Mary Zophres | Clothes on Film

For a big budget movie about a lone astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, the spacesuits in The Martian are surprisingly sober in terms of design. There is an attempt here to make everything seem as plausible as possible, costume design especially. Director Ridley Scott’s regular costumer Janty Yates has created possibly the sexiest spacesuits ever seen on screen, and what’s more they are functional. To paraphrase a line in the film, she had to “science the shit out of them”. Yates collaborated with NASA looking specifically at their Z1 and Z2 prototypes to create an EVA (‘Extravehicular Activity’ – any time the crew must go outside) suit and surface…

This week you may have missed… Ingenious Costume Design Good list from Rebecca Clough at Den of Geek of ingenious movie costume design. And while we’re about it, congratulations to another of their regular writers, Ryan Lambie, for his FDA Richard Attenborough Blogger of the Year Award. Inside Llewyn Davis Kristin M. Burke has a chat with the Coen brothers’ regular costume designer Mary Zophres. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Trish Summerville out, Kurt & Bart in for the third Hunger Games movie. Odd after Summerville being such a successful choice, but we get the feeling this is most intentional. Cash hungry producers have realised Katniss’ costume designers are…

Happy New Ye- oh we’ve done that already. Carry on. ‘How Hollywood is ruining a Billion Dollar Industry’ Amber Jane Butchart found this amazing article from 1938 and it is essential, and occasionally shocking, reading. Inside Llewyn Davis Video: Legendary costume designer Mary Zophres shares a few words about ‘uptown and downtown’ style. Ane Crabtree Contributor Kristin Koga talks to the costume designer about her career so far and their shared ethnicity. Cannot recommend this interview enough. Giorgio Armani GA chats to ES about his famous movie suits. Funnily enough he neglects to mention that Marilyn Vance-Straker had to re-tailor all his costumes for The Untouchables because they didn’t fit…

Happy New Year everyone! Life Without Zoe, The Canyons Two well researched and well written posts by Superqueen. This site is always worth a scoot around. 12 Years a Slave Costume Designer Patricia Norris is 82 years young. Cancel your retirement. The Most Iconic Costumes of all Time Marilyn’s dress in The Seven Year Itch? No, frankly. Ellen Mirojnick The Costume Cafe podcast with a lady we adore here at Clothes on Film. Inside Llewyn Davis Frocktalk reviews the extraordinary ‘sweaterville’ work of Mary Zophres for the Coens’ latest. Michael Wilkinson For Guise magazine, Joe Kucharski chats to Michael Wilkinson about digital illustration in costume design. Big Screen Style Moments…

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

Costume links of the week.

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

The colours and codes of the costume design in No Country for Old Men.

The glossy costume world of gangster squad is faithful to history, but not a slave to it.

Win an official Cowichan style cardigan as worn by Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski.

For those of you lucky enough to live in LA, literally racks of costumes have just on display at The FIDM Museum.

A snapshot look at the costume design work of Mary Zophres for True Grit. Well worth a watch.