Andrea Galer's Power of Hands Exhibition

If you are in the UK and you don't know what to do with your time waiting for the new Jane Eyre from the BBC (incidentally Brontëana has posted about a possible screening next September in the BFI), maybe you would like to know that Andrea Galer, the costume designer of the production, has some of her creations on display this summer:

Exhibitions 2006

Fenton House, London
Summer 2006

Costumes from Bleak House 2nd August - end October

Power of Hands
The exhibitions at Fenton House, London this summer include 3 special events raising money for Power of Hands.

Haddon Hall - a display promoting the Power of Hands work and linking to Jane Eyre is currently on show.

Exhibitions with The National Trust have allowed Andrea’s passionate belief that using film as a means of education can become a major series of costume exhibitions linking to the history of lace and the present plight of the dying craft.

The picture is taken from the Power of Hands website:

Andrea Galer the woman behind the Power of hands Project has always actively sought to include the work of craftspeople from across the world. As a film and television costume designer her long-held passion for traditional crafts has already taken her to India to work with handloom weavers. In the aftermath of the tsunami she determined to help the Sri Lankan lacemakers whose lives had been devastated. Andrea's collections and film costumes provide ongoing links to the lace, she has used the lace made by tsunami suvivors in her current production 'Jane Eyre' the BBCs big drama this autumn. The lace is also featured in her current bridal collection and she is currently designing the Limited Signature Editions profiling the lace from Galle.

More information in this old post.

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Art-Exhibitions

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Andrea Galer's works and Diederick Santer talks about Jane Eyre

We have been lucky enough to get an e-mail from Andrea Galer where she talks both about her work in the new production of Jane Eyre (and in a new film starring Cate Blanchett called Golden Age) as well as her excellent work in the Power of Hands Foundation. She has kindly forwarded us several files full of information. We would like to highlight some of it:

POWER OF HANDS – FENTON HOUSE HAMPSTEAD 2005
For the past 4 years at ‘The National trust’ property ‘Fenton House’ Hampstead Andrea has displayed her work showing how film links to fashion. Last year was the start of ‘Power of Hands’, a series of exhibitions using film costumes to highlight the huge contribution that expertise in crafts make to the film industry. Her exhibitions use her collections of 19th / 21st century to provide inventive ways of offering exhibitions and events and can be booked through The London Film Fashion Centre www.thelondonfilmfashioncentre.co.uk now the collection is offering costumes from Jane Eyre to be screened later this year.


Costumes from BLEAK HOUSE (in the picture)

The informal display of the costumes of Bleak House has been set up by my team to bring the rooms to life. As the designer my research into the period combined with choice of fabrics,trimmings and the skills of the team who have made the costumes are the result you see in this exhibition. My job as a costume designer is to produce costumes which will move the audience, make the actor comfortable and it must also work visually for camera. This requires the skills of various people who work with a passion which is actually unique in today’s world. Gone are the days when people had their own makers and dressers and it is the luxury of film, which demands such expertise today.

Also, when asked about the opening scenes of this new Jane Eyre and the gorgeous costume she's wearing, this is what she says:

Images from Egypt painted by 19th century artists were in my mind ! - this production allowed me to create images which I fell match the fantastic mind of Charlotte Brontë and look forward to using them in my touring exhibitions.

Very interesting, since it matches our Arabian Nights theory, as well as very successfully achieved.

As we posted a few months back, through the Power of Hands Foundation Andrea Galer gives a toughtful depth to entertainment. On this point she comments:

I am developing linking 19th century writers to helping us address the huge problem created by loss of respect for life style outside of the global mess we are in! - Charlotte Brontë leads the way with this series.

We get a feeling Charlotte Brontë would have been only too glad to champion such a cause :)

On a Jane Eyre 2006-related note, Brontëana publishes an interview with Diederick Santer, Jane Eyre's producer. Mr Santer is very careful and does not reveal too much, but there are interesting points about the casting and how Sandy Welch has adapted the novel that are noticeable.

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Jane_Eyre, Art-Exhibitions

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"Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice"

Do you remember Andrea Galer's (the costume designer of Jane Eyre 2006) The Power of Hands initiative? The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) devotes an interesting article to the project:

Andrea established the Power of Hands Foundation (POHF) to help the women survive and show people their wonderful skill while helping them earn fair prices for their work. In 2008 Power of Hands became a UK registered charity. It also provides marketing expertise and operational support to help the women to create craft products of a type and quality which can help provide them with a sustainable future, while reviving the craft.
At present the POHF has established a workshop in the Galle Fort that provides a clean and safe environment where seven lace makers make lace on a full-time basis. This is also the base for a co-operative society of over eighty lace makers who produce lace in their own homes and visit the workshop regularly to be paid and collect new orders. The foundation is currently being managed by Anusha Liyanage, who has a passion for the craft.
Parallel to the Power of Hands Foundation, Power of Hands Limited has also been established to create a market for the lace in the UK, with the development of ethical fair trade which is the main focus of the project.
“These women have to earn fair trade prices for their work or they have to stop,” emphasises Andrea. Initially Power of Hands Limited targeted costume designers, fashion designers and theatres resulting in Galle lace appearing in productions at the Royal Opera House and on costumes of award winning British films.
Andrea has used Beeralu lace in her costumes for award winning film such as Persuasion, Jane Eyre and Miss Austen Regrets and organized the production of some of the lace and tatting for the major Oscar winning film Golden Age by costume designer Alexandra Byrne.
The POHF lends these lace-makers a much needed hand, but even the foundation is now bringing in fewer orders. Right now they have no orders to give the women, but hopefully the situation will improve soon. As Andrea sees it, “A great deal more needs to be done in design and marketing to hit the global market and provide the women with a safe future”.
POHF also hopes to set up three new craft workshops and training centres, together with a co-operative of at least 100 women for each, in different locations throughout southern Sri Lanka. They seek assistance and support of individuals and organizations willing to lend a hand to make the lives of the craft makers a little easier.
“Power of Hands is not about buying and selling lace,” says Andrea, “but about how the women can utilize their skills.” For more information: www.powerofhandsfoundation.org (Aysha Asseef)

Australian Stage Online presents the new show of the burlesque artist Imogen Kelly, The Undressing Room at the Factory Theatre (Marrickville, Australia):

In a show with a killer soundtrack that moves from the Muppet’s “Mahna Mahna” into “Moon River” and Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” she transforms her body into an expressive canvas through which hilarious narratives take shape. (Helen Barry)

English newspapers seem particularly happy finding Heathcliff lookalikes among their local VIPs. The latest addition is Martin Johnson, England's rugby team manager:

So much for the England manager’s winning theory. Johnson’s favoured mode of dress is the dark, Gordon Brown overcoat and it says much about the man. Both Johnson and Brown are brooding presences in the sense that Heathcliff was, but not many lights seem to be on inside. (Mark Reason in The Telegraph)

The New Zealand Herald reviews the novelette by You're Not a Man Until You've Had a Man (sic) by Bernard Cummings. The reviewer thinks that Charlotte Brontë can be an influence:

Based loosely on a true story and written very much in the style of Charlotte Bronte, the story tells of five intersecting love triangles made up of love-deprived prisoners and overweight but under-sexed guards. (That Guy)

Britmovie Forum asks Zelah Clarke (Jane Eyre in the 1983 BBC miniseries) what happened to her promising career:

Zelah Clarke, 29, starred in the 1983 BBC series opposite Timothy Dalton. He went on to become James Bond - and Zelah, now 55, disappeared without trace. She is married to Francis Ash, an executive BBC producer, and has a 14 year old daughter, Lamorna. They live in West London. She says: Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice. Everyone remembers the Mr. Rochesters but no one recalls the Janes. I hoped the role might be a springboard - I got great reviews - but I never thought it would force me to retire.
I had trained as a ballet dancer with Jenny Agutter and Fiona Fullerton, but I discovered I enjoyed acting more. Before Jane Eyre, I had done lots of TV costume dramas, but no lead roles. My first TV role was in the first episode of "Poldark". I spoke the first line - the only one I had! I had also been in the West End musicals, including "Godspell" with Jeremy Irons, and lots of theatre.
I was thrilled when I got the part of Jane.
Tim Dalton was not a superstar then - in fact, I had more TV experience. Tim was lovely - extremely sexy and great fun. He even brought his fishing rod when we filmed in Derbyshire. He wasn't the type to lose his temper, but he got close to it during our marriage scene. The poor actor who rushed in to protest kept fluffing his line. After the seventh take, Tim became cross and started squeezing my hand harder and harder. Eventually, the actor got it right - and Tim fluffed his line. I just fell on the floor laughing.
It was depressing when things suddenly stopped after "Jane Eyre", especially as I couldn't work out why. But then I got married and my life changed. There is something rather undignified about old actors scraping around for work. I would never go back into the theatre. It ruins your social life and breaks up families. When I was younger, it was exciting. I didn't mind going on the road, but not now. I wouldn't mind a part in a TV comedy - I have a secret desire to dress up like Suzi Quatro and sing rock'n'roll - but I am happy being out of it all. If I had not done "Jane Eyre" perhaps I would not have felt I had proved myself. But I did and I have. I saw the series again on video several years ago. It seemed curiously old-fashioned but I was pleased with my performance.
I still keep an agent for voice work and do some things for radio, which fits in well with taking care of my daughter. During my resting periods I became really interested in art. I was in the middle of a course when I fell pregnant, so perhaps I didn't have such a desire to be a famous actress after all. (Arthur Askey)

Berliner Lesezeichen reviews Jane Eyre (in German) (the one with the sheep cover, by the way), Andrewjshields posts a fragment of Anne Carson's The Glass Essay, Una chica chiflada reviews briefly Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project, Happy Hour... Somewhere is going to read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Movie Moron includes Wuthering Heights 1939 in their Top 20 Romance Movies. Book:Blog discusses Jane Eyre, Passion for Cinema devotes a post to Madhubala, who was a sort of Jane Eyre (Kamal in the film) in the Bollywood 1952 version Sangdil. Abigail709b has uploaded several pictures of Victorian costumes in Brontë country's snowy landscapes. Finally, Eline Marie Renee's Blog has read and loved Wuthering Heights.

EDIT:
The Brontë Parsonage Blog has just posted a very interesting report of the Genius exhibition and the official opening (last Friday, February 13). Richard Wilcocks says:

The Genius exhibition is very impressive, a great improvement on what was there before, and the newly-uncovered window makes a significant difference. There are brief quotes on the walls, displays at appropriate eye-levels, intelligent selection and labelling, increased colour and a sense of airiness. There is also a section for younger children, who are invited to lift little blue lids to see illustrations of what it was like in the mid-nineteenth century. (...)
Bonnie Greer was the guest at the official opening on Friday evening. She said all the right things, wonderfully, after an introduction from Director Andrew McCarthy. She was genuinely overwhelmed by simply standing inside the Parsonage, the place where so much of global literary significance had happened. She mentioned the influence of Patrick, the loving and unusually liberal paterfamilias who had allowed his daughters to read and write so much, and the continuing power of the Sisters: “I read Wuthering Heights at a young age, and if Emily Brontë can have such an effect on a little black girl in Chicago, she can have a big effect on anyone.” (Read more)

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

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Bats and thieves

We have posted several times about Andrea Galer's initiative Power of Hands (check these old posts for background information). We read in Hampstead & Highgate Express extremely disturbing and sad news:

Andrea Galer, who famously tailored Richard E Grant's overcoat for the film Withnail and I, has lost months of work and thousands of pounds following the break-in at her studio in Haverstock Hill.
Burglars entered on Friday night and made off with unique samples due to be marketed to leading fashion stores and sold to aid Sri Lankan survivors of the 2004 tsunami.
"Every single item in the collection has gone, about 20 pieces of clothing," said Ms Galer, who set up the Power of Hands Foundation to help Sri Lankan lace makers.
"It constitutes everything I have been working on for the past four months. I have financed this entire project by myself and built it up over two years.
"The clothes were just getting ready to be presented to the big fashion stores.
"Now the whole collection is lost. This project was designed to save lives. It makes me very sad."
Ms Galer's clothes have graced the silver screen for productions including Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Spooks.
Having started out her career 30 years ago in a shop in England's Lane, she has become a leading designer highly sought-after by film and television directors.
As well as designing for the big screen, she is also passionate about helping the traditional Sri Lankan lace makers rebuild their lives following the tsunami disaster.
"I am the only person in the world who is helping this group of people," she added.
"The Power of Hands Foundation is a huge project, and these were the first samples aimed at helping the lace makers rebuild their lives.
"The whole collection has been taken by someone who either doesn't know what they've got their hands on or who is deliberately trying to sabotage the project.
"It looks like a professional job. The door wasn't forced open but may have been opened with a special key." (...)
"All the ladies' items were made from Sri Lankan silk. No arrests have been made at this stage and enquiries are continuing."
If you have information which might help the police, call 020-7404 1212. (Ed Thomas)

We know how much this project meant for Andrea Galer since we interviewed her some months ago. We are deeply sorry for her.

The Yorkshire Evening Post talks about bats surrounding Brookroyd, Ellen Nussey's home:

PLANS to build 13 houses on a plot overlooked by an historic house with Bronte connections could be foiled... by bats!
The little critters have been spotted – allegedly – in the area around Brookroyd House at Birstall, near Batley, the former home of Ellen Nussey, one of Charlotte Bronte's close friends.
A report to the council states: "Development shall not commence until a bat survey has been undertaken." (...)
Brookroyd House has just been sold – the property has a lounge, dining room, cellar and gardens to three sides, detached garage and vacant possession, and was on the market a year ago for £360,000.
Brookroyd House was built in 1780 and is the former home of Charlotte's best friend Ellen Nussey, who is buried in the grounds of nearby St Peter's Church. It has original Georgian floors and fireplaces.
Charlotte was a regular visitor and put the finishing touches to Jane Eyre at the house. (Neil Hudson)

Categories: Brontëana, In the News

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Mr. Right and Ruth Wilson

Jenni Murray in The Daily Mail publishes one of those articles about how women look for Mr. Right and men tend to acommodate with a woman who is simply "good enough". We don't like to enter into the discussion but this half of BrontëBlog dislikes this kind of generalizations. Anyway, in the discussion Jane Eyre and Rochester are quoted:

So why are women so fussy? The reason most of us are always looking for someone better is that we carry around a truly seductive notion, the idea of the romantic hero — and I suspect he enters the female psyche much more powerfully than most of us would be ready to acknowledge.

Just last week, Mail columnist — and paragon of pragmatism and common sense — Allison Pearson, was anticipating the flutter of girlish hearts at the new Robin Hood on TV.

And I'd put money on the fact that it's mostly women who are drooling over Jane Eyre's Mr Rochester on Sunday evenings.

Who of us doesn't have a vivid memory of Mr Darcy emerging from the pond in that wet shirt?

Pennyforyourdreams publishes some new scans of a Hello article of Ruth Wilson. Andrea Galer's costumes and her Power of Hands foundation are mentioned. Please visit this old post when we interviewed her, if you want to know more.

In her first fashion shoot of her acting career, Ruth models costumes by Jane Eyre costume designer, Andrea Galer, who has put together a retro clothes collection that links film to fashion, and profiles lace made by Sri Lankan women who where badly affected by the Tsunami disaster. "On set, Andrea used to talk about her Power of Hands Foundation, that helps these women and it was a revelation to see their lace being used on the Jane Eyre costumes", she says.

Among the other mentions, we highlight a new Brontëite: writer Sarah Shun-lien Bynum chooses Jane Eyre from her reading list. And two more reviews of some books that already have appeared on this blog: The Thirteenth Tale and The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters.



Categories: In_the_News,Movies-DVD-TV, Jane_Eyre

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Jane Eyre 2006 helps tsunami survivors

By now we all are well aware that Christina Cole will be playing Blanche Ingram on the new BBC production of Jane Eyre (first and only picture of the film up until today here). What we didn't know until today was that her beautiful, elegant dresses were coming from Sri Lanka, from the hardworking hands of tsunami survivors:

A century and a half after her death, the Victorian novelist Charlotte Brontë is still hard at work, helping tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka.

The way she is achieving this minor miracle is through her novel Jane Eyre, which as well as being the BBC's big costume drama this autumn, also has a drama connected to the costumes.

Step forward actress Christina Cole, who plays Blanche Ingram, Jane's rival for the hand and heart of Mr Rochester. Blessed with beauty and breeding, Blanche has another asset (literally) up her sleeve, in the form of the sumptuous lace frills that adorn her outfits.

Delicate yet showy, this riot of frothy handiwork symbolised, during the 19th century, the wealth and status of those who could afford to wear it. But the real-life, 21st-century person who made the lace is a 65-year-old widow called Leela Wathi, who lives not in Derbyshire (where Jane Eyre is being filmed) but in the tsunami-flattened town of Galle, south-western Sri Lanka. And until recently she described her economic situation as "desperate".

She's just one of a growing network of women whom the celebrated UK costume designer Andrea Galer (Bleak House, Mansfield Park, Withnail and I) has taken under her wing as part of a project to repair the region's lace-making industry, destroyed by the giant waves of Boxing Day 2004.

"Ever since lace-making was introduced by the Portuguese in the 15th century, Sri Lankan women have been able to supplement what their menfolk earn from fishing," says Galer. "But the tsunami not only destroyed the fishing industry, it destroyed the lace-making industry, too, by frightening off the tourists who bought the lace. I didn't realise the full extent of the problem until I went there last year." [...]

Each time she has returned to Britain more determined than ever to promote the virtues of Sri Lankan lace and to make use of the material in her productions. She has certainly got her way in Jane Eyre.

But it won't be just Blanche Ingram wearing these precious dresses:

"All the well-to-do characters wear lovely jabots (ruffs) made out of Sri Lankan lace, and most have lace frills on the ends of their sleeves," she says. "And I've put lace all round the collar of Jane's wedding dress."

That sounds really, really good. We see the minutest attention is being paid to details of all kind.

"I've got to know a lot more about Power of Hands during my costume-fitting sessions with Andrea," says the actress Christina Cole, who was a willing volunteer for our Telegraph photo-shoot. "I think it's a great cause - the best thing is that it's working towards providing a sustainable future, rather than just a one-off donation."

Thank goodness - she's no Blanche Ingram in real life!

We encourage you to read the whole article to find out more about these remarkable women that work for the Power of Hands foundation.

It's nice to see big productions won't forget about human beings. We will be watching very closely for those wonderful lace frills!

On the picture you can see Christina Cole as Blanche Ingram wearing a lovely dress. More costumes from the production are in the background.

EDIT: If you like Christina Cole's lace bracelet, you can buy it here. It's just £ 5.00, you'll be contributing to a good cause and you will be able to show off as wearing Blanche Ingram's accessories. What's there to think about?


Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, In_the_News, Jane_Eyre

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Further on Andrea Galer's work for Jane Eyre 2006

Andrea Galer has been kind enough to answer a few questions we posed her regarding her work in the upcoming BBC production of Jane Eyre. Here they are:

We are curious to know whether your take on the costumes was completely unrelated to previous productions of the novel or whether you had previously looked at those too. We are also acquainted with the film Firelight, which we have also thought to be very similar to Jane Eyre. We loved it when we first heard you were to design the costumes for this new Jane Eyre, because the costumes in Firelight (in the picture) were lovely. Did you look back on those designs when creating the new ones since they're both set in similar periods?

Yes - I related it but my knowledge and feel for the 19th century will always bring about a look that is mine – that is what a designer can do, however try telling those budgeting films that – today budgets are so tight it is almost impossible to make anything and I am about to start Persuasion with virtually no budget for makes which is a great pity.

We were also wondering whether you had studied Charlotte Brontë's own surviving clothes. As you can see in this post we found the resemblance between a well-known picture of Charlotte Brontë and Ruth Wilson's image truly striking. We are guessing it was done on purpose, wasn't it?

Yes it was – seeing red as her escape, passion and fear I used it as a theme and in the Egyptian pictures I looked at the way was established. To bring in the red bow and believe it was very pleasing and as a matter of fact I did discuss Firelight with Susanna as for that I dyed Sophie’s main dress with a tinge of red to theme firelight – I loved the film and it reminds me of Jane Eyre – I never asked Bill ( he wrote and directed it) if he was influenced by Jane Eyre but it has similarities.

Andrea Galer is also very involved with her foundation Power of Hands. Remember that you can get a bit of Jane Eyre home by purchasing a similar bracelet to that worn by Blanche Ingram here - and for only a mere five pounds!

We are now really looking forward to watching this production and keeping an eye out for the wonderful costumes designed by Ms Galer :)

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Jane_Eyre

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