Figure 1.--This is the first official publicity for the Harry Potter movie. One HBC reader believes that the maroon of the scarf seems a little too dark. (Ms. Rowling consistently describes the Gryffindor house colors as "scarlet and gold").
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Figure 1.--This is the first official publicity for the Harry Potter movie. One HBC reader believes that the maroon of the scarf seems a little too dark. (Ms. Rowling consistently describes the Gryffindor house colors as "scarlet and gold"). |
The most popular litteary sensation of 1999 were the success of the Harry Potter books. Harry is an orphaned English boy training to be a wizzard. He has taken the literary world by storm. Harrey Potterisms have begun to enter the lanuage. One nice aspect of the Harry Potter books is how they have interested many boys who are not avid readers. Harry attends the Hogwarts School and is often pictured in English school uniforms.
In the first Harry Potter book , Harry is first described as wearing "..old clothes of (his cousin) Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was." Later the Hogwarts uniform list is given ( plain black robes and pointed hat; black winter cloak with silver fastenings); Rowling gives the impression that Hogwarts students wear ordinary
street clothes under their robes.
The "street clothes" are picked up by (U.S. edition) illustrator Mary GrandPre, who
usually depicts Harry in a a white shirt and rugby shirt, jeans and white sneakers. The British cover of Book 1 shows Harry in traditional English school uniform, including a red-and-yellow striped scarf (he's only shown from the chest up; scarlet and gold are the Gryffindor House colors) Neither depict the black robes/ hats described above,
but several foreign translations do (eg. the French edition Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone)
Most of the WB- authorized merchandise so far has been based on GrandPre's illustrations;
Harry is depicted as he was on the US "Stone" cover. However, some of these do show him wearing the black robes and hat over these clothes.
Spy photos have been posted on the Net showing groups of "students" (extras) in Hogwarts
uniform; under the black robes they wear gray shirts, house-color striped ties, and gray sweaters with house-color trim. In other words, fairly typical
English school uniform , and not a pointy hat in sight! In every pic I've seen,
the robes completely obscure the lower half of the uniform, so I can't comment on the boys' trousers.
HBC readers have assessed the publicity photographs for the upcoming Harry Potter movie. He believes that the maroon of the scarf seems a little too dark. (Ms. Rowling consistently describes the Gryffindor house colors as "scarlet and gold"). The house shield was invented for the movie. The books only describe (and, on non-US Engilsh editions,
show) a school shield with all four house animals. In the above image, it is not clear if Harry is wearing a robe or a cloak. Hallelujah! His glasses aren't broken! Since they can be fixed magically. Harry's glasses were fixed in Book One (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Right after she meets Ron and Harry on the Hogwarts Express, Hermione fixes them with an incantation, "Oculus Reparo". So, they would have no reason to show them still broken while he's at Hogwarts since they were repaired before he ever got there for his first year.
You can just make out the patch the Gryffindor house badge is embroidered on; this actually explains away an inconsistency with
the text. (The uniform list calls for plain black robes and cloak).
On a related note, a HBC reader asks, "Do you know of any real English
schools where a house badge, not the school one, takes pride of place on students' blazers or sweaters?" If that's unique to Hogwarts, well, JKR has said it's the only wizarding school in Britain, so one's house would
seem to have more importance in a culture where everyone went to the same school. HBC reports that English boys always wore the same school badge, regardless of their house. At many schools the boys might wear colore bages that were pinned or sewn on to their jumpers to ientify their houses.
Another comment gleaned from the HPforGrownups egroup. The blue glove is likely required for safety reasons when handling the owl and may be bluescreened out and replaced with Radcliffe's bare hand in the actual movie.
Due to a set of dates given in "Chamber of Secrets", most hardcore fans consider
Harry's first year at Hogwarts to have been 1991-92. I consider it unlikely that WB will bother to "dress" the Muggle-world sets back a mere 10 years or so.
Note, too, that many things about the "wizarding world" in these books are outdated in a
stereotypical-olde-England sort of way.
The first Harry Potter movie is reportedly "Grat Fun!" HBC does not yet, however, have full details above it.
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