West side story the director's view for the production

In order to follow the director's view about the production, analysing the costumes, The director Joey McKneely's concepts follows some etiquette lines from the 50s but at the same time creates but at the same time adds some notes. I separated my observations into two cathegories - decisions which illustrate the director's approach and desicions which are implied by the script:

Director's approach:
One of the directors desicions is to keep white as a main color for Tony and Maria as a symbol of their innocence on the background of the aggresive gangs.
The Gangs are present with an color contrast - bright and warm colors for The Sharks and pale and cold colors for The Jets.
An interesting aspect of Maria's costumes on stage is that although the white is kept as a main color, there are element of the costume which are kept red to keep her Puerto Rican origin. These elements are the red belt and the flower texture and decorations.
The lenght of the shorts and skirt of the American girls which was described as a "disapointing element" of the production from Guise Magazine. Although first I didn't find any images of these costumes in the 2013/2014 and I assumed the approach was the same. Later on I found review a review of Dance Tabs which proves that my assumption was wrong:
 "I also noted that some costumes for the Jet girls didn’t seem to date appropriately to the 1950s. Again, I didn’t feel this irritation in 2013"
The review of the Guise Magazine have also been made for the production part of the 2013/2014 tour so apparently there have been some slight alterations on the lenght of the costumes but they still look edgy and questionable.


Decisions implied by the script and the historical period of it:
The lenght of the skirts which stops just above the knee.
The long lenght of the trousers of the male characters.

References:
Watts, Gr. 2013.Joey McKneely / Jerome Robbins – West Side Story – London [online] Dance Tabs. Available at: http://dancetabs.com/2013/08/joey-mckneely-jerome-robbins-west-side-story-london/ [Accessed September 14 2014]
Miari, A. 2013 West Side Story @ Sadler's Wells. [online] Available at: http://www.guisemagazine.com/theatre/west-side-story-sadler-s-wells/ [Accessed September 14 2014]