Preproduction 8: Costumes: Women and children

These are women's and children's costumes that we'll need; to see the men's stuff please click on the "Preproduction 7: Costumes: Men" link to the right...

We've lost our Brette to a French immersion program in Quebec for the rest of the summer, and she has put together a book of costume needs, actors' sizes and time periods for the costumes we'll need for the shoot. It's kind of daunting, on top of all of the rest of the production that needs to be done, to try to find all of these costumes for 'cheap-to-free' as I keep saying. I have a feeling that we'll end up making a few, but hopefully not too many, and hopefully the ones we have to make will be fun! I have done a little internet research over the past while and here are some of the images I've come up with for the women and children's clothing.

First, we have Tom's mother, who spends the entire film in the dress she was wearing when she put little Tomi to bed back in 1890. I'd like the dress to be light-colored and pretty, with the kinds of ribbons and bows and other details from the era. Here are a few samples of dresses from the era and what I like about each one:

These are too dark, and we can lose the hats, but I love the details on the blouse on the right.

More cool details. The hair, however, is atrocious.

This is a gorgeous dress, if probably too frilly, and if we could come up with a simpler version of this I think Megan would look great in it. The detail is lovely; I particularly like the sleeves. Mama should look a little ethereal and I think something like this would really nail what I am seeing in my mind. I like the hair, too. Here's another take on a simpler dress with this neckline:

Another challenge for us in dressing our actresses is putting together the right outfits for Katja. First of all, she marries Tom in about 1901. I found this link to some patterns for wedding gowns of the era, and here are some widely varying bridal gowns from that time:

This is probably very close to what the dress should look like. It's a little old fashioned and as a poorer girl I think Katja would be wearing a recycled wedding dress.

I am very partial to this veil!

This veil is great too. I also like the length of the dress. This is a little more what would have been in fashion for a young bride in 1900 or so, and maybe we could go this direction as well. I particularly like the look of shock on the faces of this couple!

On this one I like the gathering and the rosette on the bodice, and the layers. This is also a good shot of the shoes; they look surprisingly modern to me.

Sometimes it's easier to see the dresses in sketches like these.

Then there is Katja's regular costume. We see her in a three different photographs from 1901 until about 1906, and I think we can just use the same dark skirt with a couple of different blouses and hats or hairdos. Then we need her costume for the actual scenes she is in, circa 1910. I think this will be one costume, a dark blouse and skirt, with perhaps a shawl and a hat for the goodbye scene in the morning on the road. Here is the right era for what we need to find or make:

I like the shapes and details of these dresses, but as Mama is the 'light' female in Tom's life, I see Katja as the 'dark' one, and I think her dress should be dark. See below for examples of this look in dark material...

I like the collar on the seated lady in the dark dress, and also the dark bow and blouse on the lady in the middle of the picture. I think Katja would be wearing something fairly simple like this.

Nice family portrait.

Another challenge will be finding 1920's and 30's era dresses for Lili, who plays Marge, and the other farm wives who come out for the post-threshing party. These types of dresses are not as hard to come by, particularly as this look came back into vogue not too many years ago, and also we saw some like these in the Regina Little Theatre costume room, where Dauminique has amazingly gotten permission for us to borrow some costumes. We probably need 6 or 7 of this type of dress and some hats to go with them.

There is also the scene where Katja and the two girls are standing next to the coffin in black mourning clothes. Here are some examples of mourning dresses from the era. They seem to be rather plain and straight. Black stockings, gloves and boots would probably add to the effect. This is in about 1920.

This is a beautiful dress and I think Lori would look great in something like this.

I love these caps with the long veils. I think some sort of hat like this would be great.

Here is a quick sketch I did in Photoshop of how I imagine Katja and the two girls in the funeral scene. Imagine the details from the pictures above in this setting (1920):



There are four nurses in the film as well, circa 1943. I like the simple button-up white blouse and white skirt, stockings and shoes as shown in these pictures. There is a great nurse's cap at the Regina Little Theatre too, and I am sure we could borrow it.

I am thinking that if we could just find some simple white button-up shirts like this (below) and make white wrap-around skirts, with the addition of the white cap, shoes and stockings we'd have a pretty convincing nurse costume. This picture is from a Butterick pattern but shirts like this are easy to find.

There are also the little girls. There is a little 3-year-old girl in the goodbye scene (circa 1910) and then a 3 year old and a 9 year old in the funeral scene (circa 1920). Here are some ideas for these costumes. First is the littlest three or four year old girl. She has two scenes: the same actress will play little Maija, the elder of the two girls, and then she will play her younger sister, Tuula, a few years later at the funeral (don't try to do the math; it doesn't quite work out, but I want the girls to be still young in this scene so am stretching the years a little here). The shape of these dresses (below) will work for both: she just needs a little black version and a black bow for her hair in the funeral scene.

I love the stockings and boots. I would prefer a darker dress and dark stockings, but this is a great simple little frock.


The bows are awesome! I'd love to see a bow in her hair. The ones below are cool too.


This is probably my favorite dress. I like the darker dress for story reasons, to go with Katja's darker dress. The black stockings and boots are great, and with a little bow I think this would be a great look for the little girl.

The older version of Maija, in the 9 - 12 range, will only be seen in the funeral scene. She should be wearing a dress something like one of these, except black:

As for Tom Sukanen as a child in 1890's Finland, I do see him in a cap on the riverbank, and in knickers and stockings and boots. I imagine a little cardigan and collarless shirt would complete the outfit. Here are some pictures:

With a little toy boat, even! We did find a cap at the Regina Little Theatre, not a sailor's cap like this one, but a small version of the traditional Finnish caps that the boys in Finland wore in those days, which would be perfect.

I especially like the clothing on the boy with the bike.

Then there is Timo, Tom's son. The first time we see him he is about three years old, and is just in a photograph. He probably would wear something like this:

The next time we see Timo he is a little older. He is probably wearing a little sailor shirt and knickers. For some reason these sailor shirts seemed very popular at the time.

This is a little fussy, but for formal photos and for a 'going-to-school' outfit this would probably be a good look.

I had to put in this whole family because of the cross-eyed dad. These two boys have great costumes that I think we could easily build from second-hand stuff.

The last consideration in the women and children department is the look of the little boy and girl who will be at the threshing party in the 1920's. They are both about 7 or 8 years old and the children of farmers, so nothing too fancy. I think the following costumes would be great for these kids. Little girls' dresses haven't changed much over time so these shouldn't be too hard to find. Here's a sample of girls' dresses from that time.



The little boy at the threshing party (again, 1920's) should be wearing clean farm-boy clothes: overalls, a cap, knickers, socks, and lace-up boots. This is also the costume for Timo in the goodbye scene (1910); the boys' clothes don't change much over the years.






One last thing: both Timo and Dami need nightshirts for their bedtime scene (1890 and 1910). We saw one at the Regina Little Theatre; it was adult sized but might work for one of the two scenes. Here are a couple of pictures for reference:

This one is supposed to be more Victorian/19th century...

... and this one is supposed to be more in the 20th century style. They look pretty similar to me.

So here is a summary of womens' and childrens' clothing that needs to be found/created for this film. I have colored the items in blue that I think will need to be made or altered radically. The rest I do feel that we will be able to find.

Mama
- light colored detailed gown (Finland, 1890)

Katja
- wedding gown and veil, white shoes and stockings (1900)
- 2 - 3 darker colored blouses and a long dark skirt (1900-1910)
- funeral dress and cap with veil, dark shoes and stockings (1920)

Marge
- 1 nice dress (1920's)
- 1 'Depression-era' dress (1930's)
- sensible shoes

Nurses
- 2 white button-up blouses and 2 wrap around skirts, four pairs white stockings and four pairs white shoes, nurse cap (1943)

Extra women at party
- 6 - 7 costumes: dresses, hats, shoes, stockings (1920/30)

"Cold mom"
- wool dress, shawl, scarf, boots (1935)

Dami (young Tom)
- small Finnish cap, button-up collarless shirt, knickers, stockings, boots, small jacket or sweater (1890)
- nightshirt (1890)

Timo (formerly Arne)
- 'sailor-type' shirt, knickers, stockings, boots (photo series, 1906)
- vest, knickers, blousy shirt, 'newsboy style' cap (farm, 1910)
- nightshirt (1910)

4 year old girl (Timo's sister)
- dark-colored little girl's dress, bow, stockings, boots (1910)
- funeral dress, black bow, stockings, boots (1920)

9 year old girl (Timo's other sister)
- funeral dress, black bow, stockings, boots (1920)

8 year old girl at party
- cotton dress, white socks, black buckle shoes (1920ish)

8 year old boy at party
- bib overalls (or knickers with vest and stockings), newsboy cap, boots, blousy shirt

"Cold boy"
- patched bib overalls, sweater, boots, 'newsboy' cap, scarf

The men's costume post will be MUCH simpler (men's clothing did not change much between about 1900 and 1930) but I will be listing all of the items we need to find there as well.

Whew, that was some work! To see men's costumes, please click on the link to the right.

Until next time, Sisu!