Clothes on film

As Get on Up, director Tate Taylor’s look at the life of singing legend James Brown, hits UK screens we have some fantastic sketches to share of the film’s costuming. Costume designer for Get on Up is the one and only Sharen Davis, who previously worked with Taylor on The Help, although you may know her better for Devil in a Blue Dress, Dreamgirls, Ray and Django Unchained. Davis is absurdly talented and every single project she undertakes should be greeted with cheers by any costume fan. Get on Up with its collective of lowly, stage and civvie ensembles worn by Chadwick Boseman as adult James Joseph Brown (60+changes) is……

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……

Doris Day’s last hurrah for 1950s fashion wearing some of the most exquisite costumes ever seen on screen. Lord Christopher Laverty 8 Comments 19 Jun ’10 1 Jul ’10 9 Feb ’15

Exclusive Q&A with costume designer Amy Westcott about the After Earth life suit. 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. Our first proper trailer for After Earth and our first proper look at the ‘life suit’.

Costume Designer Lindy Hemming talks exclusively to Clothes on Film about her work on The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan once again shows his appreciation for costume in this immensely satisfying end to the Dark Knight trilogy. Christmas comes early for anyone looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises, as Warner Bros. has just released a full trailer. Blurry and unofficial, but these are definitely photos of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Somewhat misleading as nowhere is this pic officially tagged as being ‘Catwoman’; officially this is our first shot of Anne Hathway as Selina Kyle.

A new VLOG looking back over the still stunning costume design on of Inception. We revisit sci-fi classic Inception a decade after its release with MVP, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland. A new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet has dropped and it’s undoubtedly going to be the best film EVER. A mishmash of sci-fi conventions and clichés cobbled together as something we have never quite seen before. Costume designer Amy Westcott has finally been rewarded for her work on Black Swan with a CDG Award. For those of you lucky enough to live in LA, literally racks of costumes have just on display at The FIDM Museum. The 83rd Academy Award…

Director Peter Jackson’s new movie The Lovely Bones has been chosen for this year’s Royal Gala screening at London’s Leicester Square in late November. This is a world charity premiere in aid of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund two months before the scheduled release date. Now this may not mean much unless you have a ticket, but it does give us an excuse to revisit the film’s trailer. Watch it HERE The Lovely Bones is set in 1973, retaining its retro setting from Alice Sebold’s 2002 source novel. A fantastical yet emotionally challenging idea, the plot concerns young Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) who is raped and murdered by her…

On the surface the Babadook is just another bogeyman: prickly, sinewy, all arched limbs and spiky digits. And this is the point: he is just another bogeyman; it is what he represents that really matters. Without spoiling too much, The Babadook is larger than life because he is the exaggerated physical manifestation of our demons. In this respect he could look like anyone – wherever our fears lead. Nonetheless for the purposes of dressing up as the Babadook for this Halloween, and having anyone actually guess who you are, the following is required: top hat, cape and some pointy things to stick on your fingers. To achieve maximum scare, however,……

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……

Banana Republic have teamed up with Anna Karenina costume designer Jacqueline Durran to create an exclusive collection inspired by the upcoming movie. The votes have been counted, the prizes dished out… Who might win for costume design at the Orange BAFTA Film Awards? Here’s our round-up of the big three costume design award nominations. By no means intended as an exhaustive list, Clothes on Film ponder an overview of 2011 in costume.