The "Alice in Wonderland" exhibit of art, clothing and props from the movie at Carlu in Toronto, August, 09. Details on the event here.

From the Toronto Star: "A 5,000-square-foot touring exhibit of sets, props, costumes and wigs from Alice in Wonderland – starring Johnny Depp as a carrot-topped Mad Hatter – made one of only two stops in North America at The Carlu yesterday.

The display, which included the Mad Hatter's tea party and the Red Queen's court, took a full day to set up and wasn't open to the public."

Richard in front of the White Queen's Castle. Tim Burton claims he based the White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway ion the movie) on British TV shef Nigella Lawson.

"There's this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character," Burton said. "She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really ... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don't know."

Press Pass for the event.

The door to Wonderland...

According to the Telegraph Burton's "vision of Wonderland – devoid of colour and life under the oppressive rule of the Red Queen – was inspired by the work of Arthur Rackham, who illustrated the 1907 edition of Alice in Wonderland, as well as a black-and-white photograph of a family having tea during the Second World War with London, disheveled, in the background."

Down the rabbit hole...

... details from inside the robbit hole...

One of Alice's dresses from "Alice in Wonderland."

Says costume designer Colleen Atwood in the New York Post: “Instead of Alice’s costume shrinking and growing with her, she grows out of it and shrinks down so her costume gets really huge,” says Atwood. “It did start with a nod to the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ illustrations. In the movie, she’s not a child anymore — she’s a young woman starting to have her own life.”

Dress detail.

Alice's armour for her battle with the Jabberwock.

Alice's wig.

The various "Drink Me" bottles, in all different sizes.

Eat Me cakes.

Large Eat Me cake.

Wonderland flowers.

Wonderland flowers.

Wonderland flowers.

Detail of Alice's face from the Carlu exhibit.

The Mad Hatter's Hat.You can make your own Mad Hatter hat with this pattern!

Why does the hat have a sign that reads 10/6 stuck in its brim? Ask Yahoo explains: 

"We learned that Mad Hatter Day is the "second silly day" of the year (the first being April Fool's Day) and is celebrated on 10/6 (October 6 in the United States; June 10 in Britain). Was the "10/6" a reference to a date?

Looking for confirmation, we clicked on a link to another Mad Hatter Day page. At last we found our answer. The site explains that while Mad Hatter Day is celebrated on 10/6 in honor of the number on the top hat, "some astute observers have noted that the paper in the Mad Hatter's Hat was really an order to make a hat in the style shown, to cost ten shillings sixpence."

There you have it -- the "10/6" appears to be the price of the hat."

From the Toronto Star: "Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, credits much of the movie's early buzz to Depp. "Any time this guy wears a funny hat it's usually good for us," he said, a nod to Depp's star turns as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise."

Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter wig. Tim Burton has joked that they scalped Carrot Top for The Mad Hatter's wig.

Says costume designer Colleen Atwood in the New York Post: “Johnny’s costume is based loosely in the reality of the 1860s, which is the era of the original book,” says Atwood. “Johnny and I and Tim all sort of did a little bit of research about hat makers and what their life was like in that era. They were exposed to a lot of harsh chemicals that made them go a little bit cuckoo and also made their skin lighter and their hair frizzy.

“When we found that out, we were given a whole new license of exaggeration. I made him all these portable scissors and ribbons so he could still make hats on the run. And then I had the thimbles he uses on his fingers to fiddle with that make sounds. The thing that’s great about Johnny is you give him those things, and he immediately takes to them and makes use of them.”

The Mad Hatter's chair.

From the Telegraph: "In creating the Hatter’s look, Depp felt his entire body would have been affected by the mercury and he worked closely with Patty Duke, who has been his make-up artist for 18 years, and the costume designer Colleen Atwood, whom he also met on Edward Scissorhands, to bring him to life. 'He’s a little bit punked out, but he has a lot of accoutrements on his costume that are the tools of a hatmaker’s trade,’ Atwood says. 'He has a bandolier of thread, he has ribbons tied on – all things he can make a hat with at any moment. At the first fitting I found all these crazy thimbles and showed them to Johnny. He stuck them on his fingers and started playing music on them. We had a lot of fun with all those bits that add to the character and he can use when he’s doing the part.’"

The Mad Hatter's suit.

From the Telegraph: "Depp was in Chicago filming Public Enemies when Burton called to discuss the Mad Hatter. 'The funny thing is, I had just re-read the book, so it was still pretty fresh in my mind,’ Depp says. He was keen to incorporate into the film a number of lines from the book that he thought were key to the character. 'He says, “I’m investigating things that begin with the letter M.” When you dig a little deeper you find out why. It’s because of the mercury.’ Depp’s research revealed the term 'mad as a hatter’ had an unfortunate basis in fact. Hatters suffered from mercury poisoning, a side effect of the millinery process, which would affect the mind."

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Detail from The Mad Hatter's Teaparty set.

The Red Queen's dress, worn by Helena Bonham Carter, whose face was stretched to three times its usual size for the role.

From the Telegraph: "'I didn’t know, as ever, if I was going to be in it,’ Bonham Carter says. 'I assumed not. Then everybody else seemed to know before me, and Tim said, “Obviously it’s you,” and showed me the first drawing he’d done of the Red Queen, and there’s this doodle of a really angry woman with a big head.’ Her transformation into the Red Queen requires three hours in make-up each day. The result, physically inspired by Bette Davis’s Elizabeth I, is startling, especially for her son who, along with his younger sister, is visiting mum and dad at work today. 'Billy doesn’t want to look at me,’ she shrugs. 'I don’t know if he’s scared or embarrassed. Nell – not a problem. Nothing fazes that girl.’"

The heart shaped executioner's axe from the court of the Red Queen.

The Red Queen's throne.

 “Helena’s look was hard and structured,” says hair stylist Terry Baliel in the New York Post. “We wanted the wig to be heart-shaped — we built some mesh pads and combed the hair, strand by strand, over that, ending up with curls on top so it almost looks like a bouquet of roses. When the wig came from London, it was stuffed with hair and very heavy. We tried to make it comfortable for Helena — we took it apart and built these mesh bags so it didn’t have to be stuffed with anything heavy. Because she also had a very heavy crown made of metal — even though it was small, it was heavy.”

Eat Me pastries at the Carlu after party!