The 1945 cinematic adaptation of Mildred Pierce, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring, of course, Joan Crawford, is a very different beast to the 2011 HBO mini-series starring Kate Winslet. In all honestly it is not as good, but more significantly it is very different in terms of costume. Interestingly enough the mini-series, which is evidently a period piece, is closer in terms of historical accuracy than the near contemporary set Crawford version. This is not the be all and end all, because while Winslet’s Pierce may feel more real in terms of costume and setting, Crawford’s is arguably more fun. If for no other reason than to exemplify how……

Twenty-five years ago, costume designer Margot Wilson was a student living in Paris when she picked up a roll of red, moire silk fabric during a shopping trip to Milan. She didn’t know why, or what for; she wasn’t even a costume designer then, just a talented young fashion grad from East Sydney Tech on a six-month scholarship to France. When it was time to go home, she took the beautiful roll of fabric back down under with her. Fast forward three decades and a couple of dozen films later (including Lantana, Bran Nue Dae and Lawless), and Wilson has finally found a screen role for her magnificent weave –……

Starring: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judy Parfitt Directed By: Taylor Hackford Dolores Claiborne (1995) is gripping and meticulously structured, its multiple subplots held together by yet another screen bursting performance from Kathy Bates. House maid Dolores’ (Kathy Bates) arrest for the apparent murder of her elderly, cankerous and wealthy employer Vera (Judy Parfitt) provides the premise, though the actual story branches off to incorporate several different subplots, principally one involving the return of Dolores’ estranged daughter, New York journalist Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) after fifteen years of absence, and the suggestion that her beleaguered mother may have already killed before. Shay Cunliffe’s costumes infuse the atmospheric cross-cutting of Taylor…

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……

Director Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim was always bound to be a detailed visual feast of FX, sets and costume design. Nonetheless the real main players in this film wear no costumes at all, the kaiju (Japanese for ‘strange beast’) and the tower-block sized Jaeger robots (German for ‘hunter’) built to defend Earth from their attacks. As such it fell to costume designer Kate Hawley, fresh from The Hobbit’s design team, to emphasise the humanity of Pacific Rim’s smaller-scale, flesh and blood characters. Hawley’s job was made extra difficult because most of these characters are involved in the military Pan Pacific Defence Corps, and yet we arrive (intro excluded) at…

James Bond is unlikely to ever again face a group of antagonists so interested in what they are wearing as those in Live and Let and Die (1973). Here freshman 007 Roger Moore faced off against a hotchpotch of hip, and some might say stereotypically racist, New York and Caribbean hoodlums. Yaphet Kotto as Mr. Big lead the fight with his anti-establishment, anti-fashion suits, while his gang reinvigorated the excesses of 1930s street style for a sartorially chaotic decade where elegance would take second billing to experimentation. Experimentation, though, is not necessarily a bad thing. The flared trousers, brightly coloured trilby hats, ginormous shirt collars, heavily lapelled leather coats and…

Watch the clip HERE A new clip of Toy Story 3 has hit the internet. It’s got Ken. It’s got Ken wearing jeans. It’s got Ken dancing. Make this ninety minutes and you already have a spin off. The clip is structured like a mock TV special ‘Groovin With Ken’, following the glossy one as he swans around his dream house. Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton) becomes increasingly exasperated with the off screen interviewer, especially his remark about the Ken doll box, “It doesn’t bother you that your name is eight times smaller than Barbie’s?”. “Ok, next question” mumbles Ken. Appropriately enough the best moments involve clothes mad Ken and…

Director Todd Phillips has spilled some proverbial beans on the sequel to his comedy smash The Hangover. He has not said much but he has said no Vegas. The Hangover was arguably this year’s funniest movie. It featured a motley group of guys who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and then wake up the following morning with no memory of the night before, no groom, and a baby in the closet. The result was 96 minutes of deftly played, silly fun that, it must be said, felt pretty wrapped up by the end. Still with so many varied characters and another potentially disastrous situation to thrust them…

A new trailer for Daniel Radcliffe’s Guns Akimbo has arrived and it’s hilarious. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Guns Akimbo Trailer Hits: Daniel Radcliffe is Deadly Cousin Eddie 27 Aug ’09 15 Apr ’13 5 Feb ’10 The biggest compliment that can be paid to Joanna Johnston’s costumes in Lincoln is that you will hardly notice them. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Review: Lincoln 15 Dec ’17 31 Jan ’20 12 Aug ’11

On the surface the Babadook is just another bogeyman: prickly, sinewy, all arched limbs and spiky digits. And this is the point: he is just another bogeyman; it is what he represents that really matters. Without spoiling too much, The Babadook is larger than life because he is the exaggerated physical manifestation of our demons. In this respect he could look like anyone – wherever our fears lead. Nonetheless for the purposes of dressing up as the Babadook for this Halloween, and having anyone actually guess who you are, the following is required: top hat, cape and some pointy things to stick on your fingers. To achieve maximum scare, however,……