WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THE OUTSET All the main characters in director/screenwriter Shane Black’s brave and exciting Iron Man 3 wear a suit. By his own admission, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is “cocooned” in his. He retreats inside the Iron Man suit, now up to an almost unfathomably expensive Mark 42, because it is the only place he feels safe. Those around Stark, be they on the side of right or wrong, wear their own suit. The suit hides their true self and it is only by removing this disguise that they can reveal it. Iron Man 3 mocks the notion of re-invention; Stark can build all the iron…

Clothes on Film talks exclusively to Anna Sheppard about her work on Captain America: The First Avenger, covering sartorial recreation of 1940s wartime, development of a superhero costume and the difficulties of working from someone else’s original designs. Anna B. Sheppard is one of the best known and respected costume designers in the business. Based in London but working internationally, she has created costumes for directors Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino, plus been Academy Award nominated twice, for Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) and The Pianist (2002). Captain America is something of a departure for Sheppard as she is effectively working from a 70 year old design template. The…

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon Director: Floria Sigismondi 1975. Rock is a male-dominated genre, but young wannabe guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) has other ideas. She wants to start an all girl rock band called ‘The Runaways’. And that basically is the set-up of this conventional, yet hugely entertaining music biopic of the real life rebellious rock ensemble. With their band, The Runaways kicked started the term ‘Girl Power’, i.e. youth female liberation, which was resurrected in the 1990s by the Spice Girls. Throughout this story we are reminded that women weren’t given the freedom afforded men in the music business. They were treated like sex objects, not…

The leggy lure of Bombshell. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on Bombshell: Below the Belt 8 Nov ’13 21 Jan ’11 4 Feb ’14

Public Enemies (2009, directed by Michael Mann) is chock full of accurately recreated and as such eminently covetable, early 1930s era garments, as designed by multi Oscar winner Colleen Atwood. Perhaps most enticing of all, however, is how one particular garment, a plain wool overcoat, actually powers the narrative of the film. It is the coat that killed John Dillinger. When we meet John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp), his criminal career, primarily as a bank robber, is in full swing. He is wearing that conspicuous badge of honour for all those in his ‘gentlemen’s’ fraternity – expensive clothes. They were the ‘bling’ of their day and tended to be…

Director Darren Aronofsky came to prominence with 1998’s Pi, a bold and imaginative take on the body shock genre. His latest film Black Swan harks back to that work; the tale of a young ballerina undergoing psychological transformation, her identity thrown into question on the most visceral of levels. Clothes on Film spent some time with Aronofsky, picking his mind on the challenges of portraying such specific concepts as perfection, representation and commitment within the film. Clothes on Film: How do you plan your projects? Your work is so diverse. Darren Aronofsky: I think it’s a case of double down every time, chips are on table; each one’s just about…

Costume design and meaning in short film. Proving that frock coats and heavy lace dresses really are terrifying. Adèle Blanc-Sec’s world is akin to a fantasy Belle Époque; 1910s attire dotted among reanimated corpses and a dinosaur. A prevalent theme in the first episode of Mildred Pierce starring is how domestic costume can be read as a signal for sexual availability. As TracyDi Vicenzo in OHMSS, Diana Rigg wore a daring 1960s wedding ensemble. Lucinda Wright talks to Clothes on Film about her contribution to The Suspicions of Mr Whicher starring Paddy Considine. Angelina Jolie suits the unstructured dresses and cloche hats in Changeling perfectly.

Starring: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth Directed by: Rob Reiner Screenwriter William Goldman applies his mastery of the clean, lean literary adaptation to this Stephen King penned shocker. Apart from the daft fist-fight ending, Goldman works well with Misery (1990) director Rob Reiner. They let the story unfold at a relaxed pace with cleverly integrated subplots to keep things moving. The narrative is steered by the health of its ailing protagonist, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan). The better he gets, the worse his situation becomes. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) wears a grey wool pinafore dress as she tends to Paul for the first time following his accident. The pinafore,…

Recently Clothes on Film editor, Chris Laverty was invited to discuss the costumes, themes and food in HBO mini-series, Mildred Pierce. Joined by journalist, Georgie Hobbs; senior content producer for Sky Atlantic, Ben Boyer and Julia Murphy Buske from the Primrose Bakery, we chatted in detail about what made this superb adaptation come alive. HBO ‘Sessions’ video (including expert pie making tutorial) below: For further discussion of Ann Roth’s meticulous and beautifully symbolic costumes in Mildred Pierce, try our article on the functionality and sex appeal of the housedress, plus keep your eyes peeled at Clothes on Film over the coming week for more on the subject… HBO’s Mildred Pierce…

Neatly illustrating the previous post with Kirsten Dunst donning Chanel inspired sailor pants as part of her 1920s pyjama beachwear in The Cats Meow is elegant French actress Audrey Tautou wearing the real deal. In this new advertisement for Coco Chanel’s now 84 year old perfume Chanel No.5 directed by Amélie’s Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Audrey Tautou slips on a stylish pair of black silk-satin sailor pants coupled with black spaghetti straps fitted bodice for just a few seconds of screen-time. The whole ad is filled with stunning Chanel creations (now under the creative leadership of Karl Lagerfeld) and is worth watching over and over again for this very reason. In fact…