A Gatsby Affair
Tonight I went to see The Great Gatsby – my most anticipated film of the year. Baz Luhrmann is one of my all-time favorite directors, and Carey Mulligan one of my favorite actresses; so when I heard the two were coming together on this project, I was thrilled. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, it’s a film adaptation of a classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Watch the trailer here)
I decided to dress up for the event à la Gatsby – 1920’s flapper girl chic. I’d been searching for a roaring twenties-style dress for over a month, to no avail (save for one that I fell head-over-heels for, but devastatingly was waaaaay out of my price range). Instead, I got a bit creative and put together a costume from things I already had. It wasn’t perfect, but I was happy with the end result.
I dug out this Victoria’s Secret dress from the back of my closet – a black and silver sequin mini that I’ve had for a few years now. It may not be totally historically accurate, but the loose silhouette and glitzy fabric served my purposes well enough.
To this I added a black faux leather clutch (Aldo), cream Mary Jane heels (Amazon), a long pearl necklace (mum’s), and a pearl and rhinestone headband (Forever 21).
Here’s a close up of my accessories – the pearl necklace was one of my mum’s, but and the pearl & rhinestone elastic headband I got recently from Forever 21.
“Gatsby? What Gatsby?”
I tried to do my hair and makeup as authentically as possible. I created a faux bob hairstyle by rolling and tucking the ends of my hair underneath with hair clips, leaving my short front layers to frame my face and give the illusion of shorter hair.
For makeup, I did a matte brown smokey eye, going heavy on the mascara, as per the time period. My cheeks were a flushed powder pink, and my lips a vampy deep burgundy. The 20’s favoured very pointy small lips, so that’s the shape I created with lipstick. (MAC’s “Rebel”)
The film was good, though not quite what I expected. There were elements I enjoyed, and elements I thought were pushed too far to the extreme. But I’ll let you watch it yourself and come to your own conclusions.
After the movie, we all went out for dinner and drinks, and I took my hair out of its bob, though I kept the headband in. I wanted to look slightly less costume-y, since we were no longer at the theatre. I also normalized my lip shape with the lipstick. The rest of the makeup converted quite easily into regular evening makeup, which worked out nicely.
Have you seen The Great Gatsby, or are you planning to? Leave a comment & let me know! xx
