To wear, or not to wear...

that is the question.

Have you ever watched a movie (ahem, Transformers 2) and wondered how a character could run through the Sahara desert avoiding gunfire and bombs while still keeping her white pants completely stain-free? Megan Fox, maybe you ought to take this one...

When Sandy Powell thinks up the designs for even the most luxuorious costume epic like Shakespeare in Love, she is careful to make sure that they look like clothes worn by real people. Of course they are beautiful, and sometimes a little extravagant. Yet half her genius lies in the fact that the velvets are slightly rumpled and the bows are tied casually. They look like clothes that these characters ran their morning errands in, not the ones that were steamed and pressed right before a fitting. The clothes tell as much of a story as the actual screenplay.

This has always been a conscious choice on Powell's part. "There's a beauty in dirt," she told the New York Times Magazine.

Powell's costumes for "Shakespeare in Love" are trimmed with beads, embroidery and metal filigree. But none of them have that garishly shiny look that says "I'm brand new". The brocades and metallic laces are a little corroded. After all in the 16th century, not even the rich people had many outfits. Powell also strays from accurately depicting fashion in the year 1593 in favor of order to let the clothes represent the personality or mood of the character who's wearing them.

Viola, played by Gwenyth Paltrow, has clothes that look as light and airy as her personality. She is a delicate, yet free-spirited. Powell decided to dress her in iridescent gauzes that shimmer in the sunlight- a peach ball gown, a pale blue dressing gown. Therefore when she wears her heavy, pale-gold wedding dress as she marries a man she doesn't love- an arrangement bound by law and familial duty- she looks stiff and restricted.

Isn't this what clothes were meant to do? I've always thought so. I've had more than one person say that my clothes are indicative of my personality. And my color palette can usually help you judge my mood.

At the moment I'm in a teal top with skinny jeans... So, how do you think I'm feeling? ;)