Day ( 12 ) drawing

This illustration was made by me. So if you want to post it to your blog remember to give proper credit ok? ;-)

Day ( 12 )

Summer wears this outfit on the 12th day, when she was avoiding Tom. The outfit is a short-sleeved denim shirt and black slacks. In this scene, she also wears a black handbag.

I like the clothes Summer uses at work, makes me want to go back to work for a company ...... not really! :-P

The blouse bought in a thrift store. I like the little flowers inside.

The black pants I bought a magazine store. Although I do not really like to wear pants, I felt that this is comfortable.

I had a bag with the same format. It was all black in color, but I painted the white details to become more similar.

And this was the result! Now wait a minute while I'll get that toner!  ;-)

Day ( 8 ) drawing

This illustration was made by me. So if you want to post it to your blog remember to give proper credit ok? ;-)

Day ( 8 )

This is the outfit Summer uses on the 8th day during the engagement party of a coworker. A denim skirt in A-line, and a light blue blouse, with fluffy sleeves.

I searched a lot for a similar blouse, but I could not find it. So I decided to order one directly with a seamstress! \ o /

I confess that I had some resistance to this denim skirt. I was afraid to look like a church lady from the 80s, you know? hehe. I ended up finding a similar skirt in the Chicwish site. And when I put it on, I thought it looked fine on me!

And this was the result! I put juice in glass to look like she was drinking champagne, hehe.

Day ( 4 ) drawing

This illustration was made by me. So if you want to post it to your blog remember to give proper credit ok? ;-)

Day ( 4 )

This is the outfit Summer uses in the elevator scene. It is actually very similar to the previous clothes. Gray slacks pantaloons, white sleeveless blouse with a dot texture.

The blouse I bought in a thrift store.

 The pants I had the previous look, I bought on ebay.

The double headband I bought in a acessories shop.

The vintage straw bag I bought in a thrift store.

The result looked like this!

Day ( 1 ) drawing

Between one recreation and other, I decided to draw a picture of each outfit!

This illustration was made by me. So if you want to post it to your blog remember to give proper credit ok? ;-)

Day ( 1 )

Now lets get down to the creation of the costumes! First things first, because today is January 8, the day that Tom meets Summer! (I will recreate the costumes of the movie in real-time!).

So, these are the clothes that Summer uses the first day, during a meeting in the office. Basically a gray slacks pantaloons, a white shirt and a blue butterfly brooch.

Although basic, this first look was difficult to recreate for two reasons: The brooch and the pants. The shirt I already had (and you could find it on any clothing store).

The brooch was a challenge. It is a butterfly. And it's blue. I found some on Etsy, but they were overpriced and very small. I had to play the artisan and invent a way to make one. I tested with various materials, but what gave me a better result was with PET plastic from a soft drink bottle!

To paint, I used nail polish in various shades of blue and metallic blue to give the shimmering effect of butterfly wings. I finished off with a silver pen and a pin pasted on the back.

It was not easy to find gray pantaloons in the summer of Brazil. The only pants I found had colorful stamps.

I managed to find similar trousers in beige. I thought "Oh, I can just paint it". Then I bought the gray paint. First try: it got all spotted. In the second try, more spotted. I decided to return it to the original color, but the pants shrunk! Argh! :-P

Luckily I found similar pants on Ebay!

And the final look was like that! It seems that the pants made me even higher! hehe. I thought it was good looking, what did you think?

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Where do you buy these clothes?
I bought the clothes from many different stores. My top 3 favorite sites are Modcloth, Etsy and Ebay. Oh, and thrift stores, many thrift stores!

You want to sell some clothes?
Hmmm not at the moment! It was a lot of work to find them, hehe. ;-)

Why do you try to be the Zooey? Be yourself!
I think you don't understand the spirit of the project ... The idea is just to recreate the style of Summer. But, curiously, people that say usually don't know me. If you knew me you would know that there is a Ila beyond the site. And what fault do I have if I was born so similar to her, dammit! hehe. :-P

Your haircut is purposeful to look more like Zooey?
Well, as you can see in my childhood photos in the post "Who am I" I always had brown hair and bangs. Of course, as every woman had my phases of redhead, blonde ... but no use, I always end up going back to the roots!

Did someone confuse you with Zooey?
People look up, comment, but never ask. I have the impression that even if I was Zooey herself, no one would do that, hehe. Especially outside Brazil, where they really respect the privacy.

Zooey (or someone of production) has seen the site?
Once Jen Lukehart (set decorator) favorited one twit, but did not comment about it. If any of you saw the site, give a sign of life! hehe.

What other movie inspires you?
I love Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain! With the wonderful soundtrack, vibrant colors and that retro parisian air.

If you have more questions, you can leave here in the comments that I say! :-)

A little blue apartment

I really enjoyed the way the apartments are shown in the movie, as an extension of the personality of the characters. Tom's apartment is contemporary and monochrome, while the Summer's apartment has a very eclectic, artistic and eastern reference. Well, I did fine arts college and love Japan so I felt at home! hehe.

Jennifer Lukehart was responsible for all set decoration work. She did a great job of choosing objects that could easily be found at the home of any of us. Nothing super refined and modern, from a decor shop. That must be why when we google for "500 days of summer apartments", there are so many inspiring links for decoration!

Credit: Swel construtora

The apartment of Summer Finn it’s the Barclay, 706 South Normandie at West 7th Street, just south of Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown.

I decided to make a floor plan of the apartment. But it was very difficult, because the scenes change so little. The bathroom doesn't even appear! :-/

So I decided to look for apartments that are that the Los Angeles area. I found the building website. They provide the plant from the apartments. They don't have the exact one from Summer, but based on what I saw, I made this one, which I think that closely approximates the movie!

Ok, now that felt like an obsession, hahaha. In my defense, I have to say that these posts were written while I was lonely and bored while my husband was traveling. And as I have already written much, tomorrow I will start the posts of my project (finally!). \o/

I want her wardrobe!

Summer Finn has one of the most adorable styles I've seen. Her clothing is fine vintage, full of inspiration from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

The costume designer Hope Hanafin says that when choosing costumes, she wanted something that was beyond the style "secretary wearing Prada", so she sought clothes that the character could actually buy with her paycheck.

That must be why '500 days of Summer' has become a reference! There are many websites that talk about it. For example, this, this, and this (this girl also recreated some clothes from the movie!)

The blue palette of the clothing and accessories was a requirement of the director, Marc Webb, because of the amazing blue eyes of actress Zooey Deschanel. Only Summer uses blue. The only other place where the color blue is used is in the dance sequence, after Tom's first night with Summer. Everything becomes kind of a reflection of his love for her.

I particularly loved the choice of blue, it is one of my favorite colors! :-)

The true Summer!

Would she be the true Summer?

At the beginning of the movie, there is a curious dedication to Jenny Beckman. Looks like the film was based on a true story! According to a director's commentary, 75% of what happened in the movie actually happened to him! Poor Tom!

The real romance story happened in London, when Scott Neustadter met Jenny Beckman. They met in college, and after some push of friends, they got together. The rest was all the same as in the movie: his expectation, her sincerity, the great times and the bad times (it looks like a lot of people's life script right? Hehe).

A curiosity: after he wrote the script, they met for the first time since the relationship ended. They talked about everything, except about them. Before her return to London, he gave her the script. A few days later, she wrote a letter saying she liked the story, but she identified more with Tom!

I was curious about how would be a script from the point of view of Summer. Everybody knows that there is a version told by the man, a version told by the woman and the true version, right ?! hehe.

A romance. Or not.

"This is not a movie about love".

With this warning, we already know what to expect in the story, but still there are many people who want the couple to have a happy ending.

When I was single, had a great saying: "While you can't find the right person, have fun with the wrong one". I think that was in the mind of Summer when she started dating Tom. She was sincere, saying she just wanted to enjoy the moment. Tom was wrong to raise expectations.

I think we all once were Summer and Tom at times in life. ("Wow, he likes the same music as me, he is the man of my life!!!" Who hasn't?) If you think to get dumped is bad, try being the one who ends the relationship. At the end, Summer should be in a bad dilemma because Tom was a nice guy, but he was not the man of her life. :-P

And if you're bitter, suffering for a lost love, look at it as a learning experience, take something good out of it. Tom used all that bad feelings to change his life. People change, feelings change. If today is summer, tomorrow may be autumn. That's life.

ps - When I met Ricardo, it was at a time when I did not want anything serious with anyone. But we got married after only 8 months of dating! ;-)

About the movie

Before beginning this project, I decided to create a series of posts on trivia and on the style of the movie!

I'll be honest. It took about 3 years for me to watch 500 days of Summer. At the time I thought it was just another one of these girlie movies "boy meets girl". But I was wrong.

Basically the movie is about the 500 days that Tom is still in love with Summer. The movie alternates between the first and the last days, a non-chronological order. The contrast between the scenes about the beginning and about the breakup, makes everyone suffer together. T_T

That scene about "Expectations x Reality" is one of the most sadly real things I've ever seen in a movie. Because I think everyone has had a similar experience with someone. I remember to this day of a date so disappointing, it was as if it never happened. #forgetabout

Anyway, it's a good love movie, even if it's not a love movie.

About the blog

Do you know when you watch a movie, or read a magazine, and then see something you like and immediately think "OMG I want it!" Well, this was my reaction when watching 500 days of Summer for the first time. But this time I couldn't resist, and I actually bought many of that things!

One day I recreated a scene from the movie on my instagram, and I liked the result! As I had enough material, and was bored, and needing a new hobby, I wondered if I could make a blog about the design of the movie, because a lot of people also like it!

To accomplish that, I watched the movie again, marking down everything that interested me. The result is 25 recreated looks (as many as possible! Haha). Yep. I'm really weird. 8-P

Unfortunately the clothes Summer uses were not easy to find. Because they are clothes that are not trending fashion anymore, I had to look at many stores and thrift stores. Some I found only on American websites (and I take this opportunity to thank my friends, Rodrigo, Patricia, Daniel and Cleide who helped me with my crazy secret project! Hahaha). #crazy

This blog is only a casual fan to fan site! I hope also to have fun! ♥

About me

My name is Ila Fox. I am Brazilian, I have a degree in Fine Arts, I work with illustrations, I'm married and live with four black cats.

I was never a very delicate and vain girl. In my childhood, it was very hard for me to wear a girlie dress. When my mother dressed me like a princess, I always got in a bad mood (as you can see in the photos below). As a teenager, I ran away from lipsticks, earrings and nail polish. My hair was always messy and my knee was always hurt. My particular fashion was jeans, shirts, shorts, hoodies and shoes. The only dress I ever bought was a black one, which I only used in parties. :-P

Dress in childhood = Bad mood

My resistance with skirts and dresses was called "shame". I thought that using girlie clothings would make me become fragile and vulnerable, and I wanted to be strong and courageous. But, years later, I started working from home, and felt a need to use more comfortable clothes, and it was then that I fell in love with dresses!

But my biggest motivation to rethink my way of dressing was traveling around the world, specially Tokyo, Paris and London. I noticed that people there are not afraid to leave the casual and explore the wardrobe. They are more creative when it comes to match the garments, always walking stylish, come rain or shine. It was enough to look at my wardrobe and  throw everything out the window buy everything new. And that's what I did! I felt that university-Ila did not belong to me anymore, and I renewed everything, without fear of being happy! :-)

A new Ila. A new wardrobe!

With my overflowing wardrobe retro dresses, I started to get more and more comparisons with the actress Zooey Deschanel. I love her style. I think she is one of retro icons of this generation, but without the fringe I do not think we are sooo similar. Okay, maybe just a little. :-P

Since I liked the design of the movie 500 days of Summer, I decided to have some fun, and created this blog where I recreate all the costumes of the movie! Yay! \o/

Dresses everywhere!