This is a personal post about designing my custom made James Bond shirt. It is not an advertorial and wasn’t paid for. All photographs are of the final finished shirt(s) and taken by David Wade of Vogue Shot photography. There are now ample custom shirt makers online, but as a pre-existing customer of Deo Veritas what made this company stand out for me was a steadfast, almost stubborn desire to get everything ‘just so’. Seemingly no query or request is too much trouble. Bearing this in mind I tasked Deo Veritas with recreating a shirt I have always sought yet been unable to find off the peg or in my…

The arrival of Scarface (1983, directed by Brian De Palma) on Blu-ray grants ideal opportunity to indulge the film’s exemplary costumes by Patricia Norris. In its bogus world of clashing colours and mix fabrics, drug lord Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is the model of gangster symbolism, while steely dame Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer) has become a pin-up for the disco couture era; both characters are as psychologically screwed up as each other. Tony arrives in Miami, Florida, 1980 as a refugee from Cuba. His Caribbean heritage and lack of cash is demonstrated by a fondness for loose fitting, short sleeve island shirts. These are so gaudy that during the infamous chainsaw…

Of all the mismatched, gaudily patterned and coloured attire Jeff Bridges as ‘The Dude’ wears in The Big Lebowski (1998, directed by the Coen Brothers), the ubiquitous Cowichan-type Pendleton cardigan sums up his character best of all. Threadbare, scruffy and in need of a good wash, the pair sure do go well together. Without indulging too detailed a history lesson, Cowichan is a style of knitting developed in the mid-nineteenth century by native Coast Salish women of the Cowichan tribe in British Columbia, Canada. Superficially it is similar in design to Fair Isle knitwear in Scotland. Although, amongst other differences, such as the more ‘jigsawy’ shape of Fair Isle, traditionally…

MILD SPOILERS The hoodie has as much to say about it’s wearer as, say, the white t-shirt does. By which I mean that, depending on context, it can say anything. The white t-shirt can imply[…] It was late November, 2016 when I visited the set of The Conjuring 2 (directed by James Wan). The reason I never wrote about it for Clothes on Film or anywhere else was because of[…] It’s the most celebrated, the most special, the most significant watch of all time; Rolex is symbolic of many things in the movies: style, wealth, attitude, and perhaps most importantly, taste. That is not to[…] Friday 6th May sees the…

Maggie Siff playing Chanel suited businesswoman Rachel Menken was present for the birth of a show that now creates trends as much as reflects them; fashionistas cannot get enough of Mad Men. 2007 Was the dawning of a new era; a time of cocktails, Cadillacs, A-lines and trilbys. This is when sixties-set advertising drama Mad Men first hit our screens. Don Draper was trying to sell his ‘luckies’, Campbell still looked about twelve, Peggy made a big mistake and Rachel Menken arrived on the scene wearing the ultimate in simple sophistication. As series one progressed her character gradually became less and less interesting (pretty much as she fell for Don).…

Into the Woods opened on Broadway in 1987, with the music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim and the book by James Lapine. It is Sondheim’s most performed musical and one of his best known works. The story combines familiar characters from childhood fairy tales such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and the ubiquitous Witch, and explores their journeys to get their wish, as well as the negative consequences of the small dishonesties committed by each character to get what they want. As the witch sings, “Told a little lie/Stole a little gold/Broke a little vow/Did you?/Had to get your prince/Had to get your cow/Had to get your wish/Doesn’t…

Clothes and costume related movie news BAFTA Costume design nominations announced. Worthy, but no surprises. Fascinating video about Hardy Amies costumes for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Julien’s Hollywood Icons and Idols sale draws high bids for famous costumes, but not the big numbers seen last year at the Debbie Reynolds auction. Forgive the self-promotion as we draw your attention to Clothes on Film’s inclusion in book ‘Hollywood Costume’ edited by Deborah Nadoolman Landis. A rundown of why Hollywood Costume at the V&A is the best event you will see all year. Could Django Unchained be the first Quentin Tarantino movie to win a Costume Design Oscar? A new compilation of…

Savile Row tailors Kilgour provided much of Cary Grant’s wardrobe for North by Northwest (1959). In all probability director Alfred Hitchcock left Grant to his own devices in selecting ensembles, just as he’d done on To Catch a Thief four years earlier. If this was in fact the case, Hitchcock was not so trusting with Eva Marie Saint’s wardrobe. Disliking initial design sketches for her look, he escorted Marie Saint to New York’s swanky Bergdorf Goodman department store, personally choosing her outfits right off the racks. She later jokingly referred to Hitch as her “one and only sugar daddy”. As for Cary Grant, by this stage in his career it…

After Earth is Amy Westcott’s first attempt at a sci-fi feature. Her M.O tends to be contemporary costume, such as The Wrestler (2008) and award winning work on Black Swan (2010). But even then she seeks out subtext amongst typical genre interpretation. Black Swan for example is a psychological horror whereby costume reflects the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind so actually becomes part of the narrative. After Earth is similar in this respect because the film’s primary ensemble, the ‘life suit’ worn by Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) is synthetic in construction yet organically synched with the human body. Without his suit, Kitai could not survive Earth’s hazardous environment; his…

SPOILERS Despite all the hoo-ha over films such as Blue Jasmine and Stoker contemporary is still pretty much overlooked as a form of costume design. If it’s invisible, well, nobody notices it, and if it’s designer it becomes all about ‘the fashion’ (OMG TOTES WANT THOSE SHOES). We are currently in an age when costume design means period and sci-fi. It comes to the extent that if a costumer wants to tell a story through contemporary attire, he/she needs either a director with a key grasp of semiotics, or one that doesn’t care less about semiotics and offers a degree of autonomy. Watching About Time we presume that Richard Curtis…