Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard Directed by: Michael Mann Public Enemies is polished movie Depression, but it is also authentic. Graham Thompson, the Chicago based hat maker who produced 75 custom hats for the movie (fedoras mainly, boaters and tribys) concurs that they ‘got it right’. Costume designer Colleen Atwood’s painstaking recreations of heavy wool pinstriped suits and silken evening dresses are certainly all up there on screen. Also the meticulous way the outfits are worn: just enough shirt cuff protruding from the suit jacket, hats cocked at just that perfect angle, coats ringed with fur and not swamped by it. These outfits set an atmospheric tone for…

Starring: George Clooney, Thekla Reuton, Violante Placido Directed By: Anton Corbijn Movie assassins are the most contrived protagonists in Hollywood. Their stories follow the same tired path of death and redemption, generally becoming predictable and boring in the process. Euro-cool thriller The American starring George Clooney did not set out to break the mould. More of a facelift than anything else. The American follows hitman Jack (Clooney) as he is forced to lay low in the small town of Castelvecchio, Italy. Jack takes a new assignment, to build a custom sniper rifle via mysterious contact Mathilde (Thekla Reuton), but then unexpectedly in the course of forging new relationships, begins to…

As Little Junior Brown, Nicolas Cage puts in the kind of over the top performance that was in vogue during the early nineties (see also Robert De Niro in Cape Fear, 1991). Cage himself admits that muscle-bound gangster Junior is ‘larger than life’, so why not the same for his fashion sense? Kiss of Death was made in 1993/94 and released in 1995, but even taking this into account Junior’s monochrome wardrobe is still blatantly outdated and vulgar. For most characters in the movie fashion is dictated by circumstance. Put upon ex-con Jimmy Kilmartin (David Caruso) wears clothes that are anonymous and cheap. His new wife Rosie (Kathryn Erbe) makes…

Looking so sexily brilliant that the finished film can be nothing but a huge disappointment (kidding), this first teaser trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ticks all the right seventies period costume boxes. UPDATE (4TH AUG): And now we have a full trailer…

Bit late to the party for this one, but what the hey. Did you know that Calvin Klein has re-released the white shift dress that Alicia Silverstone made famous in Clueless? Yes, you probably did. Thanks to Mona May’s costume design reinventing the look of an era, replacing baggy jeans and grunge with brightly coloured femininity and for (rich) boys, 1950s drape jackets and high-waisted trousers, Clueless (1995) remains a sartorial time capsule. That May went onto design for the 1996-97 television series demonstrates just how important her fashion contribution was at that time. Perhaps unsurprisingly Alicia Silverstone’s Cher is the most memorable character in terms of costume for a…

Pretty Woman (1990) is your typical Hollywood rags to riches story. Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) is a young woman who finds herself down and out; struggling financially, unable to make the rent and ‘forced’ to sell her body on the street. By dramatic coincidence she happens to enter the car (and world) of newly single, and rich, businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) Vivian’s transformation from prostitute to elegant lady of luxury is highlighted through her clothes. Costume designer Marilyn Vance-Straker and her team created an array of stylish and contemporary outfits, beginning with the white and blue revealing dress with thigh-high boots that Roberts dons at the start of the…

The first image from Thor showcasing characters other than the hammer man himself has been released. No, the film is not a musical. We are not saying that we dislike the costumes by Alexandra Byrne, it is just that the overly bright lighting, oddly Doctor Who circa 1970s set and Anthony Hopkins wearing some chocolate foil over his eye is hardly projecting the image of a $150 million film. With Oscar winner Byrne involved especially, but considering Kenneth Branagh directing and quality co-stars such as Stellan Skarsgård and Natalie Portman appearing alongside Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Hopkins himself, this rather campy look has to be intentional. To be fair…

Maggie Siff playing Chanel suited businesswoman Rachel Menken was present for the birth of a show that now creates trends as much as reflects them; fashionistas cannot get enough of Mad Men. 2007 Was the dawning of a new era; a time of cocktails, Cadillacs, A-lines and trilbys. This is when sixties-set advertising drama Mad Men first hit our screens. Don Draper was trying to sell his ‘luckies’, Campbell still looked about twelve, Peggy made a big mistake and Rachel Menken arrived on the scene wearing the ultimate in simple sophistication. As series one progressed her character gradually became less and less interesting (pretty much as she fell for Don).…

As it is nearly the weekend, make the day disappear faster by checking out some pics from Ridley Scott’s upcoming Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. This version of ‘the Hood’ by Gladiator (2000) and Body of Lies (2008) director Ridley Scott is being touted as truth behind the famous medieval folk hero. So there will be no feather hat silliness or blow dried mullet hair. This Robin Hood will kick your ass and charge you for it. Costume designer for Robin Hood Janty Yates has embraced the rather mixed historical setting behind the legend, although has largely plumped for what appears to be late medieval influence. Nice…

WATCH THE NEW TRAILER An Education is an upcoming early 1960s set film about Jenny (Carey Mulligan) a bright seventeen year old planning to study at Oxford who becomes romantically involved with dashing socialite David (Peter Sarsgaard), soon abandoning her aspirations and future shot at independence. The story is an adaptation of British journalist Lynn Barber’s autobiography of the same name. Judging solely on this footage, Jenny goes down the Audrey Hepburn route more than typical teen fashions of the sixties; so a Givenchy pared-down style comprising little jewellery, trenchcoat, simple, sexy shifts in silk and plain colours with occasional floral prints rather than the younger look of Courtelle mini-dresses…