Clothes on film

This movie has been gestating for a while, but, at last, we are finally going to see Tom Hardy’s take on a role he was bespoke cut and stitched for: Al Capone. Capone (formally titled ‘Fonzo’) centers on the infamous Chicago crime boss’ time after he was released from prison, having served seven of his eleven year sentence for tax evasion. What makes this period in his life so interesting is that Capone was going mad with the syphilis. Plus, it seems from this first trailer, he had hidden away a lot of money that he now hopes to retrieve, with his patiently waiting enemies, former gang members and the…

Producer Ross Hunter’s 1962 film If A Man Answers (directed by Henry Levin) is a sweet, silly and lighthearted romantic comedy featuring Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Sandra is Chantal Stacy, daughter of Boston businessman John Stacy (John Lund) and former Folies Bergere burlesque dancer and professional Frenchwoman Germaine Stacy (Micheline Presle). The film focuses on Chantal’s negotiation between the Boston practicality and the French passionate nature that runs through her genetic line. Bobby Darin, as fashion photographer Eugene Wright (“Mr. Wright”), finds himself in the middle of this mess as Chantal’s willing romantic victim. Chantal’s first scene in the Stacy master bedroom after returning from a date features Dee…

James Bond’s best and most memorable outfits Join Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty for a special Oscars Red Carpet Livestream. You better believe he’s wearing a custom made crown. Think Lulu’s theme song is the loudest thing in The Man with the Golden Gun? Think again. Matt Spaiser, creator of The Suits of James Bond blog, analyses the style of 007 in the film that started it all – Dr. No. One of the seventies’ more successful attempts to modernise fashions of the past.

Further to film critic Simon Kinnear‘s analysis of how Alien’s revolutionary costume design brought a grimy reality to sci-fi, in this second part he concentrates on the Anthology sequels. It is to James Cameron’s credit that, while re-engineering Alien’s haunted house tropes as full-scale war movie, he recognised the important part costume design played in Ridley Scott’s shocker seven years earlier. In the first film, clothing is one of the means by which humans stamp their personality against the dual threat to their identity posed by both the alien and the faceless corporation they work for: Weyland-Yutani. This is a difficult trick to pull off with soldiers; Cameron’s Space Marines…

From Chris Laverty’s regular column ‘Fabric of Cinema’ for Arts Illustrated magazine, here is an abridged version of the most recently published essay ‘A Migration of Talent’. The current issue of Arts Illustrated focuses on those that have moved across geographical boundaries to expand the scope of their work. It has long been the norm for costume designers from the UK to relocate, not necessarily permanently, to Hollywood. Their careers have been forged by the demands of the business they compete in. But what would have happened if, say, Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love), or Joanna Johnston (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) had never worked beyond these shores? How would their……

Matt Spaiser, creator of The Suits of James Bond blog, analyses the style of 007 in the film that started it all – Dr. No.

This is part 2 (part 1 HERE) of an expanded article Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty wrote for men’s style resource MR PORTER analysing Michael Caine’s suits in The Italian Job. This post covers all the costumes he wore during the film. We rejoin Charlie and his ragtag crew at the big meeting when the gang are all introduced to each other. It had to be a Doug Hayward moment and thankfully does not disappoint. In actual fact it is probably Michael Caine’s best fitting suit in the whole movie: Dark blue worsted wool suit; double breasted jacket, wide peaked lapels, 6 on 2 fastening, slanted hip pockets, ticket…

Outfits worn specifically by female actors on film SPOILERS THROUGHOUT Clearly Us (2019) director Jordan Peele is as interested in the craft of costume as a tool for storytelling as any means available to him (props, sets, score, bunnies). Peele’s costume designer for his film, Kym Barrett, is highly proficient, a veteran, with such memorable titles as Romeo and Juliet (1996), The Matrix (1999) and The Nice Guys (2016) under her belt. Her contribution is specific and considered – the ‘cut like’ jagged edges in Lupita Nyong’o’s blood soaked attire as Adelaide testament to Barrett’s knowledge of the subtle communication costume can achieve. It is, then, somewhat of a shame…

On first discovering that the late Eiko Ishioka’s costumes for Tarsem Singh’s fairytale update Mirror Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White are to be featured in an ‘app’ for Apple products we were, to put it mildly, sceptical. On further consideration, however, this is actually a fun and really quite sweet idea. Simply titled ‘Dress Up Snow’ this free app showcases several of Ishioka’s most typically imaginative and extravagant outfits for the movie, all worn by Lily Collins as Snow White – alas none for Julia Roberts’ Evil Queen. Users can alter a cutesy rendered image of Collins wearing different ensembles, in addition to changing the scenery, adding accessories,…

Less a costume movie and more a fashion one, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) is typical of its celebrated naughty director Russ Meyer in all the best possible ways. Meyer fills the screen with a beautiful cast in cute outfits and expects us to take it all seriously. Thing is, he actually has something serious to say. Emphatically not a sequel to Valley of the Dolls made in 1967 (although that was its original intention), this softcore send-up was filmed soon after the tragic murder of actress Sharon Tate – star of Valley of the Dolls. Here Myer admonishes not only the perils of fame itself, but of…