Sons of Anarchy portrays the fictionalised world of an outlaw motorcycle club; although the plots are dramatic in the extreme, many of the details are firmly based in realism, including the costuming. Series creator Kurt Sutter has described it as pure soap opera, but this family drama has earned the tag of “Hamlet on Motorcycles”. It has been embraced by pop culture and by the biker community, and spurred an upsurge in sales of Harley Davidsons (and a $25k SOA branded bike). Motorcycle club culture took off after WW2, when returning veterans with experience of riding bikes on service, and often undiagnosed post-traumatic stress, took to the lifestyle looking for…

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan Directed By: Steven Spielberg War Horse is desperately pretty, sentimental and heartfelt to the point of exhaustion. In other words the return of late 1980s, very early 90’s schmaltzy Spielberg. Whether this is something to celebrate or lament we shall leave up to you. Steven Spielberg shoots through the eyes of a talented illustrator. Filthy trenches, plumes of poison gas, a disastrous Calvary charge; all as beautiful as they are horrific. Add in the continuous swell of John Williams’ score and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski‘s yolky sunsets (no cgi) and War Horse is every frame a Spielberg movie. Not subtle, the final act or…

It’s ironic that director Zach Snyder was against using those famous red pants for the outside of Superman’s new costume when the suit itself is underwear. This bizarre notion actually makes sense as all costume choices in Man of Steel are intended as functional, at least contextually so. There was no need to wear pants over pants as it were; Superman is already half-undressed as it is. When M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi thriller After Earth was released a few weeks ago it received a critical bashing for, among other things, poor special effects, weak acting and clunky dialogue. After watching Man of Steel these feel like unfair assertions. In many…

The latest MCU smash-hit, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), features one of the strangest villains in the wallcrawler’s rogues’ gallery. When it comes to movies based on comic books, the outfit a character like Mysterio wears is not supposed to work on-screen. On the printed pages of comics, the outfits can be impractical and outlandish, and nothing is more of those things than the villain’s fishbowl helmet, lavender cape fastened with giant eyes, and green, scaly tights. Still, costume designer for the film, Anna B. Sheppard, met the challenge of making a fantastic look for Jake Gyllenhaal’s villain. Instead of running away from the crazy roots of the character, she…

“We are stardust, we are golden”, sang Joni Mitchell of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held August 15-18th 1969, at a dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York. The irony was, she wasn’t even there. A further irony follows in that whilst a myriad of psychedelic colours are synonymous with the Woodstock nation, one of the most revered choices of dress, clearly shown in the documentary Woodstock (1970) is a simple white leather fringed lace-up tunic-style vest and bell bottom trousers. It is worn by one of the first female rock stars, the lead singer of Jefferson Airplane,…

In 1958 Paramount released Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock’s disturbing tale of death and obsession, love and loneliness. Receiving only average reviews on its release, Vertigo is now hailed as a cinematic masterpiece. Hitchcock’s direction, Bernard Hermann’s score and Robert Burks’ cinematography are particularly praised. Less often celebrated, argues art critic Iris Veysey, is Edith Head’s costume design. Head’s work, particularly in dressing Kim Novak, helped to ground characters and signpost the narrative in a complex and convoluted plot. Dressing Novak in the dual role of Madeleine/Judy, Head’s designs successfully define two distinct characters, one polished and sophisticated, the other brassy and cheap. Madeleine is introduced as a wealthy shipping heiress and…

Live and Let Die (1973, directed by Guy Hamilton) is a fantasy Blaxploitation movie made in the wake of Shaft and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (both 1971). Roger Moore’s first stab at James Bond pitted his tightly buttoned jackets and high waisted trousers against a bevy of colourful, flared, snap-brimmed seventies street wear as commanded by corrupt diplomat/New York drug kingpin, Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto). For the first time in his existence the world’s foremost super spy would be all but invisible. Except that there were attempts to update 007’s image in line with the fashions of the day. Some worked; Moore in a black short sleeve silk shirt…

Not so much Clothes on Film as Underwear on Film, but far from just an excuse to show off a girl in her smalls, classic Mod era film Quadrophenia (1979) illustrates an interesting point concerning female hosiery in the 1960s. The sixties was the decade for tights. They were an ideal accompaniment to the mini skirt and came in a wide variety of colours, normally as bright and garish as possible. Thanks to innovations in textile production, tights (or pantyhose in the U.S.) were straightforward to produce and even easier to wear. Plus with mini skirt hems rising all the time, even the most confident of girls might have baulked…

Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin Directed by: Edgar Wright There is a current trend for reviewers to place a much hyped new movie into one of two categories: masterpiece or rubbish. Proportionality seems to have disappeared. You must love a film or hate it. Middle ground is for wimps. So forgive this particular reviewer in taking precisely that stance, for while Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is imaginative and breathless; it is also frustrating and derivative. In other words it is good, not great. What frequently saves this film from drowning its audience in a wave of cool-speak and random segues (Seinfeld reference? In 2010?), is hero…

Matt Spaiser, creator of excellent blog The Suits of James Bond analyses the world’s sharpest spy in the film that started it all – Dr. No. James Bond has most likely influenced people’s suit-wearing habits more than any other fictional character has. Dr. No (1962, directed by Terence Young) established the classic look for the character for the many films that followed. Throughout Dr. No, Sean Connery wears five unique tailored ensembles. Each outfit is simple, classic and worthy of imitation. The idea was to put Bond in suits that were distinctly British, but keep things simple because a secret agent should never stand out. Yet because of this simplicity,…