Historical and Contemporary Inspiration

'Women's Headdress and Hairstyles in England from AD600 to the present day'

(pages 48- 59)

Again, I found this book in the fashion an styling section along with other books from different eras. I wanted to find a book on Elizabethan hairstyles that would help me understand how they styled their hair and what kind of things they put in it. I decided to read this book as it had lots of information on the era I wanted to research.

I have learnt a lot of things by reading this book. I am now aware of the different styles they used to have such as waved or rolled hair and even frizzing and close curls. They used to style their hair in many ways and as the years went on the looks started to slightly change. I also find it fascinating that they used

accessories such as pearls, diamonds and rubies!

I am so excited to start this project now as I have a lot of research that I can look back on and start designing and creating my Elizabethan look. I am going to take on board the things that I have learnt and create a really interesting design that is recognisable from the 16th century but I also want to make it my own. I can't wait to start practising!


Beyonce - Mrs Carter Show

Image from: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dbTY5wGTks0/maxresdefault.jpg

In 2013, Beyonce did a world tour known as the Mrs Carter Show. The Youtube video I posted, shows Beyonce's o2 priority advert promoting her tickets. The theme is royalty, she is known as "Queen B" and she looks like a Queen in the advert. We are focusing on the Elizabethan era and I think it relates. Women in the 16th/17th century used to wear corsets to bring their waists in and as you can see Beyonce is wearing one here. 

The second image I posted, shows a clip from Beyonce's backdrop video, a video that is played before she comes on stage during her performance. I can see a relation to the Elizabethan era by the pale skin and bright red lips. The hair is also a big part in the Elizabethan times and you can see here that Beyonce's hair has either been frizzed or curled and been put up using padding to create the height. She is also wearing the jewellery just like they used to in Elizabethan times.