Clothes on film

The highly anticipated season five premiere of Game of Thrones aired across the globe this week, giving us tantalising glimpses of where our favorite characters are now. We saw two brief scenes of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), who had a major makeover at the end of Season Four. With this new direction in her character, where will she end up in Season Five? In this little addendum to our previous analysis of her wardrobe, we explore the character clues in Sansa’s striking new look (costume design by Michele Clapton). Sansa has not had it easy so far. During the last few seasons she has been trapped in King’s Landing, tortured……

Costume designer Ann Roth’s template for Working Girl (1988, directed by Mike Nichols) is especially astute with regards to the social and geographical make up of its characters. Protagonist Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a homely girl raised and living in Staten Island, New York. Currently working as a secretary in Manhattan (not ‘executive assistant’, reflecting vernacular of the time), as is her best friend Cynthia (Joan Cusack). Tess, however, has gained a degree through night school and harbours ambitions to use it for more constructive tasks than answering the telephone and fetching toilet paper for bawdy stockbrokers. After being set up for a ‘date’ that turned out to be……

The highly anticipated season five premiere of Game of Thrones aired across the globe this week, giving us tantalising glimpses of where our favorite characters are now. We saw two brief scenes of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), who had a major makeover at the end of Season Four. With this new direction in her character, where will she end up in Season Five? In this little addendum to our previous analysis of her wardrobe, we explore the character clues in Sansa’s striking new look (costume design by Michele Clapton). Sansa has not had it easy so far. During the last few seasons she has been trapped in King’s Landing, tortured……

By no means intended as an exhaustive list, Clothes on Film ponder an overview of 2011 in costume. Lucie Bates exclusively discusses her work on Hanna, inducing parodies, subtext and working with Giorgio Armani.

Our thoughts on the costume design in the season 6 premiere of Mad Men. As TracyDi Vicenzo in OHMSS, Diana Rigg wore a daring 1960s wedding ensemble. Following a trip to Rome, Betty dons the latest in European chic – a colourful maxi dress that belongs in sleepy Ossining just about as much as she does.

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 of its kind, focusing on Marvin’s Walker and his score settling against those who double crossed and left him for dead on an abandoned Alcatraz island. The film is known for its sharp suits, which are all covered in the video, but also for some……

In a week of new and exciting trailers, the first for director Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby must surely be the most thrilling of all, certainly for aficionados of exotic period costume and lots of twinkly things. Based purely on tone this frenetic footage is likely to upset literary purists, but to those familiar with Luhrmann’s back catalogue (Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge!), the gaudy, flashy visuals and controversial choice of contemporary music (Jay-Z and Kayne West) will not come as a great surprise. Thankfully two time Academy Award winner Catherine Martin’s costumes are showcased in all their OTT glory. Deliberately impossible to miss; this is 1922, the…

Costume links of the week. Lord Christopher Laverty 1 Comment 27 Apr ’13 21 Sep ’13 25 May ’13

Think Lulu’s theme song is the loudest thing in The Man with the Golden Gun? Think again. As TracyDi Vicenzo in OHMSS, Diana Rigg wore a daring 1960s wedding ensemble. The blue towelling playsuit in Goldfinger is typically remembered as Bond’s one sartorial disaster. Yet it might be worthy of reconsideration.

Catch up with the costume gossip you’ve missed. Godzilla “Contemporary in design with a multitude of uniforms”, says costume designer Sharen Davis. We remember chatting to Ms. Davis about her work on Godzilla during an interview for Django Unchained – she was so stoked to be working with director Gareth Edwards. X-Men: Days of Future Past Q&A with ace Louise Mingenbach which we haven’t read because we haven’t seen the movie yet. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom For the film’s 30th birthday an enticing look back at Anthony Powell’s costume design by Tim Pelan for Cinetropolis. Game of Thrones More secrets in the costumes, unless you want to…