Elizabethan vs Contemporary

Elizabethan vs Contemporary

Whilst researching Elizabethan hairstyles, I noticed a lot of high end fashion designers have used the Elizabethan era for inspiration on the catwalk. Designers such as Coco Chanel and Alexander McQueen. They have used their taste for fashion and transformed the traditional Elizabethan look to a powerful contemporary look for people of the 21st century.  

http://www.emmafarrellmakeup.com/tag/alexander-mcqueen/

As you can see the traditional heart shaped style that was usually worn by Queen Elizabeth has been recreated for Alexander McQueen's catwalk for Spring/Summer fall 2010.

The portrait below shows Queen Elizabeth I with her heart shaped hairstyle back in the 1500s.

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizface3.htm

In my opinion Queen Elizabeth wore it better, she added pearls and flowers to her hair which I feel gave it a bit more to look at historically. McQueen's catwalk is a good copy although it doesn't have much to it other than shape.

Martina's Contemporary Elizabethan Design.....

     

      Martina's Final Design

We were unable to do intense practising for Marina's Look, So she practised on herself and sent me images to practise on my dolls head

• Firstly crimp the whole head , apart from the ends of the hair, these will need to be curled once the crimping is completed
• Secondly section the hair into 3 parts the front should only be wide enough to twist and the middle enough to cover the padding
• In the middle sec ion create your braid for the padding to sit securely 
• Shape and place the padding using pins to secure in place
• Bring the hair back to cover the padding and pin in place
• For the front piece gently twist and hold in place with a clear band, the ends of the hair should drop into a curl
• Leaving the front as it is, scrape the middle and back of hair into a ribbon.

Plaits & Buns.........

Plaits & Buns

French Braid

This is one of few techniques i knew how to achieve before this unit.

• Section the hair using a pin tail comb
• Section the parted hair into three sections
• Plait towards the root of the hair

Fish Tail Plait

• Separate the hair into two sections
• Taking a small part from one section, add on top of the other side
• Repeat this process for the opposite section
• And repeat the process until you get to the end of the hair.

Buns

• Style the hair into a ponytail
• Separate into four sections
• Back comb each section
• Pin under into the ponytail

My Contemporary Elizabethan Design......

My Hair Design

Excuse my crazy drawing, I'm not good at putting pencil to paper but here is my design.

My stylist understood my design more verbally as my picture isn't great at all. Hopefully next term my drawing improves.

But I must say looking at my design and comparing it to my final look i'd say Martina nailed it

The Final Looks......

Martina's Design (Timed Assessment) 

Here it is! Martina's design, styled by me.

Front View

Back View

Side View

file:///Volumes/NO%20NAME/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_9924.JPG

My Attempt at Elizabethan Hair.....

Elizabethan Hair Attempt

Heres my 1st attempt practising an elizabethan look on a human head. I found the task easy as my model has afro hair. I found it crimped instantly, and the whole head didn't need to be crimped to achieve this design.

The padding also covered well due to the amount of hair i had to work with. I am happy with this design as it was my 1st attempt, but it could have been neater and maybe a bit more to it.....

My Fav Modern Elizabethan Hairstyle....

Modern Elizabethan Hair

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hilliard-queen-elizabeth-i-l00128

This portrait of Queen Elizabeth herself shows the curl detail in which elizabethan women wore. Looking at the portrait I would also say the hair is completely pinned up, she may have even had the back styled in a bun. Her hair is accessorised with little red and cream flowers i can't make out which type from the photograph, but on her clothing the flowers resemble roses, possibly she's wearing roses in her hair. Flowers was usually worn as a fragrance in the elizabethan era.

The Queens forehead stands out like many of her other portraits, this was to signify power and wealth.

The Portrait was painted by Nicholas Hilliard 1575.