raincoat | Clothes on Film

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,…

American Psycho (2000, costume designer Isis Mussenden) is a late 1980s set film that highlights the importance placed on external appearance and the disparity that can lie between this and the true nature of a person. The ‘Psycho’ of the title, Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) is outwardly flawless. He has an extreme and involved personal beauty regime, consisting of special shampoos, body washes, face masks and scrubs, complemented by a strict diet and exercise plan that he completes daily and without fail. He believes in looking after himself – or at least his external self. Beneath this perfectly glossy exterior is emptiness – a lack of humanity, of…

Second and final part of our retrospective of The Grifters with insight from Mark Bridges.

First in our two part retrospective of neo-noir classic The Grifters with exclusive insight from the film’s assistant costume designer Mark Bridges.

Thanks at least in part to the wintry weather, this week’s costume round up is coats on film.

With exclusive insight from costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers, we investigate the story behind Harry Caul’s distinctive plastic raincoat.

Some official images have surfaced for X-Men: First Class. The sixties costumes vibe is not excessive, however.

A wonderfully witty and emotional film.