Michael Kaplan | Clothes on Film

Netflix have released a short featurette about costume design for The Alienist, giving an overall glimpse at the work of Michael Kaplan and his team in putting together the era of 1896, New York. What is enticing about The Alienist, apart from the fact that it’s brilliant whodunit telly, is that it is set outside of England, which is so often the preserve of dramas such as these. This is NY style at a point in history when those with money were about to get a whole lot more. Expensive, in other words, and if you had deep enough pockets your taste in fashion would echo this. Check out the…

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.…

SPOILERS Ahead of a detailed interview with Star Wars: The Force Awakens costume designer Michael Kaplan (currently hard at work on Episode VIII), we take a brief look at his undeniable achievement in bringing the 1970s – early 80’s back to life right here in the present. How do you make the now look old when paradoxically it is supposed to be the new? Well, you go simple. We say simple, but we mean ‘back to basics’. This is not the prequels; The Force Awakens takes place thirty years after the Rebellion defeated the Empire. Now both sides are in state of rebuilding so there is little call for Padmae’s…

There is little point in Clothes on Film delving too deeply into the first trailer for director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens, mainly because it is just so much speculation at the moment, which of course is part of the fun, but also because there are far smarter (or more interested) minds on the Internet who will do a better job. That said how can you watch that trailer and not have an opinion? So here are ours, and with no contribution whatsoever from Star Wars VII costume designer Michael Kaplan. If he told us anything at this stage he would be thrown in the Sarlacc pit…

He is the whitest of the white trash, the kind of man who dumps raw sewage in a storm drain and kidnaps your boss as a Christmas present. And the only man to ever combine a leather belt with a bathrobe. Randy Quaid has played lovable moocher ‘Cousin Eddie’ in four separate National Lampoon films, but his most famous performance still resides at yuletide. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, directed by Jeremiah C. Chechik) has weathered years of apathy to become something of a seasonal favourite. Watching Chevy Chase’s bipolar family man Clark Griswold lose his rag every December is now a festive tradition . Yet Clark is not really…

When you are costuming the biggest franchise release of the year and creating a capsule range to run alongside it for a major online retailer, it is clear a normal approach to the task is not going to work. Ex-stylist and one time assistant for Michael Kaplan, Trish Summerville, one of the fastest rising names in the industry, has purposely sought out what many costume designers shy away from: co-collaborations with new and established fashion designers and, in several cases, pulling clothes directly from the runway. Summerville is smart and savvy with a feel for contemporary trends, though by not designing and making key items for The Hunger Games: Catching…

The week’s costume stories and links.

This week’s other costume design stories and links.

Michael Kaplan gives Clothes on Film the lowdown on his Star Trek Into Darkness costumes.

Spoiler warning: The costume clues and details of Star Trek Into Darkness.

Costume designer Michael Kaplan reminisces with Clothes on Film about creating dark tourist Marla Singer in Fight Club.