The Costume Designers Guild Award nominations right some wrongs and ignore quite a few others. Wes Anderson’s most sartorially significant film yet. By no means intended as an exhaustive list, Clothes on Film ponder an overview of 2011 in costume.

Goldmember (2002, directed by Jay Roach), the final film (so far) in the Austin Powers series again shifts its timeline. However, rather than a negligible, though comparatively significant, jump from late to very late 1960s, here we dive into that most raucous of decades – the 1970s. And then back to 2002 (do keep up). For costume designer Deena Appel (pictured above, bottom left with Jay Roach) it was a wildly ambitious undertaking. Not to mention the film also features a well-known music and movie star, just about to launch into the stratosphere: Beyoncé. Speaking exclusively to Clothes on Film and closing out our epic in-depth look at the Austin……

Christmas comes early for anyone looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises (that’s all of us then); as Warner Bros. has released a full trailer telling us absolutely everything we need to know before the film hits cinemas next July, i.e. nothing. This is not quite true; the trailer is a good one. It tantalises without giving anything much away regarding plot that we do not already know. Gotham is on the eve of a revolution, hinted at by sultry Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), aka Catwoman, and seemingly instigated by the near silent menace of Bane (Tom Hardy). It is an uprising against the privileged and decadent, something that has…

When Clothes on Film visited The Muppets Most Wanted set back in March of 2013, we were given a tour of the bustling ‘wardrobe’ (their words) department, as overseen by costume designer Rahel Afiley. You can read more about that HERE, but after chasing Ms. Afiley around the room while she was trying to work, we managed to get a bit more out of her about using designer fashion, i.e. Vivienne Westwood, in the film. As always we are pushing the same old costume/fashion debate, though in this instance hearing from a costume designer on the front line is rather enlightening. Focusing specifically on Miss Piggy, for she is the……

Our thoughts on the costume design in the season 6 premiere of Mad Men. As account man Roger Sterling, John Slattery tended to wear a light grey three piece suit; right up until he donned a sharp double breasted for the first time.

MINOR SPOILERS At a pivotal juncture during the Fathers & Sons episode of Godless (2017), the camera tracks into a pink ribbon tied on the back of young woman’s hair; a woman who is suffering from the onset symptoms of smallpox and unlikely to find recovery. Later in the episode we pan across dozens of freshly dug but unnamed graves each with it’s own crucifix. We don’t see the woman again, but on one of the crucifixes is tied a pink ribbon. Such is the power of even the slightest costume and accessory details in Godless, the narrative is informed by their very presence. Costume designer for Godless was Betsy……

Just because it’s Friday, here are four glossy images from Tim Burton’s upcoming version of Alice in Wonderland. Beautiful costumes by Colleen Atwood.

Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs adopts the gangster codes of 1930s cinema in blaxploitation classic Black Caesar. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Black Caesar: Blaxploitation Gangster 25 Oct ’13 1 Jan ’10 9 Nov ’12 Costume designers need to create a look that is both fashionable and timeless. Not an easy task. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Winter Fashion Trends: Possibly Coming to a Screen Near You 26 Mar ’10 12 Mar ’10 6 Jun ’09

What a busy twelve months it’s been for costume design. Really though, this art, or craft, or business (Deborah Nadoolman Landis insists it is definitely a business) gets more talked about each year. 2013 was especially exciting however as it seemed every month something even more thrilling arrived to fawn over. In the last few weeks alone we have had The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Sleepy Hollow, and now American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street on the horizon. Dipping back further, it was Stoker that got us excited about subtext, The Great Gatsby that slammed the lid on that twenties revival once and for all, and Behind……

Betsy Heimann’s costume design for Reservoir Dogs (1992) spawned a legacy in pop culture and fashion that is still being felt today. Heimann and director Quentin Tarantino determined a cinematic sub-genre by redefining the appearance of the petty gangster. From shambolic to symbolic; a man in a black suit, white shirt and black tie walking in slow motion is possibly the single most memorable costume image of the nineties. Here talking exclusively to Clothes on Film, Ms. Heimann describes how the Reservoir Dogs look came together: “I am very pleased that the narrow silhouette I created influenced and still influences men’s fashion” she offers. “I think that Quentin is responsible…