Costume designer Ann Roth’s template for Working Girl (1988, directed by Mike Nichols) is especially astute with regards to the social and geographical make up of its characters. Protagonist Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a homely girl raised and living in Staten Island, New York. Currently working as a secretary in Manhattan (not ‘executive assistant’, reflecting vernacular of the time), as is her best friend Cynthia (Joan Cusack). Tess, however, has gained a degree through night school and harbours ambitions to use it for more constructive tasks than answering the telephone and fetching toilet paper for bawdy stockbrokers. After being set up for a ‘date’ that turned out to be……

Contributor Birdie McAra explores the fantabulously non-male gazey world of Birds of Prey. The leggy lure of Bombshell. A brief video dip into the costume design of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. SPOILERS Despite all the hoo-ha over films such as Blue Jasmine and Stoker contemporary is still pretty much overlooked as a form of costume design. If it’s invisible, well, nobody notices it, and if it’s designer it becomes all about ‘the fashion’ (OMG TOTES WANT THOSE SHOES). We are currently in an age when costume design means period and sci-fi. It comes to the extent that if a costumer wants to tell a story through contemporary attire,…

The arrival of Scarface on Blu-ray grants ideal opportunity to indulge in Patricia Norris’ exemplary, disco couture costumes. Boardwalk Empire heralds the return of the dandy man.

Beach pyjamas, or sailor pants, of the 1920s owe their popularity to Coco Chanel and her appropriation of the wide-legged trousers as a functional addition to the female wardrobe. Chanel hit upon the idea of pants for women while visiting Venice during the early part of the decade; she felt they were the only practical way to properly climb in and out of a Gondola. In The Cats Meow (2001), a rather humdrum murder drama set in twenties Hollywood, Kirsten Dunst plays bright young thing Marion Davies. It’s appropriate that the first time we see her character she is aboard the yacht where ninety percent of the movie occurs (and…

Our first Dual Analysis with Costumer’s Guide. To kick off, here is what Chris from Clothes on Film had to say. Final part of our analysis of Sherlock Holmes complete with insight from costume designer Jenny Beavan. With insight from costume designer Jenny Beavan, we commence our sartorial analysis of Sherlock Holmes.

Author Caroline Young has just released a fascinating new book entitled Hitchcock’s Heroines (published by Insight Editions). It celebrates and studies the women in Hitchcock movies; their influence, semblance and iconography. What’s more, Young also examines the role costume design plays with these women, both the characters and the actresses who played them, and how they can be interpreted as far more than just ‘icy blondes’. Here we have an extract of the book exclusively for Clothes on Film: Kim Novak’s grey suit the colour of San Francisco fog in Vertigo, Grace Kelly as the too-perfect woman in Rear Window, and Janet Leigh’s black and white sets of underwear to……

A hint at what costume designer Janie Bryant has in store for Mad Men season four. A straightforward loosely tied scarf around the handbag and Joan is the most stylish woman in the office. As office vamp Joan Holloway, Christina Hendricks gets the lion’s share of groovy outfits on 1960s set TV drama Mad Men.

Near silent and shot entirely in black and white, The Artist is a captivating and irresistibly romantic vision of old Hollywood. With international and hopefully Oscar success on the horizon, we talk exclusively to the film’s supremely talented costume designer, Mark Bridges. Seemingly specialising, though perhaps not intentionally, in bringing to life period stories that are culturally defined by their era (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood), Bridges has again expertly recreated another, almost mythical bygone world. Here he explains to Clothes on Film his thought process behind costume design in The Artist, his passion for the silent era and how he managed to get every outfit ready to shoot…

Filmmaker Nic Fforde discusses how he come to realise the importance of costume design in his projects. Stories in films are all familiar to us in some way, no matter how remote the setting. The hell that unfolds aboard the Nostromo in Alien, LA’s icy criminal underworld in Heat or Rope’s Ivy League dinner party – a good story well told will whisk you away to its own self–contained world. All the tools of filmmaking are there to help create these worlds. What part does costume play in all this? My day job is to make films for advertising. We work on low budgets with small documentary crews. Whatever our…

Matt Spaiser analyses the suits of George Lazenby’s James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and draws an interesting comparison with Daniel Craig in Skyfall. James Bond fans know George Lazenby as the man who played Bond in one of the best films of the series, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Before Bond, Lazenby was a car salesman, a mechanic and a model. Except for in a few commercials, he was not an actor. Despite his limited acting experience, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was still an excellent film due to its great story, capable director and talented cast. From his modelling days, Lazenby knew how to wear clothes…