Costume design comes in three main forms: visible (the 1950s, Dior inspired gowns in Anna Karenina for example), invisible (the impeccable yet subtle military uniforms in War Horse) and subtextual – those apparently commonplace costumes that actually possess a hidden meaning, a concept employed most effectively this year in horror satire The Cabin in the Woods. The film’s costume designer Shawna Trpcic created a subtle reversal for the main characters – five archetypes from horror movie folklore. Think of the teenage victims in Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th; they are all variations of the underwear flashing tramp, the bespectacled academic, the jock in his Varsity…

In light of Prada, Tiffany & Co., and Brooks Brothers, all producing Great Gatsby inspired lines and the much publicised drama between fashion and costume designers, we should consider the influence that costume has over fashion. The alliance between costume and fashion designers has been both beneficial and contentious. Fashion does have a much longer history than film costume design, but since the beginning of moving pictures, both industries have nurtured an intimate relationship. In the advent of cinema, fashion was placed centre stage in filmed fashion shows. These fashion shorts slowly evolved from runway shows via the introduction of a stories surrounding the garments (Bruzzi, 4). Early costume design…

Brigsby Bear tells the bizarre yet charming tale of a young man, James Pope (Kyle Mooney), who was kidnapped as a baby and subsequently released into the world many years later with no knowledge of it beyond a non-existent kids television show. The film evokes a nostalgic view of the 1980s and, while is contemporary set, gently embraces that period in terms of its aesthetic. Costume designer for Brigsby Bear, Sarah Mae Burton, experienced in both television and film, has created a familiar yet distinctive vibe that feels entirely believable. Here she talks exclusively to Clothes on Film about her process: Clothes on Film: James Pope’s world for twenty five…

Stylelist.com are running this exclusive interview with Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant as she hints at what costumes to expect in season four. It is largely a puff piece; light on details, but still a fascinating glance at how Bryant’s busy sixties-shaped mind works. Following John Dunn’s defining work for the pilot back in 2007; Janie Bryant’s costumes on Mad Men have sparked a high street revival of late 1950s-60’s era fashion for both sexes. Apparently there is even a Don ‘Draper grey’ suit on the market now, not to mention the upsurge in short, stretchy wiggle dresses à la Joan Holloway. With season four of this justifiably popular…

Check out the trailer HERE A thumping good trailer for Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere and Don Cheadle has hit town. Write this off as ’just another cop drama’ at your peril. Straightaway there are overtones of influential nineties crime thriller New Jack City (1990) with branded sportswear, expensive loose fit shirts, 1920s-30’s style hats and heavy bling. Plus note how leather is used to signify the dark side of human nature. Don Cheadle, playing a cop who has been undercover too long and journeyed too deep, in an omnipresent leather flat cap; also when Ethan Hawke’s financially burdened officer ‘goes bad’ he dons a black leather blazer. This sort…

As we’ve just posted our essay about Meryl Streep’s Burberry trench coat in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), it seems fitting we have a round up of the best coat related posts in the Clothes on Film archive. This is coats purely as outerwear too. So, even though lounge suit jackets are traditionally referred to as coats, here they stay as jackets. Likewise Victorian frock coats; that is a round up for another day. Click the image to read the article. The plush fur-trimmed coat worn by Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins in 1920/30s set The Changeling (2008). Jolie referred to her costumes as “dolls’ clothes”, which is more costume designer…

Cool, coordinated, just a little loud; this is the timeless appeal of Jack Carter’s 3 piece suit. In portraying cinema’s ultimate anti-hero, Michael Caine wears his costume like a second skin. Get Carter was shot mainly on location in Newcastle for just £750,000. By no means a tremendous success on its release (in the U.S. Get Carter was a double feature with a Frank Sinatra movie), it has since acquired cult status and is now widely recognised as one of the greatest British films ever made. Much has been written about the ‘style’ of Carter; photo shoots of models in trench coats carrying shotguns, etc, yet there has been little…

MILD SPOILERS Director Ben Wheatley’s latest, Free Fire, is set in Boston, 1978, but was actually shot in Brighton in 2015. Being as the plot revolves around ten characters involved in a one hour plus shoot-out inside a disused factory, from a sartorial point of view things get rather grubby. The film’s BAFTA nominated costume designer Emma Fryer has already worked with Wheatley on The ABCs of Death (2012) and A Field in England (2013) so is used to the way his stories tend to go bananas in the final reel. Free Fire unfolds practically in real time, which amps up the tension but allows for no mistake with costume.…

Clothes on Film were recently invited to talk about the costume for HBO’s immense fantasy series Game of Thrones. The following video is a kind of Sky Atlantic ‘Thronecast’ vs HBO Sessions mash up. Our segment is four minutes in, but if you are a fan of the show (and who isn’t?) the whole thing is worth watching. Look out too for Sessions’ regulars Georgie Hobbs and Ben Boyer discussing everything from poltics to wolf puppies and rumpy. Obviously we could have waxed lyrical about Michele Clapton’s frantically detailed costume design for far longer but the clock was ticking. What is most exciting about Clapton’s work is how creates a…

The Levi jacket worn by Ken Takakura as Ken Tanaka in Japan set thriller The Yakuza (1974, costume design by Dorothy Jeakins) is not Japanese denim. It was not made in Japan but is nonetheless representative of a time when denim as symbol of burgeoning Americana in the East would take off into the stratosphere, and has remained so ever since. Although Levi products were imported into Japan before the 1970s (Levi International was created in 1965), it was not until mid-decade that a Tokyo office was established. This was in response to growing popularity of all things American in Japan, especially denim and especially Levi. There was no single…