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Alice

In Fashion Wonderland

The yellow rose is clearly upset by Alice's sack

This week SUPERSWEET’s Poonperm Paitayawat is your style-spotter, not at London Fashion Week, but in Tim Burton’s fashionable Wonderland. So, look out for the latest trend from the sartorial White Rabbit and do not fall victim for the dazzling Red Queen!

A recent interview with Tim Burton reveals the magician director works to conflate Alice in the Wonderland with its sequel Through the Looking Glass. This pimped up version of the old tales will portray the 17-year-old Alice to be proposed at her coming-out party. Dreaded, she flees to Wonderland through the rabbit hole she has fallen into ten years ago only to find out something in the merrily mad world has changed. The Red Queen has overthrown her sister White Queen and turns Wonderland into a kingdom of paranoia and fear. Is Alice’s destiny to end the reign of ruby-red, heart-shaped terror? Well, we will have to catch that at cinema.

Once the promo images are leaked (ahem, “released”!), we are in ecstasy. Something has definitely changed in Wonderland! In the hands of multiple award winning costume designer Colleen Atwood, who has worked with Burton for dozen occasions, Lewis Carroll’s “children’s literature” has undergone an orgasmic fashion fix. Have a peek at those digitally retouched creatures and check out SUPERSWEET’s rating of Carroll’s most beloved characters in Wonderland’s fashion scene.

ALICE KINGSLEY

Description: Mia Wasikowska as Alice appears in two different dresses. One is the demure pale blue Victorian dress with her hair pinned up. But, after she is shrunk, Alice re-emerges in a soft chiffon dress revealing her bare shoulders with light ruffles on her breasts and around her waist. The look is reminiscent of a heroine from an 18th century sensation novel. 


Accuracy Rating: N/A There is nothing truthful to Carroll’s Alice here. Burton’s version is 10 years older. Alice’s search for her true identity as a woman joins the two characters together. There are speculations that Alice may find her absent daddy in Wonderland. Would that be the Mad Hatter? Oops! We should keep our lips sealed. 


Style Rating: Medium. Alice’s Victorian outfit is bland but serves its purpose of depicting a girl to be moulded into the Victorian norms. Her more seductive outfit for Wonderland, again, re-emphasises the theme of feminine vulnerability and self-discovery. Sadly, none of the dresses has the Wonderland factor.

THE WHITE RABBIT

Description: Voice by Michael Sheen; The rabbit wears a blue tale jacket, a white ruffle shirt with lace detail at sleeves, and a blue cummerbund. He also carries a retro-looking, gold pocket clock. 


Accuracy Rating: High. He does not compromise time and he is dressed up for formal occasions just as it is meant to be. 


Style Rating: Medium to High. The White Rabbit’s outfit is sartorial and crisp, with impeccable finish that allows its wearer to run, hop, run, and crash one tea party after another. Sadly, Saville Row tailors might not love this because the White Rabbit goes without a pair of matching trousers. On the bright side, the look magnifies the White Rabbit’s sex appeal, as Alice seems to be checking out his bum, whilst running after him.

THE WHITE QUEEN

Description: Anne Hathaway is a white, corseted bridal gown with sequin, ruffle, crystal, pearl and lace embellishment. There are some more lace draped over the bare shoulders and long, crystal-encrusted chiffon gloves.  


Accuracy Rating: High. Frail, pure, docile, powerless, puppet-like and a lullaby admirer, Burton’s re-drafted WQ retains a lot of the inertia Carroll’s character has. This is somebody who's lost passion, identity and enthusiasm about life. It's noteworthy that she has almost faded into her dress. She stands for female subordination - one distinctive quality of women in Victorian England. She might turn into a sheep. But, won’t it be much more fun if she is a cow? 


Style Rating: Low. This is Anna, definitely not “Wintour”, in Wonderland, the commander-in-chief kicked out by her more dazzling sister. It might serve her right for having this bored-me-to-death look. Her white long curly hair and the even whiter gown make her fade into obscurity. Her ex-Majesty sadly lacks fashion sense. What’s worse? The dark eyebrows! They yell, “I have my hair dyed but I forgot about the eyebrows!”

THE RED QUEEN

Description: The Red Queen’s (Helena Bonham Carter) 
head is digitally blown up with a heart-shaped hairdo that will put Hairspray’s Tracy to shame. HM’s dress comes in royal red, corseted, with shiny gold layers and contrasting gold heart print. On the bright gold sleeves are blood red ruffles. More Elizabethan, rather than Victorian, nevertheless, it befits the Queen. What’s more, she sports a tiny golden crown and gold lace boots and she wields a ruby-encrusted sceptre.

Accuracy Rating: High. The Red Queen is the frightful matriarch, the epitome of Victorian rigidity and fatal pretension. She is absurd, cruel and perpetually uncompromising. This über-bold, predominantly red outfit enhances those characteristic traits.  


Style Rating: Super high! In Wonderland, the Red Queen is the style icon. The Queen’s got the big ginger hair and the threateningly bright blue eye-shadow to contrast. Every bit of her nasty character is visualised in every inch of the outfit. She loves co-ordination. No loose thread on the dress, and that reflects how she governs. Order, order, order, or else!

THE MAD HATTER


Description: There’s the top hat draped with a red scarf, lace, pins and things all over. The eye-catching ginger hair resembles Madonna’s hairdo before she became all muscular! And, the Beau Brummell-style scarf in assorted liquorice print! Then, the standard Victorian brown suit jacket with a waistcoat and a pair of dark green trousers a bit too short of the Mad Hatter. So, what? The Hatter doesn't care. Actually, he’s proud to show off his colourful stripy socks and his beige shoes. 


Accuracy Rating: Medium. The Mad Hatter’s role is not so big in Carroll’s book. But, with Johnny Depp, you can expect all sorts of characteristic roller coaster: madness, mystery, and mayhem, to name a few - most of which are inspired by the novel.  


Style Rating: Highest! This quirky outfit plus the larger-than-life styling looks so Lewis Carroll. And? He looks like a naturally born Galliano dandy! We love the little badges that adorn his jacket and the scarf. There’s a pleasure to see somebody who despises order and co-ordination, who, costume-wise, stands in opposition to the maniacal and orderly Red Queen. He embodies chaos and we’d die to be at his tea party.

TWEEDLEDEE/TWEEDLEDUM

Description: As if actor Matt Lucas isn’t round enough, he's digitally manipulated to look as oval as two eggs hugging each other. The twins are spotted in skin-tight navy stripe T-shirts, dark brown ¾-length trousers, red ultra-slim braces, stripy socks, and a pair of brown, suede-looking shoes with a belt detail on top. 


Accuracy Rating: High. The twins look grotesquely playful with a bit of a ragamuffin’s attitudes. Alice will have a fantastic time being sandwiched by these two. 


Style Rating: High. The rhyming duo is somehow very fashion conscious enough to pick up the timeless, Coco Chanel stripy T- shirts. With their pale white complexion and shaved heads, they totally transform the brutal skinhead look of the 80’s to quirky Parisian quarrellers, yet they both look clownish enough to fit in Carroll’s original characterisation.

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS

Description: 
No (leaked) images but in the trailer the Knave played by Crispin 'Thin Man' Glover is seen in a black undergarment with a heavy-looking silver armour on top. The Knave’s cheek is massively scarred and he also wears a black, heart shaped eye patch. 


Accuracy Rating: N/A We are not sure if Burton conflates the Knave of Hearts with the White Knight in Carroll’s sequel. He just looks too butch to steal some tarts from the Queen. No pun intended, of course! 


Style Rating: Low. Though we know you are a good guy, we abhor this faux knightly look. If you want to be a hero, be a proper one. Polish your armour, do something with that black flabby hair, pop into one of those Harley Street clinics and get your scar removed. Then, we’ll talk fashion!

THE CHESHIRE CAT


Description: A talking cat (voice by Stephen Fry) with a grin and a grin without a cat! 


Accuracy Rating: High. The bubbly grinning head of Cheshire Cat is a joy to see. With Fry’s voice, he will brilliantly encapsulate all the trouble-making sense of humour as well as expose the absurdity of Wonderland’s authorities in Carroll’s book. 


Style Rating: N/A, we're sorry to disappoint you dear readers but this Cheshire trickster does not have an outfit, or a body!

Words: Poonperm Paitayawat