The Costuming and Coloring of JATP : Part 1 - Julie Molina
I’ve seen so many of these posts and I wanted to make my own! I love costuming and color theory in film and I thought I’d do my own take on jatp! Please keep in mind that I am by no means an expert and this is only my thoughts, and feel free to add your own interpretations and thoughts :)
Heads up this is a super long post (I won’t be coving all of Julie’s outfits, only the ones that have significant meaning)
And none of this could have been possible without Soyon An, the costume designer of jatp! All referenced quotes and information for her can be found here, here, and here
One of the main difficulties of costume design is having the clothing fit the period, tone of the piece, and the character. The characters have to wear the clothes, not the other way around. Who is this person? What are their conflicts? How do they look at the world? What do they value? How do they grow? Just some examples of what good costume designers ask.
They can also be used as a subtle tool to show who each character is; how we dress is a reflection of ourselves.
JULIE MOLINA:
Ok so we all know she is an absolute queen with AMAZING fits, even from the start of the show! I’m going to go chronologically, just to make it easier on all of us!
Julie starts off the series in a baggy yellow sweatshirt over her blue and white shirt, her painted jeans, fluffy slippers, and a set of necklaces! (Actually we first see her at school, where she wearing a flannel instead of the sweatshirt, but the same concepts apply) This already gives us A TON of information on her!!
Her necklaces include a Virgin Mary pendant, a nod to her heritage and religion and one of her own name, which we can assume is a gift from someone special to her
She puts on the sweatshirt after she gets home and bombed playing in front of her class. Idk about you, but I always want to wear sweatshirts and comfy clothes whenever I feel down, so I infer that that is what Julie is doing!
There is also something to be said about the visual irony between bright yellow smiley face on the front and Julie’s own grieving
(Also can I just say that I love that Julie is allowed to be a teen and wear silly slippers because their comfortable clothes. I am so tried of teenagers being over sexualized and as a brown girl myself, it’s wonderful to see these multidimensional non white characters!)
Her own painted jeans, (also pretty baggy) and sneakers as said by Soyon An, are painted by Julie! (We also see her creativity later when drawing a cupcake on her mic for Luke’s bday, but that’s another post)
Her creativity seems to have no bounds, and it’s obvious that from the start that this is how she expresses herself!
If you want to get really analytical, one could say that the bright yellow covering up her blue collar could show how Julie herself is trying to cover up her own sadness
The blue and yellow also come up in another scene of hers with Luke, but that is another post entirely
JUST FROM HER CLOTHES ALONE WE, THE VIEWERS, ALREADY SUBCONCIOUSLY KNOW SOOOO MUCH ABOUT JULIE:
She’s most likely Catholic and cherishes her religion and family
She’s not feeling too confident in herself
She’s crazy creative and talented
She’s trying to mask some sort of sadness
ISN’T THAT INSANE??? A TELL TALE SIGN OF A GOOD COSTUMER!
Julie then moves to plaid pants and a cropped lavender blouse (Which I absolutely adore!!!)
She has just met the boys, and Luke gave her that little pep talk in front of the studio and is now wearing form fitting clothes!
DON’T TWIST THIS: She’s wearing these clothes because she now feels more confident in herself and is ready to sit down and play Wake Up
Julie is wearing more subdued colors; the focus isn’t on her outfit, that’s not where the color is. The color is lighting Julie from behind. The focus of the moment is Julie and her music.
You’ll also notice the lighting behind her shifts from the cold early morning, to the sun rising behind her, again, very poetic. The sun is literally rising on Julie and it is a new dawn for her, and the start of the show itself
Not to mention Wake Up which is literally about moving forward and... waking up lol
This is maybe one of my favorite performance outfits of her! (Who am I kidding, all of them are my favorite)
Julie is wearing a camo jumpsuit with patches and her signature sneakers
The patches, once again, show us that Julie is creative in many ways along with her shoes
I love that all of her outfits seem like the average person could make them and wear them. Yet, these characters are still teenagers and are discovering their own personal style, which can be sort of outlandish. It really works to ground the show in reality with all of the kooky happenings
Julie is once again wearing her necklaces, and we can infer that she wears them all of the time
In this outfit (with an added Double Trouble tshirt underneath), she also sings Flying Solo. The jumpsuit is a reflection of her friendships with the guys and Flynn!
And this outfit with Bright??? Chefs kiss. This is the subtle characterization I live for!
Julie’s actress, Madison Reyes’, mother is in the armed forces. She and Soyon wanted an outfit to pay homage to her, and I think the camo works perfectly
By this time we already have a good grasp on who Julie is
Julie is wearing a neon blue leotard, silver white pants, fishnets, her drawn on white sneakers and a rainbow chunky sequin cloak. She also find a drum major’s cape from the music room. She has her hair in the same cornrowed way as she does in Stand Tall, with pink, red, and blue ribbons.
While I may be jumping the gun this early in the post, I love this detail. This is her fantasy which ends up coming true in the final number and that is just beautiful
Julie’s fantasy outfit in I Got the Music is so extra and wonderful
This is Julie’s idealized self; it is bright and unapologetic and you can’t help but notice her. The outfit is purposefully outlandish and completely unrealistic
This is the first thing that clues you in that this is a fantasy; she does a quick change from her previous outfit. You can also see that her trio of necklaces aren’t there.
She keeps some elements from her actual school outfit, the pants and presumably the leotard, they just get an upgrade
Ok now onto the breakdown:
These are her school colors
This is the first time we see Julie in blue since the first episode. So far, we have seen her in muted tones. This time the blue is vibrant. This signals to the viewers that she is not hiding anymore and has almost reclaimed the color
Soyon specifically said she wanted a hood for Julie such as the Virgin Mary is traditionally depicted with a head covering
Julie is wearing her school colors loud and proud with a cropped LFHS reddish hoodie, underneath is a bright blue leotard, a blue belt, and white distressed jeans and fishnets
Julie is now fully in her element and has formed a band with the boys!!! Woohoo!
If you recall, in this episode, Julie also interacts the most with Carrie and Nick up until now; the two characters rooted in her school life.
Most everything I said in the previous section is here too, just a little toned down.
One thing that I see in this outfit is that she’s wearing a little bit of the boys’ themes; Luke’s blue, Reggie’s red, and Alex’s denim and grey.
This is also the day that she gets into the conflict with the boys, they go to Bobby’s to get revenge, lie to her, and bail on the dance. I see this as them becoming closer and then falling farther apart.
Julie is also wearing fishnets and socks, which mirrors Dirty Candi’s performance of Wow. This is a wonderful detail to show that the two aren’t so different after all.
I love this outfit and I will forever be mad that we never got to see her perform in it
Julie is wearing her mothers mesh tie dye top, a black tank top, and loose black striped pants
THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT: This is the first time we see her wear her mother’s clothes, a physical representation of her coming to terms with her mother’s death!!!
This is also when Flynn comes up with Julie and the Phantoms, another big milestone. This is when they were supposed to make a mark on her school
(Ofc we all know this is when the boys bail...)
The next day, Julie is wearing a powder blue floral dress, sneakers, with a white t shirt and a cream colored cropped fluffy jacket (this is most aligned with my aesthetic)
Again, this shows that she is experimental with her clothes
It is also worth noting that Soyon does a good job with establishing that she is a sneaker head, I mean have you seen her kicks????
Now is a good time to talk about character colors: good media will establish a color per character. This helps viewers easily distinguish who they are and how they connect to others. Characters may wear these colors a lot or have significant moments in these colors
The colors also have their own meanings which apply (we’ll look more into this in the Stand Tall dress)
Luke is blue, Julie is purple (as we will see later on), Alex is pink, and Reggie is Red
When characters wear another character’s color it signals to us that they will be having a ‘moment’ with the other character (getting along after fighting, learning something new, etc.)
Alternatively, if a character is wearing colors opposite to another, you know they will clash
In this episode, Julie goes to Luke’s house and learns more about him and Emily AND SHES’S WEARING HIS BLUE!!! BIG MOMENT!!!
ONCE YOU NOTICE COLOR IN FILM, YOU CAN LEARN TO PREDICT WHERE THE STORY IS GOING. THESE ARE SOME HELPFUL HINTS:
Notice a character’s colors and when another character wears them, they will be having a ‘moment’
If the color in the scene isn’t on the character, the focus isn’t on them, maybe it’s on the emotions of the scene or other characters
Colors WILL signify emotions; yellow is happy, blue can be sad or calming depending on the shade, red can be passion or anger. If a character wears a lot of one color, you can predict their emotions
Ok no hate, this is definitely not my favorite outfit. It gives me mad Shake It Up vibes, not that that’s bad, just not my thing.
Julie performs Finally Free in a teal and black dress/shirt, silver biker short, a black vest, and arm bands
It has been confirmed by Charlie and Madison that this is when Luke realizes he like Julie, which makes sense as you see that she is wearing blue (She will now start wearing more of these cool tones)
She is also wearing arm bands, something Luke does often
Her vest is also the same one as the girl from the beginning, which we all know by now is Rose, her mother!
She has upcycled the vest and added her own special twists to it! It also helps for us to see connection between Rose and performing
You can also see a dahlia pin, her mother’s favorite flower. These often make an appearance! (They’re also purple)
It’s Edge of Great Time!! This is maybe the most iconic outfit!
Julie performs in a white blouse with butterflies, her hair also with butterfly clips, her pants are constructed beautifully with black and white panels. She finished the outfit with black and white combat boots and more butterflies!
Soyon specifically said that the butterflies represent Julie coming out of her cocoon and coming into herself, like a butterfly would!
This is truly her most powerful and performance worthy outfit and sucks all of the attention to her
Julie’s clean contrast of black and white also make her stand out from the rest of the band! The combination is often a symbol of power and truth! (Think judges robes)
Time to get some tissues, Unsaid Emily, it’s your turn!
This is what I consider Julie’s most average and basic outfit, but there is a lot to analyze here: A magenta sweater and jeans.
This sweater is her mothers; meaning it is probably a comforting item for her, seeing as she is about to have a very emotional moment, calling back to that yellow sweater in the beginning!
Also see how this has blue, pink, and red designs, and I’m sure by now you can tell what I am going to say: These are the guys colors!
She’s going to have a heartfelt moment involving them, and it fits. This is one of the emotional climax’s of the show and this is when she becomes even closer with the Phantoms
You can tell, just from her standing on the steps of Luke’s house what is about to go down (Well maybe not all of the tears, but still)
Julie goes to check on the guys in the studio in a blue floral shirt and blue jeans
These are once again, Luke’s colors, but are slowly becoming THEIR colors. She wears these when she is saying goodbye to her best friends
This is also the outfit that Julie’ wears when she finds them after the performance and they haven’t crossed over.
It makes perfect sense that she is wearing all blue when SHE AND LUKE HUG!!! (And then all of the boys too in the best group hug ever)
Of course we’re gonna end the post with this absolutely ICONIC outfit!
Julie is wearing a purple dress with purple tulle, a bedazzled leather jacket, and her hair IN THE SAME STYLE AS I GOT THE MUSIC!!!
Lets go one by one:
The dress is a Balmain dress that Soyon got for $500, then she completely deconstructed it and made it to fit Madison! that’s incredible
This is the climax of the show: the boy are ‘doing their unfinished business,’ Julie is playing the Orpheum, and what color is she wearing but PURPLE! What color are dahlias? PURPLE! What color has had the most significance? PURPLE! What do red, blue, and pink make up? PURPLE! PURPLE IS JULIE’S CHARACTER COLOR
You’ll also notice that her jacket has pink, red, and blue accents, the colors of Alex, Reggie and, Luke, to show that they have become a part of her and she is now a part of them
That’s the same for her hair
It shows how she has now achieved her dream, her make believe world is now her reality
I really think we’ll see more of Julie in purple in the seasons to come, now that she has found herself
I hope that you all have learned a little about color and costuming in this post! Once you get the hang of it, it becomes really fun, like a puzzle!
I hope to do more of these with the rest of the characters as well!
Feel free to add on your own ideas and interpretations!
93 notes
·
View notes
For the JATP ask, how about Julie and Luke with Dahlia??
Thank you so much for the ask! Here’s part 2 of this. It took a sudden turn... oh well...
---------
Luke materialized on the beach, next to Julie. She tore her eyes away from the horizon and smiled at him. The setting sun colored her skin golden and painted a halo around her curly hair. There was a song just there, waiting for Luke to grasp it and weave the sunset into lyrics. But he had more important matters at hand.
He presented Julie with the bouquet, sending her a tentative smile. This was a whole new territory for them both, but he was pretty sure when a guy gave a girl flowers, she’s supposed to be happy. Julie frowned at him instead. The smile disappeared from her face, replaced by confusion.
‘Why dahlias?’ she asked slowly.
‘I… um…’ Luke suddenly wasn’t so sure, why he’d thought that was a good choice. ‘I thought you liked them?’
Julie took the dahlias from him and twirled them in her hands. The mood turned wistful.
‘I do like dahlias,’ she finally admitted, her voice distant and small. ‘But it’s more of a way to feel a connection to my mom.’
‘Your mom?’
The girl nodded, still staring at the flowers.
‘Oh.’ Ooooh. It suddenly became painfully clear why there were so many dahlias and dahlia-related patterns in Molinas’ house.
Luke suppressed the urge to groan. ‘What a fail,’ he winced.
Now Julie looked at him. ‘Why? Oh, no! I mean- ‘ she stammered, ‘I like dahlias, I really do. Thank you for-’
‘Julie, stop.’ Luke put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I get it. I should have thought of it earlier. My mom likes dahlias as well, I just didn’t think- ,’ he trailed off. At least he earned a small smile for his humiliation.
Julie nudged him in the ribs. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘Worry? Me? Nah!’ Luke puffed, happy with the attention. ‘We’ll pick a new flower!’ he decided. ‘What’s your favorite? I’m gonna poof to a garden right now and bring the lady a flower worthy of her.’
His antics finally elicited a pearly chuckle out of her.
‘How about a rose?’ Luke offered and Julie’s smile withdrew in an instant.
‘What have I done now?’ he asked.
She grimaced, shaking her head. ‘It’s not your fault, but I’m starting to develop a mild paranoia about your connection to my mom,’ she confessed.
He frowned. ‘Because of dahlias or roses?’
‘Both,’ Julie sighed. ‘My mom’s name was Rose.’
The realization hit him like a freight train full of streetdogs. ‘W-what?’ he choked. Had he been alive, he’d become white as a ghost, alas that was a default option for him.
‘My mom’s name was Rose,’ she repeated. ‘What is it? Now you’re seriously freaking me out.’
‘I think… the night we died…’ he drawled. ‘I think I met your mother then.’
---------
😬😬😬 Sorry, but it sort of happened? Feel free to ask for Part 3 😉
A big thank you to @goblin-alchemist for bouncing ideas with me. I mean dahlias are cute, but there must be a deeper meaning to them, than just a pretty flower. They never appeared in romantic context, on the contrary (like in Pattersons’ house on Luke’s bday).
Send me an ask with one of these prompts and a character or a pair (JATP only), and see what drabble comes out of it.
25 notes
·
View notes