A rose tinted view of the Roaring Twenties, Sonia Grande’s costume design for Midnight in Paris (2011, directed by Woody Allen) offers everything we expect of the era, e.g. achingly fashionable female trends and the increasing Anglophile influence in male suits, yet does not become bogged down in a precise timeframe. Furthermore as the story segues from past to the present, a non specific retro vibe remains palpable, especially in Rachel McAdams’ loose fitting shirt dresses and Owen Wilson’s nubby tweed jackets. Wilson’s Gil is obviously intended to resemble Woody Allen during his late 1970s heyday, wearing natural waist trousers with brown leather belt, casual shirts and either two or…

If there’s one thing that doesn’t mean much in World War Z, it’s looking presentable. This is costume at its worst, so to speak. Clothes that have been thrown through panes of glass or off the top of buildings, torn, stained and saturated with blood. This is the art of breaking down. Breaking down, distressing, aging, these basically achieve the same result – they make clothes seem more believably lived in, or in the case of World War Z’s zombie hoards, believably dead in. Clothes in movies are broken down by many tried and tested methods. Professional ‘agers’ chisel with files and sandpaper, unpick seams, wash over and over, even…

We chat to costume designer Caroline Eselin-Schaefer about her work on terrific new Amazon comedy, Troop Zero.

Not long now and Oliver Stone’s follow-up to his 1987 smash hit will be on our screens. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps arrives in UK cinemas on 6th October. To celebrate we have four goodie bags to give away. In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Michael Douglas returns in his Oscar winning role as Gordon Gekko, disgraced former titan of the financial world. Emerging from a lengthy stint in prison, he must learn to adjust to a new era of corporate greed where the stakes are higher than ever before. Gekko, however, has not lost his touch. As idealistic young banker Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) discovers, Wall Street is about to…

Gwyneth Paltrow is an external rather than internal actress, meaning she has a sponge like ability to soak up characterisation through dress, make up and hair. She is, first and foremost, how she looks. In playing literary prodigy Margot Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Gwyneth adopted a sultry bohemian vibe (apparently based on sixties fashion model Nico) that she was not then remotely known for in real life. Whatever emotional connection she brought to the part, her performance was defined by her clothes. “As soon as I knew I was wearing the little Lacoste dresses and loafers and a fur coat, I said to myself, okay, I get it.…

Following the success of one-off Victorian drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, aka The Murder at Road Hill House, shown on British television in 2011, a follow up was commissioned. Again it stars Paddy Considine as the title character and again it’s based on a book by Kate Summerscale, but unlike the infamous story of Constance Kent, The Murder in Angel Lane is entirely fictitious. Angel Lane is set several years after the 1860 case that ruined Jack Whicher’s career in the Police force. Whicher is now working as an occasional private detective and living in modest, if not squalid conditions. He is a different character now, a paranoid, broken…

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…

Kathleen Kennedy chats exclusively to Clothes on Film about her experiences and understanding of costume design. Lord Christopher Laverty 2 Comments 20 Dec ’12 5 Jul ’13 9 Oct ’09 Costume designer Joanna Johnston has recreated WW1 with staunch accuracy. Lord Christopher Laverty 1 Comment 31 Jan ’20 20 Jun ’09 9 Oct ’09 The first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of War Horse gallops online and it looks sumptuous. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Spielberg’s War Horse: First Trailer Arrives 4 Mar ’13 14 Jul ’11 31 May ’17

A round up of villain themed costume posts at Clothes on Film. Second and final part of Clothes on Film’s sartorial run-through of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, with exclusive input from costume designer Jenny Beavan. First of Clothes on Film’s two part sartorial run-through of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, with exclusive input from costume designer Jenny Beavan. There is a man on Boardwalk Empire with even more sartorial presence than Nucky Thompson; That man is Chalky White. Watching Jane Eyre on location makes for an enriching experience. Adèle Blanc-Sec’s world is akin to a fantasy Belle Époque; 1910s attire dotted among reanimated corpses and a dinosaur.…

Django Unchained costume designer Sharen Davis exclusively explains her work on the film. Lord Christopher Laverty 9 Comments 12 Dec ’09 31 Jan ’20 15 Jan ’11 Wes Anderson’s most sartorially significant film yet. Lord Christopher Laverty 3 Comments 9 Nov ’12 18 May ’09 8 Nov ’11 Trailer two for Shutter Island hits the net. Leonardo DiCaprio and co revisit serious 1950s fashions. Lord Christopher Laverty 2 Comments 18 May ’12 1 Jul ’10 5 Aug ’11