Starring: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz Directed By: Matthew Vaughn Smartly structured to sell the same old superhero story in a fresh way, Kick-Ass (2010) is more your Unbreakable or Watchmen style comic book adaptation as opposed to Spiderman or even Chris Nolan’s Batman. It’s a satire with severed limbs. And the C-bomb. From an eleven year old girl. About an ordinary high schooler who one day decides to become a superhero for no real reason at all, Kick-Ass is a smooth as blend of cartoon violence and very real consequences. From wannabe hero Dave Lizewski’s (Aaron Johnson) first attempt at vigilantism resulting in his stabbed, battered body being…

An American Werewolf in London A screening at the Billy Wilder theater in Los Angeles on the 26th, with Deborah Nadoolman Landis in attendance to sign copies of her book ‘Hollywood Costume’ (we’re in that!). Shawna Trpcic It’s question time with Shawna Trpcic. What a fun idea! Halloween FrockTalk’s guide to looking suitably fab and/or disgusting. Thor: The Dark World Costume designer Wendy Partridge (another new set of hands for Thor) chats briefly about her work on the upcoming film. Rush Inspired by her friend Ellen Crawshaw working as a costume assistant on Rush, fashion historian and all round sartorial resource Amber Butchart analyses cars and Formula 1 style in…

Featuring exclusive insight from Sherlock Holmes costume designer Jenny Beavan, we commence our sartorial analysis of Guy Ritchie’s Victorian-set mystery adventure, and with not a deerstalker in sight. “Wear a jacket” barks Dr. Watson. “You wear a jacket!” retorts Sherlock Holmes. And he does. Watson sits down to dinner with Holmes and bride-to-be Mary Morstan wearing arguably the most unusual and interesting jacket in the entire film. It is dark blue with a stand collar and pleats across the chest. But more on that later. Sherlock Holmes (2009) is Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining, re-boot, re-whatever of Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned fictional detective. It’s greater fun than any of us dared hope…

The second installment (part one HERE) of our extensive interview with Austin Powers trilogy costume designer Deena Appel, this time focusing on The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999, again directed by Jay Roach). Things change up in The Spy Who Shagged Me, for in addition to costuming the modern and swinging sixties world of Austin Powers, his character also travels to 1969, i.e. the ‘hippie era’. The first film was a tremendous success and Appel’s contribution solidified her as the only person who could return to costume this fabulous, vibrant landscape. Speaking exclusively to Clothes on Film, and providing never before seen or published costume sketches from the movie, Deena…

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, he/she needs either a director with a key grasp of semiotics, or one that doesn’t care less about semiotics and offers a degree of autonomy. Watching About Time we presume that Richard Curtis…

Win a pair of tickets to see Madonna’s already controversial costume fest W.E. showing on 23rd October courtesy of lovely Jameson, ‘Official Spirit of the BFI London Film Festival’. W.E. (directed and co-scripted by Madonna) tells a parallel story of two women, Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) and Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) separated by sixty years of history. Wally is obsessed by the idea of Wallis’ perfect relationship with Edward (James D’Arcy). Subsequent to Edward’s abdication of the British throne, Wally considers this the greatest sacrifice for love in history. However, as Wally delves deeper into the past she discovers that their life together was not the fairytale romance she thought.…

Perhaps hardly surprising but it turns out Gucci are not that fussed at Ridley Scott making a film out of the most tumultuous period in their history after all. It was recently revealed that Scott had designs on Angelina Jolie to play the part of Patrizia Reggiani in his long gestating Gucci exposé (read HERE). Reggiani was married to Maurizio Gucci, grandson of the fashion giant’s founder Guccio Gucci. Following a spate of vicious in-fighting during the late 1970s-80’s, Reggiani had Maurizio murdered outside his Milan apartment in 1995. Variety is reporting that Reggiani blames Scott’s wife Giannina Facio for misleading the Gucci family into thinking his film would be…

By no means intended as an exhaustive list, Clothes on Film ponder an overview of 2011 in costume. Concentrating on mainstream fare that those outside of big cities are likely to have seen, we consider which costumes delighted, surprised and best of all, enlightened us. Expect to spot Drive, Melancholia and Hugo on this list somewhere. Costume encompasses every item of clothing worn on film. By strict definition costume is not ‘wardrobe’; wardrobe is what Oprah Winfrey wore on her talk show. While at Clothes on Film we embrace all forms of costume, we do have a slight bias for contemporary, although only because it is often underrepresented in the…

A film that embraces a decade many believe style forgot, Potiche (directed by François Ozon) is an enthusiastically 1977 set comedy starring Catherine Deneuve as Suzanne Pujol, so-called ‘trophy wife’ of the title. Suzanne considers herself less important than the clothes she wears. These along with copious make-up and hairspray are what Suzanne feels she needs to face the world. As static as a decorative vase (a ‘potiche’), she is there for display only. Imagine Deneuve’s icy Séverine in Belle de Jour retired from Paris and living in the countryside. Costume designer Pascaline Chavanne used a combination of deadstock and vintage fabrics for Suzanne’s various ensembles. The red tracksuit employed…

With the trailer for After Earth revealing an intriguing ‘life suit’ worn by Jaden Smith, we round up the best space suit related posts from our archive. Clothes on Film have an exclusive chat with Academy Award winning costume designer Janty Yates about her work on Prometheus. The subtle differentiation of character through costume design in Moon. Part 2 of our examination into how the Alien films have used costume design to contextualise primal terror. In the first of a two-part special, we examine how important costumes from the Alien films are in contextualising primal terror.