My Uncle Oswald - Costume Research

        Researching the fashions of 1919, the period in which the majority of My Uncle Oswald is set, proved more troublesome than I initially anticipated. The majority of fashion and costume books which I managed to uncover seemed to focus either upon the clothing of the Edwardian and earlier Art Noveau period, or on the Art Deco and flapper styles which evolved throughout the 1920s. There seemed to be something of a gap where the fashions of the latter part of the 1910s ought to have been. This is perhaps due to the advent of World War One, when less attention was given over to clothing and beauty.

        Fortunately, I did discover one book which showed pages from a (albeit American) clothing catalogue, which at least gave me an indication of the shapes not only of women's blouses, skirt, dresses and coats, but also shoes, coats and men's suits. As they are illustrations from a catalogue, they also give detail regarding the kinds of fabrics which were in vogue. These images will be invaluable to me when it comes to sketching out costume ideas for Oswald and Yasmin.

        Aside from the catalogue images, I did come across a small number of other helpful sources in other books. Nestled in among the Edwardian and Deco styles was the ocassional illustration or photograph of a garment from 1919 or 1920. For women's fashion, Vionnet seems to be a prominent designer of the period, with her ankle length dresses in shades of soft pink, in light, diaphonous fabrics, cut in layer and ruffles.

        Having not found all too many useful books to use as costume reference, I then turned to cinema and television, for examples of recreated early 20th century fashion. The grand scale blockbusters Titanic and The Great Gatsby were both slightly outside the required time period (one too early, the other too late), but that does not mean that I cannot incorporate elements from each as and when appropriate, using a little artistic license. After all, both have stunning costume and production design. Perhaps the most useful reference I found was Peaky Blinders, particularly for its focus on male fashions. Most sources tend to place an emphasis on female fashions and styles, but one of my puppets is a male, and what's more, he is the main protagonist, so it was frustrating when browsing through books when there were few or no pictures demonstrating the changes in the cut of men's suits from year to year. Of course, there are also some wonderfully costumed women in Peaky Blinders, who also model the hair and beauty trends of the era.

        I also began a Pinterest board, on which  could gather together various references and images which I cam across which may help or inspire me during this project.