Magazine Cover

Costumes - Revised

In the first half of Antique’s the young woman is dressed in checkered red and white dress, the vintage style of the dress links to the costume’s worn by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, this continues to confirm the idea that the young woman needs to escape her dreamlike state. This costume causes her to stand out among her surroundings, therefore presenting to the audience that the young woman is lost and alone in an unknown world.

In the second half of the music video the young woman’s costume changes into what would be perceived as the current high street fashion. This costume change represents the young woman’s immersion into her own dream.

The second important costume is that of the bunny masked man. Once again trying to confirm the link between ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Antiques’, in order to present the uncertainty of a dreamlike sate, the bunny’s costume was based mainly around the attire of Mr. Rabbit. The tweed coat, being the key piece of costume that appears in both the 1903 adaptation and the original Tenniel drawing’s, was the main feature of the costume, followed by a checkered red shirt. The shirt creates a link between the Bunny and the young woman due to the similar patterns presented on their clothing, this confirms the idea that the bunny is part of her mind and that she is in a sense running from herself.

The bunny mask itself is used in order to confirm the dreamlike state and present the young woman with a danger and fear that she must overcome, in this case the personification of animalistic nature.

Inter-textual references within ‘Antiques’

The music video ‘Antiques’ was based mainly around the significance of silent films, this was due to a lack of lyrics within the track, and most of our imagery therefore came from, the 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland. The man with the bunny mask therefore is a direct reference to the Rabbit from Wonderland, symbolism and references from Wonderland are scattered throughout the piece in order to convey the dreamlike state the young woman is in to the audience.

Another inter-textual reference can be made between the rabbit mask and the masked towns folk presented in the (1977) ‘The Wicker Man’. The animalistic nature of the villagers once they wore their masks is an effective link to the rabbit presented in ‘Antiques’. The rabbit is shown throughout the video to be hunting the young woman as she journeys through her dream world, this turns around the generic view of Mr. Rabbit and creates a mysterious villain that helps portray to the audience the danger that the young girl is in.

Another influence and important reference is to the oldest colour film, which date back to 1901, in this opening shot a girl and two small boys are sitting at a table, elegantly dressed and playing with toys. Due to the influences of silent films this shot was implemented into the first scene. This reference is used in order to present the young woman as being from the Victorian era and to explain why modern society appears to be so dreamlike. In order to portray this idea ‘Antiques’ started off in black and white and only dissolves into colour once she has entered the dream, this is in order to juxtapose the old with the new.