Part two of our chat with costume designer for Running Scared (2006), Kristin M. Burke. If you thought part one was interesting, this will blow your socks off. Chris, Clothes on Film: Regarding the ‘beefy dudes’ in Running Scared that you mentioned, they did all look massive on screen; it was like their clothes made them intimidating, especially ‘Mac Daddy’ pimp Lester (David Warshofsky). He is clearly dressed OTT and this suits his character and the tone of the film perfectly. How much do you know about the intended tone of a film when you start on the costumes? Kristin Burke: Man, that Lester the Pimp story is epic. I…

On the surface it may be obvious who undergoes the biggest character transformation in Rocky (the clue is in the title). Though really the subtlest arc occurs for that painfully shy girl from the pet store played with such empathy by Talia Shire. She may start out wearing chunky cardigans and your Nan’s glasses, but by the end of the story “Yo, Adrian” could not look more feminine. Put together by costumer Robert Cambel (who only has one further credit on his CV), Shire’s outfits reflect a convincing shift in deep character from Adrian’s opening scene when she is too afraid to talk, progressing to confident yet homely rock for…

Clothes on Film were fortunate enough to be invited to a display of costumes from the latest adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express (2017), plus interview its costume designer Alexandra Byrne. An Oscar winner for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2008), and well known for her period design work, since 2011 Byrne has become connected to the world of Marvel, her most recent project being Doctor Strange in 2016. Here she chats candidly about recreating the (mainly) glamorous side of the early 1930s and the challenges that faced her and her team. Alexandra Byrne on shooting in 70 mm: “Director Ken (Branagh) and I did Hamlet (1996) together which was……

There are already a lot of excellent interviews with Oscar winning Beauty and the Beast costume designer Jacqueline Durran online, so with our limited communication we wanted to ask a little more about Belle’s (Emma Watson) day-to-day ensemble and the creation of Gaston’s attire (Luke Evans), arguably the closest character to his 1991 animated counterpart. Ms. Durran, currently hard at work on a new project, was kind enough to provide a few brief responses: Clothes on Film: How did you go about creating costumes for a computer generated Beast? Jacqueline Durran: When I first started prep on the movie the Beast was going to be a prosthetic beast. Had this…

Director Bryan Singer has tweeted a revealing photograph of James McAvoy in costume as Charles Xavier on set of X-Men: Days of Future Past. UPDATE (13/05/13): And now he has added another pic, this time of Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Days of Future Past is based on an Uncanny X-Men story published in 1981; part of the story takes place during 1973, part in the future as the original X-Men cast zip through time to stop the world being attacked by mutant sentinels. Xavier seems to be nursing a hippie hangover in this photo, somewhat reminiscent of a scruffier John Tavolta in Saturday Night…

In the very opening scene of Rocky (1976, costume designer Robert Cambel), we see the title character in the ring, bare chested, hands encased in boxing gloves, the picture of sporting violence and masculinity. But this is no more than a surface assumption. Not two minutes later, we see Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) shrug on his faded brown towelling dressing gown, with “The Italian Stallion” embroidered on the back, and things start to shift. This is not a macho film concerned with the fight alone, but an exploration of masculinity in all its guises – the assumptions, the pretence and the reality. Clothes play an important part in this, both…

This is a personal post about designing my custom made James Bond shirt. It is not an advertorial and wasn’t paid for. All photographs are of the final finished shirt(s) and taken by David Wade of Vogue Shot photography. There are now ample custom shirt makers online, but as a pre-existing customer of Deo Veritas what made this company stand out for me was a steadfast, almost stubborn desire to get everything ‘just so’. Seemingly no query or request is too much trouble. Bearing this in mind I tasked Deo Veritas with recreating a shirt I have always sought yet been unable to find off the peg or in my…

There are already a lot of excellent interviews with Oscar winning Beauty and the Beast costume designer Jacqueline Durran online, so with our limited communication we wanted to ask a little more about Belle’s (Emma Watson) day-to-day ensemble and the creation of Gaston’s attire (Luke Evans), arguably the closest character to his 1991 animated counterpart. Ms. Durran, currently hard at work on a new project, was kind enough to provide a few brief responses: Clothes on Film: How did you go about creating costumes for a computer generated Beast? Jacqueline Durran: When I first started prep on the movie the Beast was going to be a prosthetic beast. Had this…

In honour of The Times’ film critic Kevin Maher’s list of iconic movie rebels, we take a look at what it truly takes to make a tough guy in cinema. What constitutes a tough guy, as in ‘man’, on film is usually a traditional interpretation of masculinity. There is always room for the sensitive hero in a sweater and slacks, but for those who watch movies as ingrained wish fulfilment, the sexy and sweaty man’s man needs suitable attire to reflect his personality. But it is not just about the garments themselves. A jacket is a jacket, but a leather jacket is a symbol. A wax jacket on the other…

After Earth is Amy Westcott’s first attempt at a sci-fi feature. Her M.O tends to be contemporary costume, such as The Wrestler (2008) and award winning work on Black Swan (2010). But even then she seeks out subtext amongst typical genre interpretation. Black Swan for example is a psychological horror whereby costume reflects the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind so actually becomes part of the narrative. After Earth is similar in this respect because the film’s primary ensemble, the ‘life suit’ worn by Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) is synthetic in construction yet organically synched with the human body. Without his suit, Kitai could not survive Earth’s hazardous environment; his…