Didge's outfits

[suse]

I thought as we discuss old eps it would be a good opportunity to disect the often controversial issue of Didge's clothing.

During the Mickey gone missing saga airing in the classic eps section right now we saw the delightful yellow t-shirt featuring a rabbit which made it into kate's fashion hall of fame.

Personally I wouldn't wear it...but it suited her .

[suse]

Well in the last lot of classic eps we have just seen Didge wear the very chic overalls (or dungerees) with the knee high boots.

I thought she looked adorable ;D. Unfortunately there are no screen caps for this look which is a real bummer

[kate]

Yuh I liked them too. I think they were trying to emphasise her kiddishness at that point, probs explains the yellow tshirt too in a way. I'm starting to see where maybe it came unstuck with her character from this... dressing her up in those clothes worked as long as they wrote her character like a tomboy, but I think they kind of gave up on it at some point but obviously couldn't be bothered sorting out her wardrobe at the same time.

I feel a bit sorry for her. She was a bit caught between a rock and a hard place with that... Or maybe I'm overthinking that out.

But yep... she was SO cute!

[Ali]

i'm afraid i didn't like the tomboy look much at all. I think it's probably though because i'm a complete girly girl but i thought she looked so much better by the time she left - i think her hair longer is lovely and i personally think that Eloise suits looking girly and elegant - the pics i've seen of her out and about she looks really fashionable and i love how she seems to wear the red lippy - it suits her!
but to be honest i think the fashion on neighbours is truly dreadful. Didge not the only one who had to suffer. Libby has had some awful cheap outfits, Donna's...enough said. In fact the only one who seems mostly to have decent stuff is Elle

[kate]

Nah, I wouldn't wear the tomboy era stuff either. Was being a bit silly with the fashion page. But I kind of get the purpose it served in a way...

I so agree about overall Neighbours fashions though! I don't know who's responsible for what they get put in, but to be honest that person doesn't seem to have much of an idea what looks good, especially on the younger ones. They always look mumsy. Even people like Rachel and Donna, who you'd think would have been quite into fashion and stuff as characters, just get put in some shockers... Like scarves worn indoors with a hat. And some really odd bangles and stuff.

And even Elle, her clothes are expensive-looking so probably a bit nicer and she's very pretty... but they're still quite often odd-looking choices...

But yeah I get the feeling Eloise is probably a much better dresser in real life! Definitely the best dressed from the Logies pictures without a doubt, black dress with red lipstick= class. And her hair was nice up, like at the wedding... oh the fanlove.

[sophie]

Aw, I liked the rabbit T-shirt!
It pissed me off a bit how Didge seemed to go from being a total tomboy into not exactly a girly-girl, but would very willingly wear a skirt or a dress, very quickly. The transition seemed a bit abrupt. I think she looked a lot better towards the end but it seemed a bit weird.
I feel for Eloise having to wear dungarees at one point. I don't know what it is, but I can't bear dungarees on anyone over the age of eleven, like how I can't bear socks and sandals. I know Bridget was a tomboy but they could have acheived that without making her look so childish!
Some Neighbours episodes make me laugh out loud, like the one when Didge got back after running away when she was pregnant; she, Donna and Rachel (Rachel in particular) looked they had all bought lots of 70's clothes from a charity shop!

[sarah257]

I love the quirky outfits she wore towards the end of her time on Neighbours I think it suited her a lot. It seemed quite individual though equally as stylish as the other teens.
I was wondering if anyone knows the brands of clothes featured on Neighbours, particularly Bridget's?
Much appreciated!

[kate]

Hi

I don't really know anything about Australian brands but this interview I read at NeighboursFans talks about Neighbours wardrobe a bit, if it helps?

(NB: thanks to Carly over there who posted this)

Inside the Neighbours fashion closet
Wardrobe designer Caaren Hulme throws open the doors of the soap's fashion department

The next time you peer into your wardrobe and decide you have nothing to wear, spare a thought for Neighbours' wardrobe designer Caaren Hulme. Working to a strict budget and a tight filming schedule, she puts together up to 300 outfits a week for the show's main cast of 30, plus guest stars. Caaren invited TV WEEK into the Neighbours fashion closet to share her shopping secrets and answer the question we all want to know: are the actors allowed to keep the clothes?

Where do you source the fabulous clothes we see on the show?
From absolutely all over the place! It's such a large cast that you've got to go to every shopping centre in town to get different looks. We often go to each brand's wholesale agents in order to buy ahead of season, have a look at what's coming out and do a bit of planning. But if I put my entire budget into buying like that, I'd run out of money for specific storylines!

What do you have to consider during the big storylines?
If someone falls off a cliff and lands in a river, I have to buy triple versions of what they're wearing. We recently did a wedding and I emailed every woman's outfit to the producers. Everyone saw what I was doing throughout the process because we didn't want any surprises on the day. It's different when you're not in the studio, where anybody can come in and say, "Oh, can we change the colour of the ties?" When you're on the wardrobe bus, you're 25km away from the office.

Do the actors ever have a say on what they wear on set?
Everybody is different and will approach it differently. The old-school actors let me do what I want to, while the younger generation prefer to have a say. I also listen to the actors about what colours they hate to wear, what colours they like and what they think suits them.

What happens to a character's clothes when the actor leaves the show?
One of our long-timers retired recently and I said, "You've been here for a very long time and I've loved working with you, so please come and choose four of your favourite shirts." When Natalie Bassingthwaighte finished, her pieces were so obviously hers that we couldn't do anything with them. They get broken up and put into my general stock and used on guests. I've still got pieces of hers hanging in the wardrobe department, and I look at them every now and again and think, "I could use them now as people would have forgotten about Izzy."

Are there any labels that you particularly like to use on the actors?
There are standard ones I go to for certain age groups because I know their fit is good, their fabrics are great quality and they're good value for money. I really like Satch, Veronika Maine, Cue and Bauhaus for the young kids.

The characters
Every Thursday Caaren assembles the outfits for the following week's shooting schedule and invites the cast to inspect her handiwork. "Some of the actresses come and have a look, some don't have time," Caaren says. And although the wardrobe designer loves working with the entire Neighbours cast, she particularly enjoys dressing Margot Robbie, who plays Donna. "She's a beautiful girl and has a beautiful skin tone, so lots of colours work on her. She's fun to dress because her character allows us to be quite inventive - she's a clotheshorse and everything you put on her works. And personality-wise, she just goes with the flow. She makes it fun." At the moment, Caaren is dressing Donna in a lot of short shorts. "With the younger cast you can experiment all the time," she says. "I try to keep as close to what's out in the stores as I possibly can."

And if something catches an actress's eye, is she ever allowed to keep it? "No," Caaren says firmly. "That question gets asked a lot, but I would never let them keep anything!"

Page 38-41

[kate]

It's quite weird that she mentioned that noone would remember that she had used old characters clothing on someone else, that was like what we were all saying with Donna wearing Didge's cardigan and Lucas wearing the tshirt that was like the main focus of a storyline for Declan. Basically, she's wrong- we do notice .

[jess]

i actually noticed that on mondays episode when Donna was redoing Elle's outfit she put Bridgets red bangle on her

[Bee]

i didnt notice that! ahh is that the bangle she put on bridget when she was dying?

[jess]

yeah it is Lia i noticed that and i was like OMG

[Bee]

NOOO SHE CANT DO THAT

I HAAAATE the writers!

[Bee]

i gained alot of respect for donna lately that just vanished in a puff of smoke, donna was wearing ANOTHER one of Didge's tops tonight

[maggi1980]

Just doing there bit for the environment - recycling, but this just takes the piss!