Clothes on film

MILD SPOILERS Costume designer Michael Wilkinson’s main accomplishment with American Hustle has largely been overlooked in favour of praising him as some kind of vintage stylist with an eye for provocative gowns and desirable heels. The truth is he has carefully brought to life a world, not of parties and glamour, but cheap sex and dirty desperation. The costumes in American Hustle do tell a story, particularly through their ever darkening colour palette, yet Wilkinson’s deftest skill is reflecting an era when fashion was as confused as the politics surrounding it. American Hustle is an unapologetic tale of low down dirty double-crossers whose clothes, like them, were a lie. A……

Poor Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). She is only a young teenager and yet like most characters in Game of Thrones she has been forced to grow up far too fast. This ongoing character development is echoed in her clothes by series costume designer Michele Clapton. We first meet Sansa in season 1 of Game of Thrones at her home in Winterfell. Her clothes are simple. The knotted decoration around the neckline of her dresses and the harsher fabrics echo the rough terrain of the North. She chooses shades of grey and blue, matching the murky colours of her environment. The dress she wears for the party held in honor of…

Clothes on Film were lucky enough to get an up close look at the actual costumes from Prince of Persia. Costume Designer Penny Rose had to create 7,000 costumes for the film. She worked out of a massive warehouse with racks and racks of clothes, footwear and belts, dyeing on one side and hand-tooling leather on the other. As an experienced designer, Rose is adept in finding the second life of items such as recycling bedspreads for robes and even carpet for boots. She is widely known and respected for her organisational ability. Using fabrics from around the world including China, Malaysia and, predictably, Morocco, Rose set up her workshop…

‘Sator’ From The Tailor and Cutter forum takes a look at the superior costume design of Edwardian set British classic, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Kind Hearts and Coronets is a delicious Ealing black comedy starring Dennis Price as Louis Mazzini, distant heir to a dukedom, but with eight members of the D’Ascoyne family standing in his way. He vows to avenge the premature death of his beloved mother who dies in poverty after being ostracised by her family for marrying below her station, after eloping with an Italian opera singer. Mazzini sets out to murder his way to the Dukedom of Chalfont, with each of his victims played to…

It does not take long to realise all the recurring themes in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), are explicably linked to one jacket that may or may not have been worn by Jimi Hendrix, and now worn by infamous Susan (Madonna), a New York drifter whose carefree life is followed via the personals section in a tabloid by a bored suburban housewife living in New Jersey named Roberta (Rosanna Arquette). The film’s costume designer is Santo Loquasto, but the jacket in question is unmistakably Madonna, in that it’s totally unique and difficult to forget. The khaki green metallic fabric is perfectly offset by a brash black and gold swirling pattern on…

Check out the trailer HERE The first trailer for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood has hit the internet. Hit is the right word, as this is more battle royal than Prince of Thieves. Looking exactly the same as he did in Scott’s Gladiator (2000), obviously with a few more layers for the English cold, Russell Crowe has apparently not aged a day in nearly ten years. His Robin Hood is a tunic, cloak, suede and leather clad ass-kicker. Looking less interested in stealing from the rich than just killing them this new Hood is certainly going to be a fresh cinematic take on the character. Costume designer Janty Yates has created…

Throughout much of Wall Street (1987), Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko dresses as sharp as a tack, wearing perhaps two really great shirts: the renowned ‘Gekko shirt’ in blue with white contrast collars and cuffs and an appealing variation on the Gekko, a pink and white Vichy check – again with white collars and cuffs. Both embody the corrupting authority of a 1980s power outfit: immaculate and comfortable, yet loud and in your face. Disrespectful. Douglas adopts the former signature look for his first big reveal as Gekko: Med blue shirt with white contrast turn-down collar and white French cuffs. Two-tone blue narrow stripe braces. It was costume designer Ellen…

As is often the way with costume designers, Stephanie Collie is something of an unsung hero. We will not reel off her entire back catalogue, but it does include South Riding (2011, TV), Telstar (2008) Peter’s Friends (1992) and perhaps most exciting of all, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Now, anyone old enough to remember when Lock, Stock arrived will remember just what an incredible influence its Mod inspired costumes had on the world of fashion. You could not pick up a men’s magazine of the time without seeing some guy in slim trousers and a jersey polo shirt. Stephanie Collie invented this look, thus providing one of…

The subtle differentiation of character through costume design in Moon. Contributor 2 Comments 24 Aug ’09 19 Dec ’11 31 Jul ’10

With exclusive insight from The Hangover (2009) costume designer Louise Mingenbach, we investigate how clothing defined character and brought this chucklesome movie to life. The Hangover begins with Doug (Justin Bartha) sharing a tailor’s fitting with his soon to be brother in law Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Alan confides in Doug just how excited he is to be attending his bachelor party. Wearing a jock strap for no conceivable reason we get the idea that maybe not all of Alan’s dogs are barking. Next we meet school teacher Phil (Bradley Cooper), the kind of man who embezzles money from his pupils for their school trip and siphons it into his Las…