Cool, coordinated, just a little loud; this is the timeless appeal of Jack Carter’s 3 piece suit. In portraying cinema’s ultimate anti-hero, Michael Caine wears his costume like a second skin. Get Carter was shot mainly on location in Newcastle for just £750,000. By no means a tremendous success on its release (in the U.S. Get Carter was a double feature with a Frank Sinatra movie), it has since acquired cult status and is now widely recognised as one of the greatest British films ever made. Much has been written about the ‘style’ of Carter; photo shoots of models in trench coats carrying shotguns, etc, yet there has been little…

Part two of a Dual Analysis with KB from FrockTalk.com. This movie is brilliantly designed in that the characters are concisely and efficiently illustrated. These characters are clearly defined from the beginning, and their costumes tell us exactly who they are from the moment we meet them. In this sense, they are archetypes, strongly drawn and easily recognized. For a movie as wacky and all over the place as The Big Lebowski, the visual simplicity of these characters helps the audience to stay engaged. Example: Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski. Here is what he wears when we first meet him: He’s in public, wearing a bathrobe, buying half and half, paying…

Directed By: John Cameron Mitchell Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest While it may be uncomfortable to watch, Rabbit Hole is nonetheless essential viewing. Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are a suburbanite couple in mourning from the recent death of their young son. As Becca seeks solace in repression interspersed by outbreaks of rage, Howie wants to share his pain in hope of catharsis. Unsurprisingly their togetherness, their marriage, is slowly breaking apart. This is a film that defines its characters’ identity by their grief and how they choose to experience it. Kidman is a model of self-control as the Cath Kidston-esque housewife who seemingly has it…

During his twelve year stint as James Bond 007, Roger Moore wore some exceedingly contemporary costumes, perhaps none more so than his shocking plaid jacket from The Man with the Golden Gun. Think Lulu’s theme song is the loudest thing in the movie? Think again. The Man with the Golden Gun arrived in cinemas Christmas, 1974, a year after the release of Live and Let Die. Audiences and critics gave the film a lukewarm response. Its muddled plot and over-reliance on situation comedy was grating and despite the imposing presence of Christopher Lee as Bond’s nemesis Francisco Scaramanga a.k.a. The Man with the Golden Gun, it felt a particularly limp…

Costume catch up time. Puttin’ on the Glitz Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty will be teaming up with the incomparable Amber Jane Butchart for an exciting talk at the British Library. Man of Steel Michael Wilkinson talks about his design process on the film, plus his overall approach to costuming in general at this LACMA event. For Tyranny of Style, Brianne Gillen records the details. Divergent Carlo Poggioli’s costume sketches and character info. Looks good, but will probably save reading this until after watching. Due 21st. Constantine First look at the trenchcoat wearing, Sting-alike lead character for NBC’s new television series. True Detective Costume designer Jenny Eagan talks about……

The first full trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger has bish bash boshed onto the internet. Look at how tiny Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is! There isn’t much new to see costume wise that has not already been revealed in papped set photographs. Mostly U.S. Army uniforms with overseas hats and other quiet 1940s period touches, such as khakis, 3pc suits, leather flight jackets and fire engine red lipstick on Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Costume design is a joint effort between Inception’s Jeffrey Kurland and twice Oscar nominated Anna B. Sheppard. It certainly looks exciting enough, but then again virtually all trailers for big budget comic book adaptations…

HBO are about to own all television again with their upcoming 1920s set series Boardwalk Empire. Period costume fans, set your jaw to dropped. Watch the trailer HERE Adapted from Nelson Johnson’s well researched book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by The Soprano’s screenwriter Terence Winter, Boardwalk Empire is a prohibition era drama starring Steve Buscemi as Enoch Thompson, an Atlantic City kingpin who rules the infamous gambling playground by corruption and violence. Seemingly with his sticky fingers in every criminal activity going, Thompson is dressed to the nines in rounded stiff collar shirts and pinstriped suits, a forerunner to the 1930s movie gangster…

The Phantom of the Opera (2004, directed by Joel Schumacher) is a lavish depiction of its world, examining the nature of facade – the un-reality of the stage, the masked Phantom of the title, and the duality of “costume” within costume (the majority of clothes on screen are designed as costumes for use in performances in the narrative). Costume designer Alexandra Byrne makes use of symbolic colour palettes and silhouettes to bring this heightened world to life. We are first taken into the world of the Opera Populaire, 1870, with the dress rehearsal of “Hannibal”. It is interesting to note that not all are wearing full “costume” – corsets and…

Here is the first official photo of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, courtesy of Yahoo (nip over there for the full image). Just a sneaky peek at the costume, but it is enough to get the collective internet moaning/cheering. Simply titled ‘Thor’, this is director Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 slated version of the Marvel superhero. In addition to Hemsworth, the film also stars Natalie Portman as love interest Jane Foster, Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s father Odin and Tom Hiddleston playing big villain/Thor’s half-brother, Loki. For those not that well acquainted with the Marvel universe, Thor is not actually a person, he is a god. The god of thunder to be exact. In…

As it is the weekend how about some photos from Universal’s upcoming The Wolfman starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. The Wolfman is director Joe Johnston’s remake of a 1941 film of the same name. It is set during the Victorian era, late 1880s to be precise. The costume design is by Milena Canonero (Ocean’s 12, The Darjeeling Limited). We have Benicio del Toro in the title role as Lawrence Talbot, a man inflicted with the curse of the werewolf. Anthony Hopkins plays his estranged father, Hugo Weaving a Scotland Yard police inspector sent to investigate mysterious deaths in the hamlet of Blackmoore, while Emily Blunt rounds out the…