Mark Strong as Hani Salaam is sole sartorial encouragement in Body of Lies (2008), a movie choc full of (intentionally) awful clothes. With headliners Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe dressed inconspicuously as possible, DiCaprio in tracksuit bottoms and untucked shirts and Crowe entirely in Target, Strong’s razor-sharp Jordanian intelligence chief is granted ample opportunity to shine. HANI SALAAM (as CIA man ROGER FARIS grabs him by the arm) Please, let go of the jacket. Damn right. Mark Strong’s wardrobe was outfitted by Huntsman of Savile Row. Body of Lies costume designer Janty Yates did not have time to have his suits tailored, so hoped instead to find something off the…

The latest book by fashion historian, and now TV presenter Amber Butchart (A Stitch in Time on BBC 4 – second season please), is a comprehensively researched stroll through the best dressed folk ever to exist on the planet. The Fashion Chronicles: The Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed is laid out to be effortlessly readable, split into sections ranging from Ancient (and we mean ancient; basically like the first clothes ever) to 20th and 21st Century. Each entry gets a couple of pages of engaging historical notes and background justifying their inclusion along with a photo / picture or two. It works; it doesn’t feel like study or revision,……

Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs adopts the gangster codes of 1930s cinema in blaxploitation classic Black Caesar. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Black Caesar: Blaxploitation Gangster 24 Jun ’11 25 Sep ’15 29 Aug ’13

A ferocious work from a filmmaker at the height of his game, Black Swan is an incredibly satisfying piece of cinema. Clothes on Film chatted with Darren Aronofsky about the challenges of portraying perfection in Black Swan, method acting and The Wolverine.

Clothes on Film chatted with Darren Aronofsky about the challenges of portraying perfection in Black Swan, method acting and The Wolverine.

Examining the shirt collars of all the gentleman in 1941 noir classic, The Maltese Falcon. 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…

Ben Affleck’s pseudo-cowboy costume in Argo harks back to the golden age of the sports jacket. Editor Chris Laverty explains how to ‘read’ costume on film. From an article originally published in Moviescope magazine. The 83rd Academy Award nominations were not especially surprising, but for Best Costume Design category there were a couple of major upsets. The Costume Designers Guild (CDG) has served up their nominations for this year.

Costume designer Michael Kaplan took time away from Star Trek 2 to chat exclusively to Clothes on Film about Ghost Protocol. Lord Christopher Laverty 32 Comments 12 Oct ’18 19 Jun ’15 27 Feb ’12 Enjoyably daft fare with enough fast cars and desirable clobber to keep you cooing until the credits. Lord Christopher Laverty 10 Comments 14 Jun ’10 25 Oct ’13 16 Oct ’12

Looking so sexily brilliant that the finished film can be nothing but a huge disappointment (kidding), this first teaser trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ticks all the right seventies period costume boxes. UPDATE (4TH AUG): And now we have a full trailer… To watch this video, you need the latest Flash-Player and active javascript in your browser. Set in what looks to be around the mid-late decade, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (directed by Tomas Alfredson) is a feature update of John le Carré’s novel about a ‘mole hunt’ within Mi6. Having already been filmed as a really quite creepy TV series in 1979 starring Alec Guinness as spy master…

So what’s been happening this week then? Blue Jasmine ‘In costuming the past we lose the present.’ Wonder Woman Michael Wilkinson has basically said nothing about Wonder Woman’s outfit, yet we’re still hanging on his every word. Mad Men Jessica Paré chats about the show’s costumes and her own ‘French with a rock edge’ style. Dallas Costume designer Rachel Sage talks about her work on the TNT reboot. The Oscars Catherine Martin wins and wins BIG. Kudos. Red carpet fashion Tyranny of Style casts his educated gaze over the winners and losers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D More Tyranny of Style, this time revisiting Ann Foley’s stylish contribution to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D……