black again, head to toe once more, pulling back on all the parts of himself that make up the bad and naughty man he was. No one will question him. No one will doubt him. And he will care for no one and nothing. All the love has gone from his life, and the only reminder of it he wears is in the ink on his arm.

Anita - The Alpha Female

Putting aside for the moment how much I loathed this episode and this arc for the unnecessary forcing in of new and cliched characters and pointless angst (really, they had the huntsman, a man raised as a wolf! Hunting Snow White with the Queen’s men. And who knows the burden of being caught between two worlds! USE HIM!), I want to look at Anita’s costume.

If you compare and contrast her costume to Red’s, it is pretty much Red-gone-wild. She’s wearing a similar combination of breeches beneath a layered skirt and corset. Even the colours are very similar in earth tones and warm browns. Natural elements and patterns repeat through their clothing, and both of them are definitely not lacking in classically feminine clothing.

The difference comes from the wildness.

Red’s clothing is all fabric, patterned linens, and still falls with softness, whereas Anita has added leather and feathers and mesh resembling cobwebs. The skirts are ragged and rough, and the sleeves are mismatched, one barely more than mesh, the other a ragged cape of feathers. Everything about her speaks of someone human who has turned wild in nature, and not necessarily in a good way. A good deal of it is for display, the Alpha female making herself look more dangerous by dressing in things she has killed.

Anita’s costume is a warning of what she has become. She isn’t a wolf. She is a human who thinks she is a wild creature, and dresses herself up to appear so. A wolf would never wear its kills. A human would. Anita is a warning to Red of what she might become.

Just to merge my two posts on this topic:

I’m just basking in the fact that Rumpel goes from a dozen layers of self-defence in his clothing choices, gradually paring them down, scene by scene, until his throat and almost his heart are bared entirely to Belle within the confines of the castle when they’re alone.

1. Jacket, waistcoat, shirt, cravat, spiky scarf, floaty scarf, neckpin.
2. Shirt, leathery waistcoat, cravat, neckpin.
3. Shirt, leathery waistcoat, thin little scrap of a scarf (when he gives her the library. he’s starting to regress)
4. Golden waistcoat of silk, puffy golden shirt.
5. Red waistcoat of Lurve, puffy golden shirt open almost to his sternum.

And the second she’s gone for good, after he punts her out, we’re right back to costume #1 - all the defences are back up, but it’s too late.

(Source: amuseoffyre)

Maleficent - The Dragon Witch

I may or may not have gone on about colour theory quite a lot on this blog. Maleficent is yet another example of colour theory in motion. Purple is the colour of power, magic, wealth, and wisdom. It is worn by people who want to give the impression of authority without screaming it from the rooftops. There’s a reason royals wear it. There’s a reason that certain brands use deep purple as their brand colour. It gives a very distinct impression.

Maleficent is dressed in layers of the stuff: darker on the surface and pale beneath, but all purple. Even her ruffly scarf and her tiara are all purple. She is basically cloaking herself entirely in power, a big old alarm bell that this is one powerful lady and you do not want to mess with her.

And then we have the style. For a woman who can become a massive, scaled dragon with an impenetrable hide, she loves her some ruffles. Everything about her clothing is soft, frilled, designed to enhance her femininity and present the illusion that because she’s dressed all girly and frilly, she is a harmless little woman. The only part of her that might give her away is her pronged tiara, but even that seems to only be for show. Charming certainly falls for it with his usual panache.  

It is cut low and long. The fabric is luxurious, soft, designed to make her look graceful. Flared sleeves are often used to emphasise elegance, while the train indicates this is a lady who is decorous and proper. This is not a dress one would imagine fighting in. She is making it apparent to all and sundry that she is above else a lady. A lady with frills.

But combine it with the purple, and she is quite literally holding up a banner of “I may be a woman, and proudly so, but just you wait and see what I can do to you”.

Abigail - The Golden Princess

How time changed our dear Princess Abigail from spoiled brat to much loved Lady. Since we only have three costumes for her, I thought I would put them all together, to compound the awesome.

Our first encounter with Abigail was in the dress I dub the Crashed Swan. I don’t know what they were going for with it, but it’s definitely one of the more bizarre Fairytale Couture dresses we’ve seen on the show. I think it’s meant to represent what would be considered High Fashion in the Kingdoms, extremes for the wealthy.

The colour choice is a calm, tranquil colour, which is fantastically at odds with the Brat Princess as we first see her. It’s ornate, over decorated, and modest to the extreme, hiding any physical attributes, as if Abigail herself does not want to be surveyed as Eye Candy. She wants James to see her as spoiled, over-dressed, over-indulged, and basically, turn his eye away from her at this point in time. Daddy found her a good suitor, so it’s only fair that the suitor is the one to refuse her.

The next time we see her is when she has arrived in George’s Kingdom for her wedding, and this is a different Abigail. She’s not such a brat anymore, and this is because she’s come with a plan to get out of the marriage. She’s calm, pleasant, and her clothing is entirely different: a simple, graceful soft pink gown and a plain golden cloak. She doesn’t feel the need to dress herself up or hide behind ornate gowns and pretend to be a brat now. It makes her seem compliant, very feminine, gentle, and passive to her father’s wishes.

But there’s a thing: pink is just muted down red, and red as we all know is the colour of passion. So she may be wearing her father’s colour on top, but underneath, there is passion and emotion, and that leads onto her final costume, and my personal favourite.

Princess Abigail of Badassia is my favourite. She gives commands and she is obeyed. She defies Kings. She rescues Princes in distress. She loves a man who gave his life for her father. And all while looking fab-u-lous.

Again, she is wearing golds, but this time, the pattern woven with red. There is a repeated motif that resembles hearts throughout, fitting for the woman who is wearing her heart on her sleeve in front of Charming. It’s also a practical costume, and this is the moment we see Abigail as she really is: she’s practical, strong-willed, determined, and will do what is necessary. Every costume before has been a play: the brat Princess, and the docile fiancee.

This Abigail in her slash-sleeved tunic, her breeches, her knee-high boots, is a Lady, but this is a Lady with power and authority, and she does it all without even laying a hand on a sword. Abigail is a Princess of the blood. She is a Lady. And above all else, as strong and gallant as she might be, she does it without sacrificing any of her femininity.