Blue-Green – Cyan Family of Costumes
When blue and green are combined they form the cyan family of color. Depending on the mix of blue and green you can have teal, turquoise, and aqua, to name a few.
These colors have attributes of both green and blue: renewal and open mindedness, trust, and good luck. Also, given the amount of yellow they can have feelings of happiness, calmness, and energy. They are the colors of the sky and the ocean.
This page ranks the 10 best blue-green costumes from period movies worn by women. Modern movies and fantasy/sci-fi costumes have their own unique rankings. Clothing, like undergarments, cover-ups, sleepwear, outerwear, swimwear, etc. are not included.
The costumes are ranked by aesthetics, memorability and how they suit the character/film.
Blue and Green movie costumes each have their own ranked list.
This list is subject to change.
10. Léa de Lonval from Chéri (2009)
Designer: Consolata Boyle
Based on the book of the same name by Colette, Chéri is set during the Belle Epoque in the 1900s. It is about a middle aged retired courtesan, Léa (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her affair with a former colleague’s nineteen year old son Fred a.k.a Chéri. The pair are both emotionally stunted and Chéri views her as a mother figure.
After a while Chéri’s mother arranges a marriage for him. Two weeks after the nuptials, Léa visits her colleague who is having a little afternoon get together. Léa wears a dark teal ensemble with a silk velvet jacket over a matching dark teal gown. The neckline of the gown has a pleated insert at the center front.
The waist sash is high and floral, matching the edging along the neckline, with two fabric-covered buttons in back and one center-front. The cuffs in the long sleeves are a sheer fair trim, though it’s hard to tell if it’s attached to the jacket or the gown underneath.
9. Wong Chia Chi from Lust, Caution (2007)
Designer: Lai Pan
Adapted from Elieen Chang’s novella of the same name, Lust, Caution follows a university student, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) who is tasked with a mission. She must seduce the head of the secret police during the Sino-Japanese war, Mr.Yee who is always on his guard. However she starts to reciprocate his affections for her.
The film does a lot of visual storytelling to showcase Wong Chia Chi’s inner workings. She wears a lot of blue tones which represents her identity. Pinks and purple showcase her heart and vulnerabilities. Florals showcase heremotions.
The first time in the film she and Mr. Yee are physically together she wears a muted turquoise cheongsam with a dark teal fern-like motif, not quite floral but close, this pattern showcases her emotional apprehension at reaching this point in her mission.
The cheongsam is knee length and has two frog closures. The closure and the trim match the color of the fern pattern.
8. Ophelia from Ophelia (2018)
Designed: Massimo Cantini Parrini
Ophelia is a 2018 film that is a retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia and Gertrude’s perceptive. It was based on a book by Lisa Klein. Hamlet still factors into the plot but none of his iconic monologues or lines are put to screen in this version.
That is not to say the movie is not without its merits. The costumes in this movie are gorgeous. The design looks like it took inspiration from the pre-raphaelite art movement, especially the works of John William Waterhouse who used Ophelia as a subject of many of his paintings. The costumes have very fluid designs that have an elegance and sensuality.
Ophelia’s (Daisy Ridley) main costume is a deep slightly muted teal gown that she wears in her duties waiting on the Queen. Like many of the other costumes in the movie it has long floor length sleeves which are fitted in the upper part and then extend down to the floor starting at the forearm.
The gown looks like it is made from a combination of two fabrics, one has a floral pattern and the is a solid that has been pleated and smocked in some areas. It looks like the alternates pattern with these fabrics, the floral pattern one is used at center positions and the solid pleated one flanks it.
The effect of this costume is very water-like and fluid, which is ideal for the character, even though she fakes her death in this version.
7. Queen Elizabeth from Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Designer: Sandy Powell
Love it or hate it, but you can not deny that 1998’s Shakespeare in Love has many stunning costumes. Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth is a scene stealer and she was only in about fifteen minutes of the movie and won an Academy Award,
In the scene where the Queen summons Viola to her, Queen Elizabeth wears an incredible outfit. It’s so regal. There is so much detail in this costume. It’s clearly inspired by peacocks which symbolically mean royalty, strength and power. All which the Queen of England exhibits.
The costume is a mix of colors like teal, purples and gold. The bodice is teal as well as her cape. It is decked out in jewels and pearls conveying her wealth and power. She has two standing collars, one of gold and the other made of peacock feathers.
At the neck and cuffs are ruffs, which were super fashionable during this period. Her sleeves also showcase the peacock motif. This costume expertly showcases Elizabeth’s power, wealth as well as her penchant for a jest.
7. Naomi from The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Designer: Herve Leger
Set in the late 80s and early 90s, 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street is dark comedy based on the 2007 memoir of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker.
Jordon meets his second wife Naomi (Margot Robbie) at a house party at his beach house in 1991. In this scene she wears an iconic teal bandage dress that is archival Herve Leger vintage piece from 1990.
The short dress is saturated teal with a deep keyhole neckline and open back. It just exudes effortless, cool, and confident.
She wear minimal accessories just shades and chunky gold hoops earrings.
5. Lucille Sharpe from Crimson Peak (2015)
Designer: Kate Hawley
Crimson Peak is a gothic romantic horror and while they’re ghosts in the movie the film states that they are a metaphor and the film itself might be the novel of the main character. So it could be categorized as fantasy but it’s more of a period piece.
Despite the appearance of spooky yet helpful ghosts, Lucille (Jessica Chastain) is the antagonist. She is also the foil to Edith, her new sister-in-law. Edith is the butterfly who is dressed in yellows and light tones, who comes off as modern and ambitious. Meanwhile Lucille the moth, she dresses in rich yet somewhat dark jewel tones. Lucille is cruel and not above murder to get what and whom she wants.
Lucille wears this deep dark teal outfit a few times in the movie but in one scene she shows just have unhinged a person she truly is. The outfit is a teal velvet blouse and skirt. The blouse is high-necked with long sleeves. The collar and the cuffs are made up of a long ruffle made with the same color. The bodice has sharp angles at the bottom.
Adorning the bodice front, back and the sleeves are muted brown leaves appliqués that while pretty showcase a decay, showing that she is becoming part of the house which is falling apart. There are also thorns mixed into the leaves, more sharp details. The skirt is long with bustle and train. The whole appearance of this look, much like her other costumes, is restrictive.
Given that the film is set mostly in 1901, this look would have been out of fashion with the burgeoning styles of the early Edwardian period. Her looks favor more of the mid 1870s and early 1880s. Placing her looks in the past shows not only the poverty of the Sharpe siblings but that she clings to the past or to her ghosts.
4. Nefertiti from The Ten Commandments (1956)
Designer: Edith Head
Biblical epic movies are weird to place since they are in a weird gray area between “historical” and “mythic” in concept. And the films’ aesthetic for the costumes are Ancient Egyptian by way of 50’s glamor. Although some aspects of the costuming in The Ten Commandments are historically accurate.
Nefertiti (Anne Baxter) is a deuteragonist and then later in the film becomes a secondary antagonist. She wants Moses and plots to make him Pharaoh and covers up his origins. However she marries Ramses after Moses is banished and she vows revenge after he marries another woman.
She is called a “sharp-clawed treacherous little peacock” by Ramses when he demands her to marry him. In this scene she wears one her most iconic looks from the film.
It’s a sheer bright turquoise gown that has been pleated. It looks like it could be chiffon. Though chiffon is not an accurate fabric to the period, the idea for a sheer lightweight fabric is. Linen that was sheer and lightweight was very expensive hence it was worn by royals.
The gown is long with a v-neck and a high waist. At the waist there is a double row of trim that is blue and gold. The upper row has gold lotuses that are sewn on the edge of the waist. Both the trim and lotuses hang down the center front of the gown.
Draped across her shoulders is a long cape which is also something that an Ancient Egyptian upper class woman would have worn. Underneath the costume she wears skin-toned undergarments to get the impression of nudity which was also part of Ancient Egyptian fashion history. Bared-breasted garments were the style in the nineteenth dynasty.
This costume is both glamorous and alluring.
3. Danielle from Ever After (1998)
Designer: Jenny Beavan
Ever After is a historical retelling of Cinderella but with a modern perceptive.
The Cinderella of this version is Danielle (Drew Barrymore) an idealist, well-read young woman with a strong left hook, good aim, and big heart.
While all her six costume are lovely she is seen the most in her work costume. The dress consists of a long white chemise with a dark teal bodice, segmented detachable sleeves, an over dress with trims and ties.
The color of the bodice, sleeves and skirt is up for debate. Some consider it blue, at one point I thought it was green. Some liken it to a woad dye that been aged by sun. Woad dye would make sense and sometimes can look greenish blue. This costume looks more of muted darkish teal when compare to other blues and greens in film but your perception may see it as either, I just read it as a muted darkish teal than either green or blue.
Her work dress looks to be inspired by an early 16th century sketch by Raphael and by Waterhouse’s “The Flower Picker. And while it’s a utilitarian garment it’s still pretty and romantic.
2. Miss Scarlet from Clue (1985)
Designer: Michael Kaplan
Based on the classic board game 1985’s Clue is a comedic who-done-it with multiple endings set in the 1950s. All the attendees to the dinner party are being blackmailed and thus are all using aliases. All the women are wearing colors that are complementary (opposite on the color wheel) to their alias.
Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren) wears a dark jewel tone teal satin gown with a sheer aqua swath of fabric that is attached with a diamond brooch at one side. Her dinner dress is knee length and off-the-shoulder. The fabric of the off-the-shoulder sleeves goes down under the chest and then goes over the upper arms.
It’s a subtle, chic detail. Her costume is beautiful, glamorous and alluring which suits her perfectly.
1. Deliah from Samson and Delilah (1949)
Designer: Edith Head
As previously stated on this list, Biblical epic movies are more mythic than concerned with an accurate depiction of life in the ancient world. And that is fine, movies are supposed to be entertaining. Sometimes creative direction goes for the epic drama with glitz and glamor, high spectacle and appealing to modern aesthetics.
Of course, when a film goes the extra mile to be historically accurate that is awesome too. Both directions are valid and can yield lovely works especially with costumes The costumes in Samson and Delilah are stunning. At the end of film when Samson is being tortured at the Temple of Dagon, Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) wears her most iconic costume from the film. It’s her peacock gown with a cape.
It’s a two-piece look made from a dark teal. The top is crop top with short sleeves with sparkly peacock feather patterns on the front and on the shoulders. There is a train attracted to the shoulders which is separate from the peacock feather cape she wears earlier in the scene
The skirt is a straight cut silhouette that is floor length with just a slight train. The center front has the same peacock pattern with some actual feathers mixed in. A sheer blue swag of fabric hangs off the waist. She wears gold jewelry with large blue stones with green accents to invoke the gorgeous and regal peacock imagery.
Honorable Mention: Estella from Great Expectations (2012)
Designer: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Based on the classic by Dickens, the 2012 movie adaptation of Great Expectations gives a modern uptick by mixing some modern high fashion influence of McQueen and combining that with Gainsborough’s moody dark rich aesthetic.
Estella (Holliday Grainger) has been raised to be a deceiver by the scorned Miss Havisham. She uses grace and beauty to make men fall in love with her then shatters their hearts. This suits Estella as she is cold and heartless. The concept of love does not move her. She is very upfront about this with Pip and yet he still loves her.
Estella tells him that her lack of emotional love is natural for her and that he will forget about her in time but Pip tells her she is in every thought before he leaves with tears in his eyes.
In this part she wears a steely teal costume indicative of her icy personality. It has the high waistline of the time period that is edge in gray ribbon trim. It looks to be made of satin. Also along the waist are two large matching fabric covered shank buttons. The skirt portion is pleated along the waist.
The collar and the neckline is wide and are rounded like she is displaying her heart but with a large blue pendant and the sheer gray trim along the neckline with its sharp edge she is conveying her true lack of emotional softness. Like her heart was torn out long ago and there was only a black hole left. The cuffs have the same gray sheer ruffles with the same type of buttons at the waist.
