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…

It was late November, 2016 when I visited the set of The Conjuring 2 (directed by James Wan). The reason I never wrote about it for Clothes on Film or anywhere else was because of my official role on the day: I was playing an extra (or background artist if you like) during the film’s Maida Vale pub scene. Specifically this is the moment when real life husband and wife paranormal investigator team, Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) meet with noted experts in their field to discuss the validity of their current case, aka the Enfield poltergeist. I made the finished cut, by the skin of my…

In a week of new and exciting trailers, the first for director Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby must surely be the most thrilling of all, certainly for aficionados of exotic period costume and lots of twinkly things. Based purely on tone this frenetic footage is likely to upset literary purists, but to those familiar with Luhrmann’s back catalogue (Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge!), the gaudy, flashy visuals and controversial choice of contemporary music (Jay-Z and Kayne West) will not come as a great surprise. Thankfully two time Academy Award winner Catherine Martin’s costumes are showcased in all their OTT glory. Deliberately impossible to miss; this is 1922, the…

MINOR SPOILERS There are already lots of good interviews with Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) costume designer Michael Kaplan on the internet (we recommend this one in particular), so for Clothes on Film we kept it brief and fresh. We caught up with Kaplan, who is also responsible for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Trek (2009), Fight Club (1999) and Blade Runner (1982), for a little chat about what’s new for episode 8 of the ever evolving space saga. Clothes on Film: Let’s kick off by asking you about the best new costume in the film, the Elite Praetorian Guard… Michael Kaplan: They are my favourite costumes…

MILD SPOILERS Director Ben Wheatley’s latest, Free Fire, is set in Boston, 1978, but was actually shot in Brighton in 2015. Being as the plot revolves around ten characters involved in a one hour plus shoot-out inside a disused factory, from a sartorial point of view things get rather grubby. The film’s BAFTA nominated costume designer Emma Fryer has already worked with Wheatley on The ABCs of Death (2012) and A Field in England (2013) so is used to the way his stories tend to go bananas in the final reel. Free Fire unfolds practically in real time, which amps up the tension but allows for no mistake with costume.…

There is little point in Clothes on Film delving too deeply into the first trailer for director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens, mainly because it is just so much speculation at the moment, which of course is part of the fun, but also because there are far smarter (or more interested) minds on the Internet who will do a better job. That said how can you watch that trailer and not have an opinion? So here are ours, and with no contribution whatsoever from Star Wars VII costume designer Michael Kaplan. If he told us anything at this stage he would be thrown in the Sarlacc pit…

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) is the quintessential evil queen, right up there with The Queen from Snow White and the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. Or is she..? Throughout Game of Thrones we have been given clues as to Cersei’s motivations and character, and by the end of Season 3 she has become, partially at least, a sympathetic character. While Cersei was not involved with the Walder-Frey-Marry-One-Of-My-Daughters plotline, which famously leads to the gruesome ‘Red Wedding’; that plot really drove home that point that in this world women are only worth how beautiful they are. Even Robb Stark, one of the so-called good guys, was horrified at the…

Beginning in the late 1950s, into the 60’s, predominantly through the mid to late 70’s, then into the early 90’s, costume designer Stephanie Collie’s work for The Look of Love covers several distinct periods. This is the true story of King of Soho billionaire Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan) told via the many women in his life. Helpfully these women confirm to a specific body type which is still relatable as the model ideal today, i.e. very slender or the ‘no-body body’. This means that all the garments on screen look fantastic. They are costumes above all but still relevant as fashion; the 60’s especially still informs contemporary style for women’s…

Moon (2009) is a love letter to the science fiction movies that director Duncan Jones grew up watching. He stated his intention was, “to create something which felt comfortable within that canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late seventies to the early eighties”*. Jones’ eerie story of a moon base worker who discovers uncomfortable truths about himself during a three year solo mission certainly achieved that. One of the central reasons the film succeeds, attests blogger Dallas King is its subtly readable costume design by Jane Petrie. Petrie’s only previous science fiction credit was in the costume department for Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace…

Director Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim was always bound to be a detailed visual feast of FX, sets and costume design. Nonetheless the real main players in this film wear no costumes at all, the kaiju (Japanese for ‘strange beast’) and the tower-block sized Jaeger robots (German for ‘hunter’) built to defend Earth from their attacks. As such it fell to costume designer Kate Hawley, fresh from The Hobbit’s design team, to emphasise the humanity of Pacific Rim’s smaller-scale, flesh and blood characters. Hawley’s job was made extra difficult because most of these characters are involved in the military Pan Pacific Defence Corps, and yet we arrive (intro excluded) at…