MILD SPOILERS Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) is far and away the most ‘A New Hope-like’ film in the series yet. In terms of tone, sure, but particularly costume. What costume designers Glyn Dillon and David Crossman have so expertly achieved with Solo is making a contemporary looking movie set during the late 1960s. Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977 which puts Solo’s timeline around a decade before, or likely just over. But hang on, isn’t this a science fiction movie? What does when it’s made have to do with the space opera world being brought to life on screen? Well the seventies in particular was……

So much has been written about H.R. Giger’s justly-renowned xenomorph design that the human costume design in the Alien movies goes largely unnoticed, argues film critic Simon Kinnear. In the first of a two-part special, we revisit the saga on Blu-ray to look at just how important these costumes are in contextualising primal terror. Traditionally, costume designers in science-fiction movies depicted the future as being utilitarian, uniform and very clinical: think of Forbidden Planet (1956) or 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for good examples of the space-faring look. The early 1970s saw a slight sea-change when Dark Star (1974), the John Carpenter film scripted by future Alien creator Dan O’Bannon,…

This year, Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty is honoured to be joining the ‘Game of Queens’ crew as a guest for pre-Academy Awards chat about the Best Costume Design nominees, followed by some gleefully bitchy takedowns of the red carpet fashions – LIVE! Game of Queens is comprised of Heidi, aka Costume Co on the Twitters, expert costume analysis YouTuber. Alongside Tatiana Melendez, currently preparing for a Masters in Musical Theatre and Aaron Le Fay, a costume designer, fashion lover and cosplayer – and for this 92nd Academy Awards broadcast, Christopher Laverty, who talks a lot of nonsense but occasionally gets away with it because of the British accent.…

La Dolce Vita (directed by Federico Fellini) was released in 1960. It has been described as a groundbreaking film, capturing a time of reconstruction and economic growth in Italy, linked to the end of Fascism and the destruction caused by the Second World War. Despite the availability of colour stock, La Dolce Vita was shot in black and white. The use of monochrome appears to emphasise the diametric oppositions between the old rural way of life and the new modernising Italy. La Dolce Vita looked firmly forward to the future, introducing an international audience not only to sleek and sophisticated Italian fashions but also a profession of which we are…

Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs adopts the gangster codes of 1930s cinema in blaxploitation classic Black Caesar. One of the seventies’ more successful attempts to modernise fashions of the past. 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: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway MAJOR SPOILERS THROUGHOUT Typical of director Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises has the initial hit of satisfaction followed by the faintest of doubts that something was missing. Exciting, audacious, thematically rich, and yet somehow lacking that extra layer of greatness. Of course with further consideration, even a re-watch (Nolan is a studio’s dream), such concerns prove unfounded. Nolan is a master magician; look closer, it is all there. The Dark Knight may rise but for his alter-ego redemption must come at the ultimate price. His faithful butler and surrogate parent Alfred knew it, his lost love Rachel Dawes…

SPOILERS Ahead of a detailed interview with Star Wars: The Force Awakens costume designer Michael Kaplan (currently hard at work on Episode VIII), we take a brief look at his undeniable achievement in bringing the 1970s – early 80’s back to life right here in the present. How do you make the now look old when paradoxically it is supposed to be the new? Well, you go simple. We say simple, but we mean ‘back to basics’. This is not the prequels; The Force Awakens takes place thirty years after the Rebellion defeated the Empire. Now both sides are in state of rebuilding so there is little call for Padmae’s…

Featuring couture as cool and disaffecting its protagonist, Belle de Jour (1967, directed by Luis Buñuel) has much to say through its ambiguous antiplot narrative and can be read effectively through costume. Catherine Deneuve plays Séverine, a bourgeois housewife unable to commit sexually to her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel). Instead she fulfils her sadomasochistic fantasies by becoming prostitute ‘Belle de jour’ at an intimately run brothel. Every afternoon between two and five Séverine services clients of various persuasions as her eyes are gradually opened to the possibility of sexual satisfaction. Yet the deeper she digs the more her bourgeois existence is threatened. Eventually Séverine quits the brothel and returns to…

The leggy lure of Bombshell. Kurt and Bart are fascinating. Forged as art school drop outs in 1980s New York, their name is now a singular brand to movers and shakers in the media industry. Yet they are two people, two very real people: Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller, renowned costume designers and wardrobe stylists for film, stage, TV and commercials. Since the early 2000s, Kurt and Bart have really stepped up their work costume designing film (forgive the pun but they actually did costume Step Up 3D), although runaway hit Stoker is arguably their highest profile feature yet. In fact Stoker is the most beguiling film of 2013 so…

MINOR SPOILERS Okja (2017) is the second film that costume designer Catherine George has worked on with director Bong Joon-ho. Their first together, Snowpiercer (2013), despite being lauded by critics (and featuring Chris Evans), only received a limited theatrcial run in the U.S. and no release at all in the UK. Unlike Okja, Snowpiercer is an out and out sci-fi fantasy set when most of the world’s population have been wiped out and those who remain live on perpetually moving train. Okja is still a fantasy, it revolves around a little girl Mija (An Seo Hyun) trying to save her giant ‘super pig’ from being harvested as GM bacon, but…