Alice in Wonderland takes us down the rabbit hole, into a funhouse world of upside down rules and unpredictable characters. Creative, weird and oddly inspiring, artists seem to be transforming the imagery, and possibly more insightful meanings of the film and iconic novel, into many of their creations. From fashion school projects, to couture shows in Paris, the fairytale adventures of this proper, young girl in a world full of chaos, translates to a plethora of artistic mediums.
Photographer Anne Leibowitz shot an “Alice in Wonderland” shoot for Vogue, that became a historical favorite using couture designers for the supporting cast, as she wanders along her “otherworldly” travels.
Designer Gareth Pugh recreates a modern fairytale Queen, in this white and black gown, with modernized geometric elements and pleats.
Antonio Marras for Kenzo, uses the novel as a starting point for his romantic collection of flower garden dresses and dreamy, soft fabrics.
Erin Fetherston took her Fall ’09 collection to new boundaries with girlish, exaggerated shapes, pretty mixtures of fabrics and lots of polka dots and bows.
Inspired by the bold colors and exaggerated proportions in the film, I decided to design an Alice collection for my bridesmaid line, CIARLAbride. Using a mixture of silk fabrics, silver lame and matte grosgrain ribbon, I developed a collection of 8 playful pieces adorned with couture elements. Collaborating with Austin Talent, we constructed a graphic set and modernized the look of the girlish, fairytale icon.
The most exciting news for Alice fans is the recent collaboration between Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney to recreate the film in a more engaging way.
Tim comments, “The story is obviously a classic with iconic images, ideas and thoughts. But with all of the movie versions that exist, well, I’ve just never seen one that really had any impact to me. It’s always just a series of weird events.”
Knowing Tim, audiences will get to dive deeper into the twisted minds of Alice’s acquaintances and will discover a new, beautiful, darker side to the underlying stories that we may have missed before.
