Disney unveils Major Cinderella costume exhibition

Disney unveiled a spectacular free exhibition of costumes and props from their new Cinderella movie in London on Thursday (19 March).

Movie-goers in Leicester Square will be able to experience the costumes in person straight after seeing the film, including the famous slippers.

It is being staged by Walt Disney and Swarovski, who provided Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell with 1.7 million crystals for the film.

“Of course the project is a costume designer’s dream. You know it’s a fairy tale, it’s predominantly women in the main characters which is great and unusual surprisingly so yes it was a fantastic opportunity to let your imagination run wild,” Powell said.

Powell explained that to achieve the right effect on screen she decided to make the famous prop slippers from crystal instead of using glass.

“I spent time in the V and A in the glass department looking at different kinds of glass whether it’s like a vase or goblet or chandelier and then realized that what it had to do was to refract and reflect the light therefore crystal seemed to be the obvious way to go with that,” she said.

Although used as props, Cinderella never actually wears the slippers in the film — they would be too delicate — but the effect of her wearing them is achieved by computer graphics.

The live-action version of the classic tale features Downton Abbey’s Lily James and Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden as Cinderella and her prince.

The cast also includes a scene-stealing performance from Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as the wicked step-mother.

Cinderella is released in the UK on March 27 and the exhibition is open to the public from March 21 to April 10.

(Reuters)