Clothes on film

Watch the first trailer for Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and burst with costume excitement. Lord Christopher Laverty 4 Comments 12 Dec ’09 4 Feb ’11 15 Jan ’11 Innovative costume designer and art director Eiko Ishioka has died aged 73. Lord Christopher Laverty 3 Comments 29 May ’13 4 May ’18 9 Mar ’13 Watching Jane Eyre on location makes for an enriching experience. Lord Christopher Laverty 2 Comments 19 May ’09 1 Apr ’14 9 Oct ’09 Jeremy Irons wears a classic example of early extreme sports attire – a plain linen shirt. Lord Christopher Laverty Comments Off on The Mission: Jeremy Irons’ Linen Shirt 16 Aug ’12 31…

With the trailer for After Earth revealing an intriguing ‘life suit’ worn by Jaden Smith, we round up the best space suit related posts from our archive. For a guy who prefers the synthetic appeal of satin and alloy, physical contact is a violent business.

For a big budget movie about a lone astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, the spacesuits in The Martian are surprisingly sober in terms of design. There is an attempt here to make everything seem as plausible as possible, costume design especially. Director Ridley Scott’s regular costumer Janty Yates has created possibly the sexiest spacesuits ever seen on screen, and what’s more they are functional. To paraphrase a line in the film, she had to “science the shit out of them”. Yates collaborated with NASA looking specifically at their Z1 and Z2 prototypes to create an EVA (‘Extravehicular Activity’ – any time the crew must go outside) suit and surface……

He is the whitest of the white trash, the kind of man who dumps raw sewage in a storm drain and kidnaps your boss as a Christmas present. And the only man to ever combine a leather belt with a bathrobe. Randy Quaid has played lovable moocher ‘Cousin Eddie’ in four separate National Lampoon films, but his most famous performance still resides at yuletide. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, directed by Jeremiah C. Chechik) has weathered years of apathy to become something of a seasonal favourite. Watching Chevy Chase’s bipolar family man Clark Griswold lose his rag every December is now a festive tradition . Yet Clark is not really……

For a big budget movie about a lone astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, the spacesuits in The Martian are surprisingly sober in terms of design. There is an attempt here to make everything seem as plausible as possible, costume design especially. Director Ridley Scott’s regular costumer Janty Yates has created possibly the sexiest spacesuits ever seen on screen, and what’s more they are functional. To paraphrase a line in the film, she had to “science the shit out of them”. Yates collaborated with NASA looking specifically at their Z1 and Z2 prototypes to create an EVA (‘Extravehicular Activity’ – any time the crew must go outside) suit and surface……

Here is a brief extract from editor Chris Laverty’s third ‘Fabric of Cinema’ column for international periodical Arts Illustrated. The main reason for a plug is the subject matter discussed: colour, without doubt one of the most fascinating aspects of theoretical costume study. Colour is so open to interpretation that any occasion costume designers dare to use it with intentional meaning constitutes a brave move. One of the finest costume events of the year so far, Stoker, provides just such an example. Costumers Kurt and Bart deliberately incorporated colour as a form of expression to be read alongside the film’s similarly intentional production design. A preview of the Arts Illustrated……

The displaced sex appeal of uniforms in Mildred Pierce. A prevalent theme in the first episode of Mildred Pierce starring is how domestic costume can be read as a signal for sexual availability.

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……

What a busy twelve months it’s been for costume design. Really though, this art, or craft, or business (Deborah Nadoolman Landis insists it is definitely a business) gets more talked about each year. 2013 was especially exciting however as it seemed every month something even more thrilling arrived to fawn over. In the last few weeks alone we have had The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Sleepy Hollow, and now American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street on the horizon. Dipping back further, it was Stoker that got us excited about subtext, The Great Gatsby that slammed the lid on that twenties revival once and for all, and Behind……

Costume designer for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Michael Kaplan, talks us through his choices and intentions for clothing in the film. Prepare to be disappointed if you want Tom Cruise’s blue silk suit worn in Dubai; it was custom made by Mr. Kaplan himself. At least Cruise’s Persol sunglasses are available to buy, however. Michael Kaplan is a powerhouse force in costume design. He is guaranteed to have worked on at least one Hollywood movie you fondly remember from the last twenty years or so. If in doubt consider he designed Samuel L. Jackson’s pimp ensembles for The Long Kiss Good Night (1996) and Randy Quaid’s bad taste brilliance…