Featuring Yves Saint Laurent couture as cool and disaffecting its protagonist, Belle de Jour can be read effectively through costume.

Featuring Yves Saint Laurent couture as cool and disaffecting its protagonist, Belle de Jour can be read effectively through costume.

This week’s costume biggies. The Great Race Karen Noske analyses the exceptional work of Edith Head for Natalie Wood. Breaking Bad Emma Fraser looks at Lydia’s blue coat (and her influence on Todd’s clothing) in recent episodes. Downton Abbey Caroline McCall keeps the Downton ladies covered up. Kristin M. Burke The veteran costume designer tackles the increasing problem of internet haters critiquing work they do not understand. Cinema and Clothes By Dal Chodha, with a teeny contribution by yours truly. Rush Much better interview with costume designer Julian Day than the last one we linked to. Masters of Sex Ane Crabtree on her late 1950s designs for the Showtime drama.…

We are now up to the year 1968 for the double-episode season 6 opener of Mad Men. This already seems to be the show’s most progressive season so far costume wise. Season 5 certainly took the most significant cultural jump, with Swinging Sixties politics, clothes and interiors looming like a shadow of coolness. In the latter half of season 5, aspiring actress Megan’s (Jessica Paré) capri pants and sweater audition wear, while not exactly beatnik were avant-garde enough to suggest the growing exuberance of her character. The times they are a-changin’. For season 6, costume designer Janie Bryant looks to be channelling the same ideal as season 1, but whereas…

Further to film critic Simon Kinnear‘s analysis of how Alien’s revolutionary costume design brought a grimy reality to sci-fi, in this second part he concentrates on the Anthology sequels. It is to James Cameron’s credit that, while re-engineering Alien’s haunted house tropes as full-scale war movie, he recognised the important part costume design played in Ridley Scott’s shocker seven years earlier. In the first film, clothing is one of the means by which humans stamp their personality against the dual threat to their identity posed by both the alien and the faceless corporation they work for: Weyland-Yutani. This is a difficult trick to pull off with soldiers; Cameron’s Space Marines…

As Clothes on Film has it on good authority that Black Swan is ‘spectacular’ and because we have an interview with director Darren Aronofsky upcoming closer to the UK release date, here are some striking images to get you in ‘that place’. Black Swan tells the story of two ballerinas (played by Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis) on a New York production of Swan Lake. As rehearsals for the show intensify, their apparently transparent personalities diverge with both an intense rivalry and unusual friendship developing. Amy Westcott is costume designer for Black Swan, while the overall costume look of the film was very much a collaborative process with Darren Aronofsky,…

If you have seen Paranormal Activity 2 then you are probably still awake from when you left the cinema, so how about using your insomnia constructively to read about the clever ‘ordinariness’ of the film’s costume design by Kristin M. Burke? Kristin Burke is a costume designer with a packed IMDb resume including such diversity as The Cooler, Running Scared and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. With Paranormal Activity 2 (directed by Tod Williams) she faced the difficult task of creating a completely realistic look that would live or die on its credibility. If for one second we did not believe that what we saw on screen was real, the story…

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,…

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…

Surely we all know Michael Kaplan by now? Flashdance (1983), Fight Club (1999), Burlesque (2010), Star Trek (2009), and the biggest of the big, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Versatile is not a generous enough word for his talent; he is literally one of the best in the business, as his CDG (Costume Designers Guild) nomination for Star Wars goes some way to proving. I spoke to Mr Kaplan just after Christmas about his work for The Force Awakens, but due to unforeseen circumstances (basically Clothes on Film HQ flooding), this interview is only being posted now. Still much to enjoy though, and plenty of costume titbits to sift through.…