Stefano Mirti's Blueberries: 300243433367923.69532.268422276550039&type 3

Stefano Mirtis
Blueberries
W.E.
376/388
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300243433367923.69532.268422276550039&type=3
Listening to her talk was simply enough. Her voice
was hoarse and terrifying. I found her horrible,
common, vulgar, loud, a second class American
without charm. Now shes everything thats
elegant. The whole London social herd follows her
like a lover and possible wife of the King Im sure
that she already has more glamour and is more
interesting than any other public figure. now
thats a good story for a movie already !!

~ Cecil Beaton
Stefanos Blueberries W.E. 376/388
2011, London, United Kingdom
Madonna, W.E., Semtex Films
W.E. (stylized as W./E.) is a romantic drama film
co-written and directed by Madonna, starring
Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, James
D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough.
W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined
women Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) and
Wallis Simpson separated for more than six
decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Winthrop is
obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate
love story: King Edward VIII's abdication of the
British throne for the woman he loved, American
divorcee Wallis Simpson. But Winthrop's research,
including several visits to the Sotheby's auction of
the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple's life
together was not as perfect as she thought.
Weaving back and forth in time, the film
intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New
York with the story of Wallis (Andrea Riseborough)
and Edward (James D'Arcy), from
the glamorous early days of their romance to the
slow unraveling of their lives in the decades that
followed.
"There are more characters, and three of them
basically changed the course of English history.
King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to be with
an American woman, Wallis Simpson, and that's
part of my story, so I've had to do an enormous
amount of research and interview people. So I
have an enormous responsibility to that, and then I
have a responsibility to the actual auction, which
really happened. Then there's the new story, the
point of view, which is this girl who has this
obsession and is going to the auctions and stuff. So
it's a much more layered, complicated piece than
Filth and Wisdom."
(Madonna)
After finishing the script and starting work on
casting and production, Madonna realised that the
budget of film was going to be high. Simpson's
character had around 80 costume changes with
dresses by designers like Balenciaga, Christian
Dior, Madeleine Vionnet and Elsa Schiaparelli.
Most of the actual dresses were kept in museum
archives, hence unobtainable to Madonna. Instead,
many of the couture houses offered to create the
dresses for her.
The costumes designed were a combination of real
vintage pieces, others were remade based on
patterns that were obtained out of the museum
archives, and the rest had to be freshly made.
Madonna also enlisted costume designer Arianne
Phillips to create the dresses for the film. The
costumes designed were a combination of real
vintage pieces, others were remade based on
patterns that were obtained out of the museum
archives, and the rest had to be freshly made.
Phillips then researched the clothes on display at
fashion departments of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art's Costume Institute in New York, the Muse
de la Mode et du Textile in Paris and the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London. She then went to
Los Angeles, where retailer Doris Raymond, from
The Way We Wore had opened up her personal
library of 1930s couture. There Phillips watched
old newsreels from the University of California
archives.
Phillips established contacts with designer labels
like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels to replicate a
cross bracelet and ten other pieces.
For the gowns, undergarments, and dresses
needed for the 60 costume changes in the film,
Phillips scoured the archives of Vionnet and
Schiaparelli; then with the cooperation of both
houses she redesigned Simpson's clothing. The first
dress in which Riseborough appeared as Simpson in
the film was a re-creation of the dress owned by
Simpson herself. Phillips decked the dresses with
diamond bow brooch at the neck and paired with
organza skirts, and was able to obtain duplicates
for some of them from Cos Prop, a costume shop
in London.

"Some of the pieces that the duchess actually
ordered I thought were hideous. Those wouldnt
work for the movie, so we modified and invented.
Wallis wasnt pretty; she was handsome, at best.
In England, it was noted over and over how
unattractive she was. But Wallis was a lot of fun
very entertaining. She had a freedom to her that
was definitely reflected in her clothes; the
duchess was all about presentation. And that
became her refuge, and her prison."
(Arianne Phillips)
According to Phillips, Edward's choice of clothes
were specific and he rebelled against what his
father dictated as the protocol for dresses. He
used to wear navy blue tails, rather than black
ones, as formalwear. The designer was able to see
the original ones he owned at the Costume
Institute. To re-create the look, Phillips contacted
luxury goods company Alfred Dunhill who had an
understanding of bespoke tailoring available in
London's Savile Row. They provided Phillips with
tailor, wools and fabrics from the mills that had
created the original fabrics for Edward himself.
Phillips tailored the baggy looks of the 1930s suits,
to make them appealing for the contemporary
audience. In the end, all the
costumes were hand-made, with a total of 60
costumes being created for Simpson and 30 for
Edward.
Here the lik to the trailer of Madonna's W.E.: http:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lNg0cm69xU

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