The life of surveillance expert, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) in The Conversation (1974, directed by Francis Ford Coppola) is one of ritual, fear and obsession. This man of many facets is identifiable by the clothes he wears, specifically because of their bland anonymity and repetition. His plastic raincoat in particular, a rudimentary raglan slip-on, provides recognisable iconography for the character. With exclusive insight from The Conversation costume designer, Aggie Guerard Rodgers, we analyse just why this coat is so important to Harry’s journey. Stumbling on a murder plot during a routine, if technically accomplished clandestine recording, Harry becomes obsessed with subduing his Catholic guilt over past deeds. Harry lives alone…

Seemingly on a par with Tron Legacy: the movie is the mechanising machine surrounding it. Yet apparently this is no simple case of ‘cash-in and run’, it never was. Disney grasped the mindset of Tron from the very beginning. The name means more than product; it is a lifestyle choice. One might assume that Disney, the entertainment behemoth who continued financing Tron creator Steven Lisberger’s ambitious digital project in 1980 would have taken over the reigns and demanded a gamut of merchandise options to make Lucasfilm weep. Not so, claims Lisberger. There was surprisingly little compromise in their creative/fiscal balancing act: There is a fairly unknown quote from Walt Disney.…

A young man goes on the lam for supposed sabotage of an aircraft factory in California where he works during the Second World War. Some immediately judge him innocent, others guilty; though there is one point on which they all agree: to be a saboteur you must surely dress like one. The ‘saboteur’ in question is Barry Kane (played by Robert Cummings). Kane spends the entire story chased from West Coast to East Coast by law enforcement officials and, eventually, those responsible for his predicament – the real saboteurs, a shadowy group of mostly high society types who dress in top hat and tails and have friends in very high…

MINOR SPOILERS There are already lots of good interviews with Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) costume designer Michael Kaplan on the internet (we recommend this one in particular), so for Clothes on Film we kept it brief and fresh. We caught up with Kaplan, who is also responsible for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Trek (2009), Fight Club (1999) and Blade Runner (1982), for a little chat about what’s new for episode 8 of the ever evolving space saga. Clothes on Film: Let’s kick off by asking you about the best new costume in the film, the Elite Praetorian Guard… Michael Kaplan: They are my favourite costumes…

SPOILERS Ahead of a detailed interview with Star Wars: The Force Awakens costume designer Michael Kaplan (currently hard at work on Episode VIII), we take a brief look at his undeniable achievement in bringing the 1970s – early 80’s back to life right here in the present. How do you make the now look old when paradoxically it is supposed to be the new? Well, you go simple. We say simple, but we mean ‘back to basics’. This is not the prequels; The Force Awakens takes place thirty years after the Rebellion defeated the Empire. Now both sides are in state of rebuilding so there is little call for Padmae’s…

La Femme Nikita (1990, directed by Luc Besson) is a neon action thriller; a very silly, very enjoyable movie concerning an ex-junkie put to work as a French government sleeper assassin. Backed by an industrial electro pop score, sound and visuals converge alongside the protagonist’s cool couture – specifically a little black dress that re-defines the use of such a garment on film. As of its time as Laserdiscs and virtual reality, La Femme Nikita is about transformation by fashion – similar in subtext to Pretty Woman, that enduringly fluffy romantic fairytale also released the same year. Where as Julia Roberts’ heroine Vivian abandons the world of prostitution to become,…

Costume design comes in three main forms: visible (the 1950s, Dior inspired gowns in Anna Karenina for example), invisible (the impeccable yet subtle military uniforms in War Horse) and subtextual – those apparently commonplace costumes that actually possess a hidden meaning, a concept employed most effectively this year in horror satire The Cabin in the Woods. The film’s costume designer Shawna Trpcic created a subtle reversal for the main characters – five archetypes from horror movie folklore. Think of the teenage victims in Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th; they are all variations of the underwear flashing tramp, the bespectacled academic, the jock in his Varsity…

The first full trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger has bish bash boshed onto the internet. Look at how tiny Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is! There isn’t much new to see costume wise that has not already been revealed in papped set photographs. Mostly U.S. Army uniforms with overseas hats and other quiet 1940s period touches, such as khakis, 3pc suits, leather flight jackets and fire engine red lipstick on Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Costume design is a joint effort between Inception’s Jeffrey Kurland and twice Oscar nominated Anna B. Sheppard. It certainly looks exciting enough, but then again virtually all trailers for big budget comic book adaptations…

A preview of Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty’s article on the vibrant costume design of Dick Tracy for Arts Illustrated magazine. Truly unique, Dick Tracy is as close to a comic strip brought to life as any film before or since. This was director and star Warren Beatty’s goal; not to interpret the comic, but to paint it directly onto a cinematic canvas. He achieved this by embracing the superficial qualities of the painted page, the bright colours, exaggerated structures, madcap caricatures, and placing them front and centre. Dick Tracy is an all knowing pantomime. The original Dick Tracy comic strip first published in the United States in 1931,…

tesing caption A new web documentary analysing the look of James Bond has been released to coincide with the Designing 007 exhibition in London. It is well worth watching as costume designer Lindy Hemming, a veteran of five Bond films, discusses her approach for both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig; essentially that Brosnan’s suits were deliberately ‘European’ and Craig’s were intended to ‘pull him in’. There are further notes from David Mason (Anthony Sinclair tailors) and Ritchie Charlton (Douglas Hayward tailors) as to why they believe Bond is still such a sartorial icon. Anthony Sinclair have recently undertaken remaking Sean Connery’s midnight tuxedo with turnback cuffs from Dr. No (1962)…