So I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical the other day, accompanied by my dear friend, fellow Barbie-worshipper and partner in theatrical-watching crime, the lovely Anthony, and let me tell you, the costumes were FABULOUS, with a capital Ooh! Aah! And an Oh Yes Please!!
Now the costumes in the original movie were pretty darn superb, and quite rightly won the oscar for costume design in 1994 - all the more astounding given the tendency of the Academy to be blind to all but the frilled frippery of a good old period romp. Impressive too because of the low budget designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel were working with, (though perhaps all the more innovative because of this fact), and those in the show have been done by the same team - but there's more of them!! So where can I start? With the dresses shaped like cupcakes; green with multi-colour spots and candle headdresses? The dresses shaped like paintbrushes, pink and shiny with black tinsel skirts? The whole scene of Australian-themed costumes - Kookaburras, those big lizard things with the neck frills, the cutest lavender fluffy koalas, ahhhh! Seriously, for those with any interest in costume, this is something you simply have to see. (And don't be telling me you haven't even seen the movie...What's that? You haven't? Go stand in the corner...)
And of course, how can I forget the flip-flop dress, as seen here, and in the movie? Apparently inspired by Gardiner's Dad falling alseep outside in the hot Australian sun on a pile of the family's flip-flops, and waking to find them stuck to his body, but also by the flip-flop being an Australian icon...which I would have proved to you with a link, dear readers, except that down under, the flip-flop is called a thong, and you can only imagine what horrors google threw up the minute I approached it with ‘thong dress’...
Now the costumes in the original movie were pretty darn superb, and quite rightly won the oscar for costume design in 1994 - all the more astounding given the tendency of the Academy to be blind to all but the frilled frippery of a good old period romp. Impressive too because of the low budget designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel were working with, (though perhaps all the more innovative because of this fact), and those in the show have been done by the same team - but there's more of them!! So where can I start? With the dresses shaped like cupcakes; green with multi-colour spots and candle headdresses? The dresses shaped like paintbrushes, pink and shiny with black tinsel skirts? The whole scene of Australian-themed costumes - Kookaburras, those big lizard things with the neck frills, the cutest lavender fluffy koalas, ahhhh! Seriously, for those with any interest in costume, this is something you simply have to see. (And don't be telling me you haven't even seen the movie...What's that? You haven't? Go stand in the corner...)
And of course, how can I forget the flip-flop dress, as seen here, and in the movie? Apparently inspired by Gardiner's Dad falling alseep outside in the hot Australian sun on a pile of the family's flip-flops, and waking to find them stuck to his body, but also by the flip-flop being an Australian icon...which I would have proved to you with a link, dear readers, except that down under, the flip-flop is called a thong, and you can only imagine what horrors google threw up the minute I approached it with ‘thong dress’...
Now, for some, drag will mean panto dames, but for me, its only ever about the sequins and the glamour...and Priscilla: The Musical certainly has buckets of these - is this a start of a trend in the West End? Oh I do hope so...
Fantastic garbs...succeed each other, like monster devouring monster in a dream.
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)
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