Clothes on Film really has nothing to say about this red band trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s retro thriller Drive. Except that we are desperate to get our eyes on Erin Benach’s costume design. The white quilted bomber jacket worn by Ryan Gosling’s ‘driver’ is intriguing enough, but what about the gloves? According to journalist and costume aficionado Guy Lodge, who has already seen Drive at Cannes, “It is really a film *about* gloves”. We’re fascinated already. Drive is released on 23rd September. Get behind us in the queue. © 2011 – 2014, Lord Christopher Laverty.

Costume’s big week. Every dress worn by Best Actress Academy Award Winners We featured this lovely infographic by Mediarun on our Facebook page. Roll on Sunday! Funny Face Good article on the classic film by Pamela Hutchinson, including a telling quote summing up just how little Audrey Hepburn really understood about costume design: “His (Givenchy) are the only clothes on which I am myself.” Bobi Garland Bobi Garland is Director of the Research Library and Costume Archive at Western Costume. You are about to find out why she is indispensible to the industry. Costume Designers Guild Awards Ladies and gentlemen, the winners. Toy Story An enthralling theory on the true…

The arrival of Scarface (1983, directed by Brian De Palma) on Blu-ray grants ideal opportunity to indulge the film’s exemplary costumes by Patricia Norris. In its bogus world of clashing colours and mix fabrics, drug lord Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is the model of gangster symbolism, while steely dame Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer) has become a pin-up for the disco couture era; both characters are as psychologically screwed up as each other. Tony arrives in Miami, Florida, 1980 as a refugee from Cuba. His Caribbean heritage and lack of cash is demonstrated by a fondness for loose fitting, short sleeve island shirts. These are so gaudy that during the infamous chainsaw…

Oscar winning costume designer Janty Yates has kindly taken time out filming Ridley Scott’s latest Robin Hood to chat about her contribution to an earlier Scott picture, Hannibal (2001). Hannibal’s forbear, classic chiller The Silence of the Lambs (1990), was directed by Jonathan Demme and costumed by Colleen Atwood. It relies on a dank, washed-out atmosphere that informs the narrative by very lack of its presence. Hannibal on the other hand was always intended as a glossier more conspicuous affair. This marked something of a change of pace for Janty Yates whose earlier credits included the austere Victorian fashions of Jude (1996) and Scott’s own sword and sandal epic Gladiator…

Establishing a new feature at Clothes on Film called Dual Analysis, the following review is written in collaboration with costume designer Kristin M. Burke (Death Sentence, Crossing Over); the intention being to provide a deeper, more balanced analysis of the film in question. For a detailed synopsis of the plot from Saturday Night Fever (1977), visit Kristin’s own site Frocktalk. Kristin’s Thoughts: I love this movie. It is so dark, and at the time it was released, taped into the zeitgeist of a large, young part of our population. In a post-hippie reality, with a culture embracing its own diversity at last, along comes a movie that talks about all…

With exclusive contributions from Le Divorce costume designer Carol Ramsey, Jill Burgess, creator of Everything Just So, analyses the film’s distinctive sartorial presence; specifically how a Hermès ‘Kelly’ bag can be elevated from status symbol to movie character. In the 2003 Merchant Ivory movie Le Divorce, based on the novel by Diane Johnson, Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson) travels from Santa Barbara to Paris to visit her pregnant sister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts), who is subsequently abandoned by her unfaithful husband Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud). Isabel becomes involved with an older married politician, Edgar Cosset (Thierry Lhermitte), uncle of Charles-Henri, thus further complicating matters in this comedy-drama of impeccable manners. During…

There has been an insane amount of discussion online about Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Claire Dearing, since the release of Jurassic World (2015, costume designed Daniel Orlandi), mostly concerning the ‘running in heels’ sequences. I felt it would be interesting to take a broader look at the costumes of the female leads in both the original Jurassic Park (1993, costume supervised by Sue Moore) and Jurassic World and contrast in the characters. Dr Ellie Sattler the Paleobotanist as played by Laura Dern in the original movie is a hugely underrated feminist action hero. She is allowed to be clever, brave, practical and physical yet display ‘feminine’ traits at the same…

Author Matt Zoller Seitz has published a continuation of his superb book The Wes Anderson Collection (2013), entitled (deep breath) The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel. The former is a detailed look at Anderson’s output so far, influences, meaning and interpretation of his work; the latter covers exclusively Anderson’s latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel. This is far more than a bolted on sequel, however, and one of the reasons we know this is because Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty was asked to contribute a chapter. More than that, it has recently joined The New York Times bestseller list. A pretty, candy-coloured slab of hardback, Seitz’s follow up…

Quentin Tarantino has directed films that feature some of the most iconic costumes of the last twenty years, e.g. Reservoir Dogs’ black suits (Betsy Heimann), Mia Wallace’s trouser suit (Heimann), the Kill Bill tracksuit (Kumiko Ogawa, Catherine Marie Thomas). Yet no Tarantino movie has ever won or even been nominated for a Costume Design Oscar; a travesty that may boil down to his stories often being contemporary, not period. World War II set Inglourious Basterds (Anna B. Sheppard) was an exception, but again, amazingly, not even a nomination. Django Unchained, costumed by Sharen Davis, might just buck this trend. It is period so immediately stands in good stead. Secondly, judging…

Playing computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace embodies the character in such a exhaustive way that picturing anyone else in the role was, until recently, impossible. Defined by copious piercings, a ragged biker leather jacket and skinny jeans, Lisbeth is a blatant symbol of unconformity. From author Stieg Larsson’s creation to costume designer Cilla Rörby’s interpretation for the screen, Lisbeth harks back to the mid-1970s; the early days of punk and a desire to skew superficial expectations. Lisbeth’s costume changes for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009, directed by Niels Arden Oplev) are faithful, certainly in spirit, to Larsson’s Millennium novels. The overall shock factor has been toned down…