Actually that title is a tad misleading – it’s all the clothes worn by Lee Marvin as kick-ass-tough-guy-on-a-mission Walker in Point Blank. This is the second video in a new Clothes on Film feature breaking down costume design in sartorially interesting (or just way cool) movies and, in some cases, television.  Costumed by Margo Weintz, Point Blank is stone-cold neo-noir thriller, one of the best of its kind, focusing on Marvin’s Walker and his score settling against those who double crossed and left him for dead on an abandoned Alcatraz island. The film is known for its sharp suits, which are all covered in the video, but also for some…

Sons of Anarchy portrays the fictionalised world of an outlaw motorcycle club; although the plots are dramatic in the extreme, many of the details are firmly based in realism, including the costuming. Series creator Kurt Sutter has described it as pure soap opera, but this family drama has earned the tag of “Hamlet on Motorcycles”. It has been embraced by pop culture and by the biker community, and spurred an upsurge in sales of Harley Davidsons (and a $25k SOA branded bike). Motorcycle club culture took off after WW2, when returning veterans with experience of riding bikes on service, and often undiagnosed post-traumatic stress, took to the lifestyle looking for…

Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin Directed by: Edgar Wright There is a current trend for reviewers to place a much hyped new movie into one of two categories: masterpiece or rubbish. Proportionality seems to have disappeared. You must love a film or hate it. Middle ground is for wimps. So forgive this particular reviewer in taking precisely that stance, for while Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is imaginative and breathless; it is also frustrating and derivative. In other words it is good, not great. What frequently saves this film from drowning its audience in a wave of cool-speak and random segues (Seinfeld reference? In 2010?), is hero…

MINOR SPOILERS There are already lots of good interviews with Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) costume designer Michael Kaplan on the internet (we recommend this one in particular), so for Clothes on Film we kept it brief and fresh. We caught up with Kaplan, who is also responsible for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Trek (2009), Fight Club (1999) and Blade Runner (1982), for a little chat about what’s new for episode 8 of the ever evolving space saga. Clothes on Film: Let’s kick off by asking you about the best new costume in the film, the Elite Praetorian Guard… Michael Kaplan: They are my favourite costumes…

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.

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.

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.

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.

Directed By: Anh Hung Tran Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara Norwegian Wood is beautiful and affecting, even if it does nearly collapse under the weight of its own earnestness at times. This is a vintage costume fest from the outset. The location is late 1960s Tokyo with fashion largely influenced by Western pop culture. The story is centred on adolescent relationship issues, a sort of love triangle consequent to the irreversible pain of loss. Virtually all of the characters are in their late teens-early twenties. Their clothes are a mix of hip-hugger pants, white Levis, pointed collar shirts, long line and short pleated skirts, sleeveless hostess dresses and…

The final outfit for analysis from To Catch a Thief (1954, directed by Alfred Hitchcock) encompasses and challenges the absolute femininity of Grace Kelly, here playing wilful blueblood Frances Stevens. After suffering an embarrassing verbal defeat by mademoiselle Danielle Foussard (Brigitte Auber), in simply donning a coral pink top and pleated skirt with driving gloves, Frances is back in control. This particular ensemble, or rather the skirt, was a request by Grace to the film’s costume designer Edith Head. Keen at this point in the story to restore what she saw as a more ‘womanly’ inference to Frances, trousers, or even Capri pants, were not considered enough. Yet this is…