This is what happens when you let your main actress that has no idea about design or how to generally look good decide how to make the fucking dress.
what…. WHAT?! SHE DESIGNED THE DRESS?! STOP THIS WOMAN STOP HER!
APPARENTLY SHE WAS ALL ‘AAAAAAH BUT THE CORSET AND THE DECORATION AND THE GLOVES AND LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT MADE THE DRESS IS NOT FUNCTIONAL AND BELLE IS A FEMINIST HEROINE AND NEEDS FULL MOVEMENT ALWAYS SO TAKE THEM OFF NOW’ AND THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED TO HER.
“Costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who has dressed complex women in Atonement, Anna Karenina and Pride and Prejudice, worked closely with Watson and director Bill Condon to perfectly embody this nouveau Belle.”
Oh my god it’s true. Feminism is cancer.
..she literally had them remake the dress because she didn’t want to be laced up in a corset. Meanwhile Cinderella’s actress actually prepared for wearing said corseted dress safely.
Woman up Emma.
What’s up with all the vile words about Emma Watson? So you don’t like the dress, big fucking deal – still no need to call her an ‘idiot’?
I’m seriously appalled right now, this is ridiculous…
She IS being an idiot though.
Listen, do you know why so any girl s LOVED the original animated BatB? In it, Belle was smart. She was active. She was a dreamer with grand designs in her mind. For this she was ousted by the village. She didn’t care; she knew what she wanted. Yet, despite all that she didn’t feel the need to be masculine. She didn’t segregate herself from the fact that she was a woman.
I actually like the change made to Belle’s FIRST outfit, the blue one. Why? It makes sense. In the live action she’s an inventor. She’s poor. She’s active. She gets dirty and needs to move. So Making it a bit messier, having the hair totally pulled back? It all makes sense. And it’s still feminine.
However, the ball gown symbolizes something different. In addition to the redesign not fitting at all into the setting of the movie time-wise (if this was set in the modern day I wouldn’t be so appauled by it tbh cause this looks like a 21st century prom dress inspired by the ball gown) it totally destroys the meaning of that moment. Until then, the Beast and Belle are slowly coming together as friends and then as love interests. This dinner parallels the first one where Beast demands Belle come and both despise one another (well, Belle does. The Beast finds her a nuisance in his self-moping but not the point). This time he invites her out of longing to spend time together and she reciprocates and agrees. They dress their best for the dinner and also dance. This shows the transition from hate to love but also from not caring about how she looks to dressing special for someone she likes. This is Belle deciding, on her own, she wants to dress up and trust the Beast. Yes, hoop skirts and a corset make it hard to be active. But she is CHOOSING to be vulnerable with him. She is CHOOSING to purposefully be traditionally feminine because she wants this night to be of happiness and fantasy, not practicality.
Emma redesigning the dress the way she did strips that nuance. It actually strips the decision of Belle to nothing. And it makes Belle go from a woman who is self aware and makes decisions of whom to be vulnerable around and whom to not give a shit and do her own thing into purposeful ideological pandering.
So yeah; I’m going to be pissed about the redesign. She stripped everything away from that moment with doing that to the dress. She could have redesigned it to be a touch more practical but retained its integrity. Instead she made it in HER modern, 3rd wave, 21st century feminist image… when the movie is set in the 18th century. If this was a 21st century retelling? Fine. Sure. It’s still ugly but it fits design wise. This does not and it adds injury to insult to Belle as a character.
The animated version was made more feminist/egalitarian. I am aware of that. But while pushing it didn’t sacrifice Belle as a character; it built her up. She went from waiting quietly and softly at home like the original Grimm story to active, smart but still kind, gentle and feminine when she wants to be. It was BALANCED. This retelling, from what I’m seeing, is stripping Belle back down to a 1-dimensional character but on the opposite end of the spectrum. And it was all due to EMMA’S choices, not Disney. So the blame is on her, sorry.
When I see the movie I’ll make my final judgment but so far it does not look good. It literally is more then just the dress (to me); it’s about the fact that she stripped Belle of her decision to show the Beast she cares and trusts him by purposefully being vulnerable and ultra-feminine through this purposeful re-design.
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