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Article Links... out on the Web

There's lots more details out on the web about LOTR costumes.  We've just begun to harvest links to interesting articles.

Article Index

Costumes and Other Details

  • Lord of the Rings confounded, inspired by daunting task
    • http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1986228,00.html
    • Short article in The Daily News, by Phillip Zonkel. Main concentration is Ring Wraiths
      • "The ringwraith design task gave me a mental breakdown," said Dickson, ... "How do you create something which seems to be all motion and no body? ..."These were men and they were kings, so I retrospectively designed it," said Dickson. "In fact, there's a drawing somewhere of a king in a fully regal costume, and then I broke it down more and more and more into a ringwraith. There are vestiges of that original design as part of that costume."
      • "Costumes are built from the inside out," Dickson said. "We tried to find what was going to bring shape (to these creatures). We used all sorts of variations on humps and helmet pieces under the fabric to remove the sense of what a human shape is and to get the feeling that the head disappeared into the shoulders, which disappeared into the body." In the end, they used latex humps.
      • The only way for Dickson and company to get lifelike movement out of a costume was to pile it with layers and layers of different silks. "It goes from quite light layers to quite heavy woven (layers)," she said. "If the wind is blowing, one's going to be heavier, one will be lighter. Some will float away more than others.
      • "A ringwraith costume ended up being (164 feet) of fabric times 29 costumes that we made, and they weigh a ton

         

  • The Best Dressers on Oscar Night
    • http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0227/p11s01-almo.html
    • A quick article with the main designers for the 2004 Oscars.  The Christian Science Monitor, Feb 27, 2004 by Laura Randall.
      • But ask Dickson what's she most proud of and it's evident that it's the hidden details that thrill Ms. Dickson the most: the elaborate butterfly design on the back of Tyler's silver crown, for example. And the invisible underskirts that were dyed and hand-embroidered to get the same shimmering gleam as the outer layers.
      • That attention to detail made for such a heavy costume that at one point actor Viggo Mortensen wasn't able to lift himself up without help. "We had to haul him off the floor," Dickson recalls. "It's kind of amusing in retrospect."
  • Designs on an Oscar
    • http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/26/sprj.aa04.costume.design/
    • Daily News from Entertainment weekly, February 26, 2004, by Alesia Standford
      • The biggest challenge, said Dickson, was creating the "the softness and the luminosity that we wanted for that moment." "I still wanted it to be almost a bridal gown at the same time it was a coronation gown," she said, describing the long dye process to find the "right green." "I knew that this character should come from this crown and [envisioned] a huge butterfly that came out from behind her head. And then it slowly came down into something more refined, but the butterfly image is still there at the back."
  • An Interview with Liv Tyler
    • http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/380/380367p1.html
    • Short interview article from Film Force.  Mostly general info, just a little costume bits.  Multiple pictures. December 16, 2002
    • Liv's favorite dress in TTT
      • "...this incredible dress that you don't even see, because they're in this tight on my face. (She puts one hand below her chin and the other above her head, as if framing a close-up.) But it was this incredibly beautiful red velvet dress that [Costume Designer] Ngila [Dickson] got the fabric for in Paris and it was like a gazillion dollars. It was this incredible, like (she motions to her own red shirt) much deeper than this, like a wine-colored red, velvet braid."
  • Out of The Closet with Hobbits, Elves & Wizards.
    • http://www.eonline.com/Features/Specials/Lordrings/Location/000601.html
    • THE interview with Ngila Dickson.  WOW!!!  All kinds of information on creating the costumes:  from fabrics & the “distressing” of said fabrics to designing & fitting & all the good stuff in between.  This is a must-read for everybody interested in the costumes!!!  Just a few small pictures, though.  4 Pages.  Includes access to the “Contents” page (see below) June, 2001.
    • Contents - for more articles
  • Designer Dressing for Orcs - An Interview with Matt Appleton
    • http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/_2001/publications_2001/Massey_News/August/Aug_13/stories/lord_of_the_rings.html
    • by Massey News, August 13, 2001
    • Best bits:
      • On construction of elven armor: "Appleton firstly worked from drawings to produce 100 suits of Elf armour. Each suit was made from about 50 pieces of polypropyline plastic, cut from sheets, then assembled like a kitset. The suits were held together with elastic straps at the back, to allow freedom of movement. The helmets were a fast-setting plastic, sprayed over a range of moulds."
      • Quick thinking: We only produced seven swords, but suddenly had nine Wraiths, so it was a case of taping flax on some garden stakes, spraying on silver paint, then handing them to the riders out on the end of the line.”
      • Scrounging for Orcs: Appleton says he pillaged op-shops in the Wellington region for jackets, coats and furs, all of which he shredded, dyed and layered, in various combinations, under the Orc armour.  “The Orcs had been fighting, living and sleeping in their clothes for years, so we had lots of fun building up the characters, splicing in the stuff we’d imagined they’d be looting off the soldiers they’d killed in battles they’d fought. I found a nobleman’s jacket always added a nice touch – particularly if you dressed it down with mud.”
      • About coming up with 50 extra orcs on a moments notice: “So when the crew are all waiting on you - when you’ve put a jacket on someone that doesn’t fit - that’s when you’re whacking open those seams at the back that are not in shot, cobbling it all back together with safety pins. That’s when the really dodgy stuff happens"
  • Frocks and Elves, Ring Style
    • http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3007741&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&reportid=56531
      • Quick but very chose bits on Arwen's Blood Red dress and Eowyn's Cream Chemise. Interview with Dickson. Good pictures of both dresses. One page, by Fiona Hawtin, 12/15/02
      • Arwen chose bits about the blood red:
        •  "We were working with a piece of velvet and it came back from the dye-house this unbelievable colour."
        • "The midnight blue silk velvet dress is trimmed with antiqued embroidery Dickson stumbled upon in London. Not content with the old feel it already had, she aged it further and used it around the neckline and on the upper part of the sleeve to give the look richness. The deep rose sleeves took 4.5m of silk velvet cut into a circular shape. At 1.8m, Tyler is tall enough to take on such a lot of fabric. "
        • "To keep the hands visible, hands had to be clasped at all times, otherwise the sleeve would rest at the ankle."
      • Eowyn chose bits:
        • "is a pretty accurate portrayal of medieval style, give or take the odd liberty Dickson took. The star of this cream silk dress with a full skirt is the sleeve. ... Puffed at the shoulder, the mid-calf length sleeve is then gathered underneath before finally falling open in a version of a medieval one. ... To complete the underwear then, a brown leather bodice with gold embroidery is worn over the top. "

       

  • There and back again: A geeks's adventure in Middle-earth, part 4
    • http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=7728
    • Harry's report watching the filming during his visit to the LOTR set. December 17, 2000,  no pictures, but wonderful word descriptions
    • Main bits:
      • "Faramir. He is out of armor…. And is now wearing his brown leather two buckled boots…. No heels, flat across the bottom… an olive green flat of cloth covering his below abdomen and legs…. He’s wearing the leather chest piece with the embossed symbol of… the tree in a used and cracked up silver lame type deal. Though, it is well worn…. It has seen better days…. Faramir is in the absolute best of ‘olden’ times garb… not the brilliant colors of the 1950’s knights in armor…. But more muted… real colors. Everything worn, nothing new looking."
      • "Denethor…. Well when I described his hair to you, in a way, that describes the entirety of his character look. Salt and pepper. He has the days growth peppering of stubble…. His robes a deep deep black with silver/grayish fur…. For me, I’ll call it wolf pelt"
      • "Eowyn’s dress is quite literally one of the most beautiful beaded gowns I have ever seen in my life."
  • Amid Mud & (Orc) Blood, a Star is Born
    • http://www.eonline.com/Features/Specials/Lordrings/Location/00501.html
    • The author, John Forde (who seems to have written all the LoTR articles for E!) on being an extra for the opening “flashback” shoot.  Information from Richard Taylor on the orc bodysuits, masks & armor is very good.  Also talks with Richard Taylor about both the Elvish & the Gondorian armor.  Some particularly interesting information on the changes in the Elvish armor between the prologue & the Helms Deep sequence (slight SPOILER here).  Again very few pictures, this was written before the movie came out.  4 Pages.
  • Caught UP in The Heat of Battle
  • A Major Event at Minas Tirith
    • http://www.eonline.com/Features/Specials/Lordrings/Location/010101.html
    • MAJOR SPOILER MATERIAL!!  Talks about Gondor, the Coronation & a little on Arwen’s “wedding” dress (yes, the lime green dress is her wedding dress!).  Wonderful description of Aragorn’s Coronation garb!  Also talks about the choice of costumes for the natives of Minas Tirith.  One tiny picture of Arwen in the green.  4 Pages. January, 1, 2001.
  • Force of Hobbit: On Location
  • Tales from the Junket Circuit: The Return of the King, part 5.  Chud Dec 17 Press Junket, an interview with Ngila Dickson
    • http://www.chud.com/news/dec03/dec17junket.php3 (scroll half way down for her interview. (just some clips).  Wonderful artile with much detail.
      • Ngila: The two big design tasks that were just giving me a mental breakdown was the ring wraiths and the scale issue. ... Because no one had ever done it before and we had to test so many things to find out how- - what was going to play and what wasn’t going to play. What fabrics we could use and what fabrics we couldn’t use. And in the end, I kind of threw up my hands and ... weave the fabric. To make the buttons ourselves, so we could make them to scale. To use quilting and embroidery as the method of embellishing those costumes which worked brilliantly with the hobbits. It not only gave me the scale easily, but it actually gave me the right home spun country innocent naiveté that I think is really integral in those little lads.
  • Dunedin seamstress plays part in `Rings'
  • Making Middle-Earth:  The Lord of the Rings
  • Ring Bearers:  Fellowship of the Ring
    • http://www.cinematographer.com/article/mainv/0,7220,32211,00.html
    • A very technical interview with the lighting director for LoTR.  But it is interesting for the information he gives on choosing what color to use for lighting each set.  Good pictures, including one of Liv Tyler in the “angel” dress.  Links to film clips.  5 pages.
  • The New Armies of the Two Towers
    • http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3007551&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&reportid=56531
    • A short article introducing the Uruk-Hai and Rohan armies. from the New Zealand Herald, 12/10/02
    • Best bits:  Quotes from Richard Taylor:
      • [Rohan] "ride horses, so they are very much of the horse culture and their whole lives exist around their ability to utilize horsecraft at a high level"
      • "Just a helmet took a considerable amount of design. In the pursuit of realism, it was beaten out of plate steel, acid etched into steel, and had handworked leather. Then we finally took silicon moulds to replicate to create the stunt double version."
      • "It's very much Norman/Saxon influenced."
  •  Third 'Ring' movie the 'King' of the trilogy, says Wood
    • http://www.suntimes.com/output/pearlman/cst-ftr-cindy25.html
    • A short article that sounds like bits fro the TTT premier junket.  From the Chicago Sun-times, 12-25-02 by Cindy Pearlman
    • Best costume bit:
      •  Liv: "It's not just that those long elf robes are hot, but there are so many layers and they're long. It's so hard to walk gracefully all the time when you're really tripping every two seconds,"
  • Hobbit Forming
    • http://entertainmentdesignmag.com/ar/show_business_hobbit_forming/index.htm
      • by John Calhoun for Entertainment and Design magazine, Dec 1, 2001.
    • One of the many articles that cover a lot of the initial information that was released w/ the movie.  However, it does get into some specifics as well
    • Quotes from Ngila
    • began “to travel back through time, really: suddenly we're in something that feels vaguely Celtic, going back to bigger and older civilizations. The Elves are in the lightest colors of the film, and in beautiful brocades,” ... “We felt that simplicity was going to be everything: to have an incredibly calm, very simple costume. Of course, there is really intense detail in the design of it, from the crown to the Ring to the embroidery. Still, the overall impact is just simple.”
    • Though Frodo wears the same costume through most of the three films, Dickson says there were about 40 versions of this one frock: “We had 10 stages of breakdown for the costume,” she explains, “and you had four of each, to cover body doubles, stunt doubles, and little actors.”
  •  DVDFile.com Feature Story
    • http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/in_the_round/lordoftherings/returnoftheking/costumes.html
      • DVDFile.com interview on May 4, 2004
    • An Interview with Ngila Dickson
      • About reshoots: "We did a scene of Arwen returning - she's ridden out of Rivendell and sees that child running past - that costume and almost every costume you see on Miranda Otto in the film: Although they were very complicated to do, they were easy because you were coming at them with a very fresh perspective"
      • About scale issues: "It used up an inordinate amount of time because no one had ever done it before and we had to test so many things to figure out what was going to play and what wasn't - what fabrics we could and couldn't use.  At the end of it, I threw up my hands and went back to the craftsmanship of the time - to bring weavers on board and weave the fabric. To make the buttons ourselves so we could make them to scale - to make embroidery the method of embellish those costumes which worked brilliantly with the Hobbits. Not only did it give me the scale easily, but it gave me the right home-spun country naivete which is integral to those little lads."
  • Once You Dress an Elf, a Samurai's Easy
    • http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/movies/02LAFE.html?ex=1068354000&en=35b026c40cf7d4a2&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
      • by Ruth la Ferla for the NY Times, November 2, 2003
    • An article mainly about Ngila Dickson's new movie, "The Last Samurai".  However, there are bits of info from the LOTR movies.
    • "Unlike the Hobbits, whose stout little bodies were stuffed into rough, shapeless coats and truncated pants, the elvin denizens of Lothlorien and Rivendell are studies in languor, all elongated torsos and cascading bell-shaped sleeves. "The elves," Ms. Dickson said, "were the the most complex costumes to design, since Tolkien rarely referred to their garb in his text." A case in point is Galadriel, the oldest of all the elves remaining in Middle Earth. Portrayed by Cate Blanchett, she wears silk velvet gowns and underskirts whose linings are as elaborately embroidered as their outer layers."
    • "In "Lord of the Rings," Ms. Dickson strives for period flavor through a palette that varies from deep blue and sepia to the ivory and claret a medieval aristocrat might have deemed elegant. But color is just one of the elements that gives both films their subdued opulence. Another is texture. It shows in the latticework of handstitched beading on Galadriel's gowns, and not less in the armor of the samurai."
  • "Rings" Cloaks Work magic
    • http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=56531
      • by Ellen Read, New Zealand Herald, 11/14/03
    • ""Cheryl and Barry Eldridge bought the hill country farm 12 years ago. ... and bought a 300-strong flock of grey-fleeced Gotland sheep"
    • "Gotlands were brought to New Zealand from Sweden about 20 years ago but the delicate and light-boned breed, traditionally farmed for their pelts, never became especially popular. "
    • "The Eldridges saw potential in the sheep's silky, soft, lustrous wool and started a programme of selective breeding to enhance these qualities. Today they run a thousand-strong flock of what is now registered as the Stansborough Gotland breed. The fibre of 50 alpacas is blended to add warmth and variety. "
    • "The samples were on display in New York when they caught the eyes of the Lord of the Rings costume designers. This led to an order of almost 1000m of the material to make the cloaks and other costumes for characters in Peter Jackson's award-winning films. "

Fabric

  • Stansborough Fibres' press release page
    • Collection of articles about Stansborough and misc LOTR information
    • Fore more about the fabric all in one place, check out our artisan page on them.
  • Pulling the wool over the Hobbits
    • http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1071576066617&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist1037358122201
      • by Malene Arpe, Toronto Star, December 18, 2003
    • "There are barely four million people on the North and South Islands that make up New Zealand. There are 43 million sheep. Twenty-seven hundred of those belong to British expatriates Cheryl and Barry Eldridge, whose 1,200-hectare farm called Stansborough, a two-hour drive from Wellington in the Kaiwhata Valley on the east coast of the North Island, is open for tourists to stay in their guest house. "
    • "While the Eldridges do not own the largest flock, the biggest operation or the most impressive manufacturing business, they have done something rather remarkable: they've clothed the Hobbits.
    • "Of their sheep, 1,000 belong to a rare dark grey breed; descendants of a flock of Swedish Gotland sheep brought to New Zealand some 20 years ago. The dark sheep, which are frailer than the robust whites, did not gain popularity and a decade ago only 300 were left.
    • "... they'd added 1,700 white sheep, 200 head of cattle and a flock of alpacas. But the wool from the Gotland breed was the main focus of their endeavour. They added a Wellington mill to their business, bought two antique Yorkshire looms and started designing and weaving fabric unlike any other.
    • "With an almost silky, metallic shine to it, its strange quality was exactly what the costume designer for Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings was looking for when it came time to make the magic Elven cloaks given to the Hobbits in Fellowship Of The Rings. Strangely enough, the fabric was discovered in New York, where samples had been sent to prospective buyers "
    • "... the Eldridges' mill is ten minutes away from Peter Jackson's studio. The Eldridges made 1,000 metres of fabric and took their place in movie history.
    • "The Eldridges also supplied material for soldiers' cloaks and Gimli's tunic."
  • Ring cloaks weave their magic
    • http://times-age.co.nz/weekly/2003/magic_cloaks.html
      •  by Ellen Read, Wairarapa Times-age, November 29, 2003

    • "Stansborough Fibres is a family-owned business producing homegrown material from a flock of grey-fleeced sheep farmed on the Wairarapa coast. Cheryl and Barry Eldridge bought the hill country farm 12 years ago. The land was marginal and, desperate to avoid having to plant it in pine trees – as many others were doing – they looked for more innovative options, and bought a 300-strong flock of grey-fleeced gotland sheep from a property in Nelson.

    • "Gotlands were brought to New Zealand from Sweden about 20 years ago but the delicate and light-boned breed, traditionally farmed for their pelts, never became especially popular.