Victorian Visual Culture

I really enjoyed our discussion about Alice in Wonderland the other day, particularly the part when we discussed how Alice’s level of responsibility and maturity would change depending on how big or small she decided to be. Her age feels manipulated throughout the entire story. One minute she’s too little and can’t accomplish anything on her own and the next she’s taller than everyone and decides to march off by herself with no supervision. I think the Tim Burton adaptation of Alice does a really great job of mimicking this trend and incorporating it into what Alice wears as the story progresses. Every time Alice either grows or shrinks her blue dress completely changes shape and style. Often when she gets smaller it takes on a sweet little girl style that’s more modest. Then when she grows bigger it becomes much more of a high fashion adult dress. There’s at least 6 changes total. Here’s a link to an article and a video with the actress playing Alice and Colleen Atwood (the costume designer) talking about working with the different dresses.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ Costume Designer Colleen Atwood Talks Dresses