Author Matt Zoller Seitz has published a continuation of his superb book The Wes Anderson Collection (2013), entitled (deep breath) The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel. The former is a detailed look at Anderson’s output so far, influences, meaning and interpretation of his work; the latter covers exclusively Anderson’s latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel. This is far more than a bolted on sequel, however, and one of the reasons we know this is because Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty was asked to contribute a chapter. More than that, it has recently joined The New York Times bestseller list. A pretty, candy-coloured slab of hardback, Seitz’s follow up…

Author Caroline Young has just released a fascinating new book entitled Hitchcock’s Heroines (published by Insight Editions). It celebrates and studies the women in Hitchcock movies; their influence, semblance and iconography. What’s more, Young also examines the role costume design plays with these women, both the characters and the actresses who played them, and how they can be interpreted as far more than just ‘icy blondes’. Here we have an extract of the book exclusively for Clothes on Film: Kim Novak’s grey suit the colour of San Francisco fog in Vertigo, Grace Kelly as the too-perfect woman in Rear Window, and Janet Leigh’s black and white sets of underwear to…

Director Brian De Palma has made movies heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock before, but Passion (2012) is the first one whose characters look like they stepped out of one of Hitchcock’s classic films. Karen Muller-Serreau’s bold and colourful costumes communicate the characters’ hidden desires and make watching Passion a sensory experience. This melodrama centres on two ad executives, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) and her boss Christine (Rachel McAdams), who have a deadline to come up with an ad campaign for a new smartphone. In her sleep, Isabelle thinks of a great idea. Dirk (Paul Anderson) in typical pinstriped suit with Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) in even more typical black. The two other…

There are many eye-popping moments in Black Book (2006), aka Zwartboek, though probably the most PG friendly is when Carice van Houten transforms into a Resistance beauty of Jean Harlow-esque proportions wearing an unmissable red halterneck dress. Black Book is a World War II set action thriller directed Paul Verhoeven. Based on true events it charts the story of Ellis de Vries (formally Rachel Stein) played by Carice van Houten, a Jewish singer who joins the Dutch Resistance and then infiltrates the German Gestapo. Ultimately, however, the tide turns as she finds herself branded a traitor by her comrades and forced to go into hiding. It is unquestionably Verhoeven’s best…

The Girl Most Likely To (1973) is a little seen made-for-TV film for all those who have been laughed at, dumped on or felt in any way degraded because of their looks. Originally shown as the ABC Movie of the Week, this revengeful black comedy penned by Joan Rivers has rightfully garnered somewhat of a cult following due to its subject matter to which so many can relate. Stockard Channing plays Miriam Knight, “a beautiful person who had been kidnapped by an ugly body”. Even before physical features are taken into account, her clothes say it all. The whole concoction for her first day at her new university is like…

La Dolce Vita (directed by Federico Fellini) was released in 1960. It has been described as a groundbreaking film, capturing a time of reconstruction and economic growth in Italy, linked to the end of Fascism and the destruction caused by the Second World War. Despite the availability of colour stock, La Dolce Vita was shot in black and white. The use of monochrome appears to emphasise the diametric oppositions between the old rural way of life and the new modernising Italy. La Dolce Vita looked firmly forward to the future, introducing an international audience not only to sleek and sophisticated Italian fashions but also a profession of which we are…

Michael Kaplan’s career is one film after another of “wow, he did that?” cinema: Blade Runner, Flashdance, Seven, Fight Club, Burlesque, plus dozens more. Kaplan’s connection to Star Trek began as costume designer on J.J. Abrams’ reboot in 2009, and now he is back for the sequel. Despite admitting he was no expert in the world of Star Trek before signing on, his work on both movies has been praised; particularly the Enterprise crew uniforms (that reoccurring Starfleet pattern is a classy touch). Here chatting exclusively to Clothes on Film, Michael Kaplan explains his approach to costuming Star Trek Into Darkness (out everywhere this week). SPOILERS WITHIN Costume sketch of…

When Clothes on Film visited The Muppets Most Wanted set back in March of 2013, we were given a tour of the bustling ‘wardrobe’ (their words) department, as overseen by costume designer Rahel Afiley. You can read more about that HERE, but after chasing Ms. Afiley around the room while she was trying to work, we managed to get a bit more out of her about using designer fashion, i.e. Vivienne Westwood, in the film. As always we are pushing the same old costume/fashion debate, though in this instance hearing from a costume designer on the front line is rather enlightening. Focusing specifically on Miss Piggy, for she is the…

MINOR SPOILERS ‘Who is behind the mask, the observer or the wearer?’ a question posed by milliner Stephen Jones, who created a series of masks inspired by The Lone Ranger to tie-in with the film’s release. It is an interesting idea, that we are hidden from view in a mask yet paradoxically more visible than ever. No-one knows for sure where masks came from. We can trace their existence back to man’s earliest ancestors, but for what purpose? Entertainment? Disguise? Protection? In cinema the mask has become visual shorthand for the hero, or more accurately the superhero. The Lone Ranger spins this notion on its head somewhat, because although the…

Clothes on Film talks exclusively to Anna Sheppard about her work on Captain America: The First Avenger, covering sartorial recreation of 1940s wartime, development of a superhero costume and the difficulties of working from someone else’s original designs. Anna B. Sheppard is one of the best known and respected costume designers in the business. Based in London but working internationally, she has created costumes for directors Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino, plus been Academy Award nominated twice, for Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) and The Pianist (2002). Captain America is something of a departure for Sheppard as she is effectively working from a 70 year old design template. The…