Clothes on film

The subtle differentiation of character through costume design in Moon. Contributor 2 Comments 28 Oct ’14 13 Jan ’11 15 Aug ’11

When news broke that the last installment of Harry Potter was to be released as two separate films, cynical groans echoed around the world. Plus it was going to be in 3D, but Warner Bros thankfully pulled the plug on the much-maligned post-shoot conversion to deliver it in glorious 2D instead – for Part 1 anyway. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 picks up at the very end of The Half Blood Prince with Harry still ravaged by guilt over the death of Professor Dumbledore. Ron and Hermione join Harry to find the last remaining Horcruxes in order to destroy Lord Voldermort’s (Ralph Fiennes) immortality. Meanwhile, Voldermort and…

SPOILERS From a costume point of view, and therefore a character point of view, The Grand Budapest Hotel (directed by Wes Anderson) is all about uniforms; those worn by men and women in official capacities and those adopted as a life uniform by those trapped in the past. Eccentric La Belle Époque hangover Madame D (Tilda Swinton) is the latter, Moustafa Zero (Tony Revolori), a newly appointed lobby boy in the pinnacle of majestic 1930s hotels, The Grand Budapest, is the former. While Madame D goes nowhere, perhaps because she has already been everywhere, Zero undertakes a journey and evolution of character, which subsequently means his clothing does too. In…

Okay, cheesy title but it is kind of true. The Maltese Falcon (1941) provides a wonderful snapshot of men’s shirt collar styles of the time. From Wing to Pin, they are all there and, most interestingly, all on display during the film’s virtuoso twenty minute climax. It is a sight to see. The Maltese Falcon was costumed by Orry-Kelly, though Humphrey Bogart provided his own clothing as hardboiled P.I. Sam Spade, as is likely for most of the male cast (typical during this era). Check out the video below and enjoy a tour of men’s shirt collar styles during the early 1940s: Please remember to like, comment and subscribe. ©…

Friday 6th May sees the release of Florence Foster Jenkins, the 1944 set true story of a woman, Ms. Foster Jenkins herself (played by Meryl Streep) who heard nothing but sweet angels in her head, yet couldn’t actually sing for a toffee. Her manager and husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) hides the truth during the private recitals, but when Florence agrees to sing live at Carnegie Hall, things begin to get a little tricky… Costume designer for Florence Foster Jenkins is Consolata Boyle, a BAFTA award winner probably best known for her work on The Queen (2006), The Iron Lady (2011), and more recently Philomena (2013) – and yes there…

Clothes and costume related movie news Finally we have a trailer for Tom Hardy’s Capone and it looks jim-jam tastic. The final trailer for The Rhythm Section features more costume changes than a Lady Gaga concert. A new trailer for Daniel Radcliffe’s Guns Akimbo has arrived and it’s hilarious. The latest book by fashion historian, and now TV presenter Amber Butchart (A Stitch in Time on BBC 4 – second season please), is a comprehensively researched stroll through the best dressed folk ever to exist on the planet. The Fashion Chronicles: The Style Stories of History’s Best Dressed is laid out to be effortlessly readable, split into sections ranging from…

Clothes from films set during 1960s We chat about why James Bond wearing a Tom Ford suit is almost a waste of time for the From Tailors with Love podcast. A brief video dip into the costume design of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Actually that title is a tad misleading – it’s all the clothes worn by Lee Marvin as kick-ass-tough-guy-on-a-mission Walker in Point Blank. This is the second video in a new Clothes on Film feature breaking down costume design in sartorially interesting (or just way cool) movies and, in some cases, television.  Costumed by Margo Weintz, Point Blank is stone-cold neo-noir thriller, one of the best…

On 6th July, Clothes on Film were invited to the Designing 007 launch party in London. Apart from quaffing complimentary Bollinger and celeb spotting, we did make several circuits of the exhibition itself. As expected, Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style has a pleasing emphasis on the sartorial, particularly female costume. Vintage discoveries mix with contemporary recreations from all 23 James Bond films in themed rooms dotted across the Barbican Centre. We will not spoil everything because if you can see the exhibition first hand, you should. The rooms themselves are fairly self explanatory: Gold, Ian Fleming, M’s Office, Q Branch, Casino, Foreign Territories, Villains and Enigmas, and Ice…

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…

Esquire magazine for gentleman with taste and bottomless pockets, have featured a fashion shoot with Toy Story 3’s Ken. That’s right; a doll dresses better than you. Clearly this is not really Ken from Toy Story 3, it is Mattel’s actual Ken, immortalised in the film wearing, it has to be said, even cooler clothes than here (wouldn’t you want to be friends with a guy in animal print shorts?). The brief from Esquire was for four leading fashion designers to dress Ken in key looks for autumn. The finished result is this miniaturised set from their genuine upcoming line. Buy the mag for the full spread, after you’ve checked…