Costume designer Ann Roth’s template for Working Girl (1988, directed by Mike Nichols) is especially astute with regards to the social and geographical make up of its characters. Protagonist Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a homely girl raised and living in Staten Island, New York. Currently working as a secretary in Manhattan (not ‘executive assistant’, reflecting vernacular of the time), as is her best friend Cynthia (Joan Cusack). Tess, however, has gained a degree through night school and harbours ambitions to use it for more constructive tasks than answering the telephone and fetching toilet paper for bawdy stockbrokers. After being set up for a ‘date’ that turned out to be…

Editor Chris Laverty explains how to ‘read’ costume on film. From an article originally published in Moviescope magazine. Flourishes of brilliance, but buried beneath disjointed action sequences and a story that fails to make any sense at all. Part 2 of our detailed look at the costumes in Tron Legacy, moving onto specific design elements created for individual characters.

Basic Instinct is a movie that even its director Paul Verhoeven has described as “nonsense”, yet one cannot argue with the impact of the white dress Sharon Stone wears for the interrogation scene. Plus there is far more going on here than an absence of underwear. When this erotic thriller was released in 1992 it was notorious long before projectors whirred to life. Picketed on set by gay and lesbian groups in San Francisco for what they considered to be a stereotypical and offensive view of homosexuality, the film was lucky to have gotten made at all. Of course this was before the furore over that close up, not to…

What did you miss in costume design this week? Well… Doctor Who John Hurt’s character identity revealed by costume designer Howard Burden? Oh dear. The Sound of Music Bid on the second most famous pinafore in Hollywood history. A Field in England Get the big buckle, big boots, big everything look by Emma Fryer. Pacific Rim Kate Hawley on tackling ‘hard sci-fi’. Bonhams Lot 1793, Tetsuro Tanba’s traditional Japanese costume for You Only Live Twice (1967) and others went under the hammer this week at Bonhams. The Lone Ranger Unsurprisingly, Johnny Depp was very involved with his costume. …and there are Lone Ranger ‘leather goods’ if you fancy them, too.…

To many costume fans Grease is the best movie ever, and who are we to argue? So in celebration of Grease Sing-a-Long coming to selected Vue cinemas this month, we have FIVE goodie bags to give away. Go Rydell! If you in any doubt as to the legacy of Grease then check out our costume articles beginning with ‘The Pink Ladies’ HERE (it’s not all about the poodle skirt). This newly restored print of the film promises to reveal every inch of Danny’s attitude and Sandy’s sewn-in stretchy pants as the gang revel their way into cinema history. The best thing about this Sing-a-Long version? The clue is in the…

Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin Directed by: Edgar Wright There is a current trend for reviewers to place a much hyped new movie into one of two categories: masterpiece or rubbish. Proportionality seems to have disappeared. You must love a film or hate it. Middle ground is for wimps. So forgive this particular reviewer in taking precisely that stance, for while Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is imaginative and breathless; it is also frustrating and derivative. In other words it is good, not great. What frequently saves this film from drowning its audience in a wave of cool-speak and random segues (Seinfeld reference? In 2010?), is hero…

As the UK is missing out on the Iron Man 2 world premiere thanks to that giant ash cloud, we shall endeavour to cheer ourselves up with a few images from the film everyone has probably seen already. Iron Man 2 is one of costume designer Mary Zophres’ biggest productions to date. Although, the rumour goes, she did have a staff of twenty five assistants on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), so is obviously used to pressure. Working from a template established by original Iron Man’s costume designers Rebecca Bentjen and Laura Jean Shannon, she has created an already memorable looking set of principals. Disregarding…

The From Tailors with Love podcast hosted by Peter Brooker and Matt Spaiser should already be on your regular poddy playlist, and now fluffy haired, 70’s serial killer styled editor of Clothes on Film, Christopher Laverty, has joined the duo as a (hopefully reoccurring) guest. Peter is a James Bond aficionado with an excellent blog and Instagram account of Bond news, finds and even outfit recreations. While Matt is arguably the living authority on everything that James Bond has ever worn. He’s written a couple of must-read pieces for Clothes on Film (here and here) and his own blog The Suits of James Bond is unmissable for anyone with even…

British actress Emily Blunt garnered a Golden Globe nomination this week for her fine work on The Young Victoria (2009). As such we are presented with the perfect excuse to run a revealing interview with the film’s costume designer Sandy Powell. Sandy Powell is no newbie to the world of costume design. Having won an Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love (1998), she has also worked with producer of The Young Victoria, Martin Scorsese, several times too, notably on Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004, again an Oscar winner) and 1950s set Shutter Island which is due out later this year. Evidently period costumes are Powell’s niche, but she is…

Levi’s® Spring Bottom pants are a most fascinating garment. Introduced in 1889 they are essentially jean trousers intended for Victorian (and later Edwardian) gentlemen. This is the first time Levi’s had focused their products on such an audience. Previously their stock in trade was miners and loggers, but this was a very early attempt by the company to branch out. Spring Bottom pants are a classic item of denim history, yet most folk have probably never heard of them. With this in mind we contacted costume designer Jenny Beavan recently and asked if she would consider putting them in the next Sherlock Holmes film. No-one was paying us to do……