| I certainly made my share of
mistakes along the way. There wasn't a zoot suit pattern available back
in 1996 . I also didn't know at the time that the jacket was actually a
modified frock coat until it was pointed out to me. The pattern I used
was not a good one (the Buckaroo Bobbins Gentleman's Frock Coat), so I
had to tailor it quite a bit. Only years later did I realize that a
man's early 20th-century swallow-tail coat looks even closer to it with
the curved tails. Of course now there are at least two very nice patterns by
Vogue and Simplicity, thanks to the comeback of Swing music dancing in
the late 1990s. (I'm pretty sure that The Mask was a big reason for it's
revival). By comparison, the pants were relatively easy. There were two
styles of pants used in the film (a minor continuity error), and I chose
to make the tuxedo-style pleated pants because they looked better.
I researched the heck out of this, to try to get as accurate a
recreation as I could imagine. I managed to contact the movie's Costume
Designer, Ha Nguyen and got some details (like the tie and suspenders
were bought off the shelf). Unfortunately, by the time I attempted to
gather those items, the movie production had been over for 3-4 years. I
was extremely lucky to find a shop in town that could still order the
tie for me. I've never found the suspenders (I used black ones for the
stage), but I still keep hoping to find them some day (see The
Office for a closeup
of the print pattern). Thanks to Ms. Nguyen, I also found the lining
still available from the supplier, International Silks and Woolens, in
Los Angeles, California.
I couldn't track down anyone with one of the original sets of the
suit, but the Hollywood Wax Museum did have one of the unlined
"stunt jackets". And I got lucky again when a life-size
standee of The Mask came out some time later at a point when being able
to make some measurements without trying to scale up from reference
photos. It was from this standee that I discovered the shoes Carrey wore
had a Cuban heel. Finally, some very nice folks at New Line Cinema
Studios sent me some promotional photos.
International Silks and Woolens also had the yellow wool suiting, but
it was something like $18 a yard. In retrospect, I should have bought
it. I hand-dyed some 11 yards of a cheaper wool I'd located, but it
felted up so thickly as to be unusable (it's still waiting to be used
for something). The poly-wool blend fabric I eventually used barely
took the yellow enough to be acceptable. Under bright lights, it looked
okay.
My facial makeup was not nearly as sophisticated as the movie's. With
help and advice from our friend and fellow Guild member Patrick Johnson,
I cast my own latex appliances for the cheeks, chin and eyebrow ridges.
I used a store-bought bald wig. I ran out of time trying to cast my own
dental appliances for the teeth, but wound up making some pretty
effective ones out of Sculpey clay. |
