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,……

The costume style evolution of Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone (1984). Alongside costume illustrations with fabric swatch, Ellen Mirojnick explains the stage wear worn by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick brings Liberace back to life on stage and off. There more going on with this outfit than an absence of underwear. Clothes on Film has four Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps goodie bags to give away. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick talks exclusively to Clothes on Film about the look of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Want to know exactly what a costume designer does? Let Ellen Mirojnick explain it to you. Welcome to the full…

In honour of the The Wolverine and his black on black Yakuza uniform, a round up of posts featuring memorable black costumes at Clothes on Film. Clothes on Film chatted with Darren Aronofsky about the challenges of portraying perfection in Black Swan, method acting and The Wolverine.

MINOR SPOILERS Like any film with an extended period of time between the original and sequel(s), T2: Trainspotting (2017) is required to form an immediate connection with its audience. Twenty years have passed, yet we must feel accustomed to this world. For every element of change, something else must remain the same. We take comfort in what we know; it allows us to enjoy the new without fear of the unknown. If T2 had been released a couple of years after Trainspotting (1996), it could potentially have been set in Benidorm. Transplanting our anti-heroes from Scotland to Spain is fine when they are fresh in our conscious mind, but twenty……

Hit-Girl owns this film like she would own your ass if you ever stepped to her. Lord Christopher Laverty 7 Comments 5 Aug ’10 30 May ’10 25 Mar ’10

MILD SPOILERS Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) is far and away the most ‘A New Hope-like’ film in the series yet. In terms of tone, sure, but particularly costume. What costume designers Glyn Dillon and David Crossman have so expertly achieved with Solo is making a contemporary looking movie set during the late 1960s. Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977 which puts Solo’s timeline around a decade before, or likely just over. But hang on, isn’t this a science fiction movie? What does when it’s made have to do with the space opera world being brought to life on screen? Well the seventies in particular was……

So much has been written about H.R. Giger’s justly-renowned xenomorph design that the human costume design in the Alien movies goes largely unnoticed, argues film critic Simon Kinnear. In the first of a two-part special, we revisit the saga on Blu-ray to look at just how important these costumes are in contextualising primal terror. Traditionally, costume designers in science-fiction movies depicted the future as being utilitarian, uniform and very clinical: think of Forbidden Planet (1956) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for good examples of the space-faring look. The early 1970s saw a slight sea-change when Dark Star (1974), the John Carpenter film scripted by future Alien creator Dan O’Bannon,…

This year, Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty is honoured to be joining the ‘Game of Queens’ crew as a guest for pre-Academy Awards chat about the Best Costume Design nominees, followed by some gleefully bitchy takedowns of the red carpet fashions – LIVE! Game of Queens is comprised of Heidi, aka Costume Co on the Twitters, expert costume analysis YouTuber. Alongside Tatiana Melendez, currently preparing for a Masters in Musical Theatre and Aaron Le Fay, a costume designer, fashion lover and cosplayer – and for this 92nd Academy Awards broadcast, Christopher Laverty, who talks a lot of nonsense but occasionally gets away with it because of the British accent.…

La Dolce Vita (directed by Federico Fellini) was released in 1960. It has been described as a groundbreaking film, capturing a time of reconstruction and economic growth in Italy, linked to the end of Fascism and the destruction caused by the Second World War. Despite the availability of colour stock, La Dolce Vita was shot in black and white. The use of monochrome appears to emphasise the diametric oppositions between the old rural way of life and the new modernising Italy. La Dolce Vita looked firmly forward to the future, introducing an international audience not only to sleek and sophisticated Italian fashions but also a profession of which we are…

Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs adopts the gangster codes of 1930s cinema in blaxploitation classic Black Caesar. One of the seventies’ more successful attempts to modernise fashions of the past. Part two of our chat with costume designer for Running Scared, Kristin M. Burke. If you thought part one was interesting, this will blow your socks off. Costume designer for Running Scared, Kristin M. Burke, has kindly chatted to us about her contribution to the movie.