Clothes on film

This week’s costume biggies. The Great Race Karen Noske analyses the exceptional work of Edith Head for Natalie Wood. Breaking Bad Emma Fraser looks at Lydia’s blue coat (and her influence on Todd’s clothing) in recent episodes. Downton Abbey Caroline McCall keeps the Downton ladies covered up. Kristin M. Burke The veteran costume designer tackles the increasing problem of internet haters critiquing work they do not understand. Cinema and Clothes By Dal Chodha, with a teeny contribution by yours truly. Rush Much better interview with costume designer Julian Day than the last one we linked to. Masters of Sex Ane Crabtree on her late 1950s designs for the Showtime drama.…

The first full-length trailer for Disney’s new live-action adaptation of Cinderella was this week and featured tantalising glimpses of what promises to be a visually gorgeous film. The costumes, designed by three time Academy Award winner Sandy Powell, appear to be absolutely stunning. With a clever mix of the eighteenth century, the 1830s, and a little 1950s couture thrown in for good measure (Powell has been quoted as saying she was aiming for the look of “a nineteenth-century period film made in the 1940s or ’50s”), Powell has created another jewel to add to her already over-bling crown. Here is a quick rundown of some of the looks we’ve been……

Building character with the costume design of Pacific Rim. Contributor 1 Comment 15 Mar ’12 23 May ’20 17 Apr ’13

In Malèna (2000, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore), set during WW2 in a rural Italian town, Monica Bellucci plays an impossible vision of beauty; a woman so striking she is immediately sexualised by all who lay eyes on her. Malèna’s reaction to the leering male gaze and subsequent scorn of jealous women is expressed through her hair, make-up and clothing. Our introduction to the character occurs with Malèna wearing a just-below-the-knee white dress, lightly padded shoulders, deep neckline incorporating dotted bow detail (this fabric is later reused for another outfit – she is a seamstress) to match black and white edging on the revers. Its tubular fit is reminiscent of the…

Les Misérables is drenched in costume symbolism, specifically revolutionary red, white and blue. Subtle was never its intention. A majestic tale set in a buttoned-up world of repressed emotion.

Analysing the sometimes tense relationship between fashion and costume design. Contributor 5 Comments 4 May ’18 20 Jan ’20 6 Oct ’15

The first trailer for The Tourist has debuted. Regardless of your sexual orientation, there is something for you here.

A preview of Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty’s article on the vibrant costume design of Dick Tracy for Arts Illustrated magazine. Truly unique, Dick Tracy is as close to a comic strip brought to life as any film before or since. This was director and star Warren Beatty’s goal; not to interpret the comic, but to paint it directly onto a cinematic canvas. He achieved this by embracing the superficial qualities of the painted page, the bright colours, exaggerated structures, madcap caricatures, and placing them front and centre. Dick Tracy is an all knowing pantomime. The original Dick Tracy comic strip first published in the United States in 1931,……

Analysing the sometimes tense relationship between fashion and costume design. Contributor 5 Comments 12 Apr ’17 25 Feb ’13 15 Apr ’16

Analysis of Shawna Trpcic’s subtle costume signifiers with input from the designer herself. Lord Christopher Laverty 2 Comments 2 Mar ’10 21 Jan ’11 10 Jul ’13