Costumes

The doublets are smashing and the gowns ever so elegant. But "The School of Night," which opens today at the Mark Taper Forum, is more than an Elizabethan fashion show. Robert Perdziola's costumes are as intricately crafted as Peter Whelan's 1992 drama about the political, sexual and criminal intrigues surrounding the death of Christopher Marlowe. "With this play you're never quite sure where it's going or who's to be trusted," the designer says.

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

The mother whose questioning of a Thanksgiving kindergarten tradition in Claremont resulted in the elimination of the children's handmade pilgrim and Native American costumes last month has received more than 250 hate e-mails, filled with misogynistic epithets, racist jeers and other abuse. One hoped that her daughter, a kindergartner, would get beaten up at school. Another celebrated genocide of Native Americans. Police are providing extra patrols at her home. And Michelle Raheja is at a loss.

Leave it to George Lucas to dictate style in space. On the first day of filming "Star Wars" -- as Carrie Fisher writes in her new book, "Wishful Drinking" -- the director told her that she couldn't wear a bra under her white Princess Leia dress because it would strangle her in zero gravity. Hmmm. No doubt, a little jiggle didn't hurt in a galaxy far, far away, either. In fact, it would seem that undergarments have no place in most science fiction movies.

Leaf it to New Hampshire, where a bank was held up by a man disguised as a tree. Just as the Citizen Bank in Manchester opened Saturday morning, a man with leafy boughs duct-taped to his head and torso walked in and robbed the place. Police said the man didn't mention a weapon, just demanded cash, and was given an undisclosed amount. Although much of the man's face was obscured, someone reported recognizing him from the bank's security camera and called police.

NEW YORK -- Drag queens, carnival kings, Big Bird and John Travolta are all in a day's work to Jon Coles, whose company has outfitted all of them with feathers. Coles has been vice president and general manager at American Plume & Fancy Feather Co. in New York's garment district for 29 years, ever since the company's owners, his friends Anthony and Elizabeth Trento, convinced him the feather business would pay better than his previous profession, teaching.

It's not such a small world after all. As Disneyland celebrates its 50th birthday, the park is grappling with a harsh reality of middle age: Mickey Mouse's entourage has put on a few pounds. To accommodate the ballooning bodies of American workers, the Magic Kingdom is redesigning some of its costumes for ride operators, shop clerks, waitresses and other employees. A couple of decades ago, the park's wardrobe department stocked only a narrow range of sizes.

IT was the fashion climax to the whole sweat-slicked, muscle-thumping show -- Madonna on all fours, crawling cheetah-like down the stage in lustrous Lycra, with those thundering thighs and that winged hair. And it could mean only one thing: leotards are back, baby.

LOOKING at a curtain rod jutting from the shoulders of the Miss Starlett dress -- a gown Bob Mackie created for a "Gone With the Wind" spoof on "The Carol Burnett Show" -- it's hard not to laugh all over again. Mackie famously included all the drapery fittings from the plantation's curtains, including giant tassels, cording, valance and the inspired touch: the rod.