C O S
T U M E SThroughout the movie, I focused on the costumes and the physical appearance of each character, noticing the importance they had in the film. In the movie every character is dressed in relation to their economic and social class. Basically, clothing in the movie is one of the reasons why the American dream is distorted; it's the costumes that identify their importance in society, and the amount of money they posses. Basically, you can notice the difference in costumes when they compare people form the different settings, East Egg, West Egg and The Valley of Ashes.
| East Egg: Characters like Tom count with fancy suits, of distinguished brands. It's clear that he has a high socio economic level. He dresses up with lot's of class and dark colors such as black and grey. When it comes to women from the east egg, they also express their money through their ostentatious clothing. Daisy and Jordan were elaborated dresses, with uncountable amount of jewelry, and most clothing contains stubs of shinny pebbles. They vary in between a scale of calmed colors, peach, beige, and light purple, maintaining an elegant look. The use of short hair, flower head bands, and jewelry remark their high economic position in society. |
| West Egg: Gatsby defines his New Rich position just by his cloth. He keeps a fancy style by the elegance of his clothing, yet it is all differentiated by the combination of colors. While Tom wears soft colors, Gatsby's color palette also includes bright colors such as pink and yellow. It might be more modern than Tom's clothing, yet the combination could be somewhat tacky, having NO CLASS in relation to other characters when he dresses up. Nick, who has less wealth than Gatsby but also lives in west egg, has a simple yet elegant style. He wears casual clothing that doesn't stand out in comparison to other characters. By his clothing you can identify that he has a stable life, yet does not share the same amount of wealth as others. |
Valley of Ashes: It's clear that characters who live in the Valley of Ashes, are those who live under economical difficulties. Regarding clothing you can rapidly notice careless outfits, especially in character as Mr. Wilson, who works consecutively under a dark contaminated sky, having simple, ruined, and old clothing. Characters like Myrtle could be considered well dressed, due to the use of dresses, and their image in general. Yet you can easily notice the difference in colors, making there cloth extremely exotic. Their clothing is definitely less "prestigious" regarding brands. You can notice less wealth in comparison to Jordan and Daisy, due to their tacky outfits and exaggerated makeup, with green, red, orange, and yellow colors. |
In general, it's clear the difference in clothing depending the socio economic status. As soon as the movie starts, you can identify who the characters are just by looking at their cloth, highlighting the theme and emotion of the film. The selection of clothing is important especially in movies where the whole idea is surrounded by money and wealthiness. Clothing is another way to represent affluence and materialism, contributing to the strong theme of THE GREAT GATSBY.