With Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), costume designer Deena Appel created one of the most iconic screen looks of all time. That is no overstatement; Austin Powers has been copied and homaged and[…]
Ocean’s 8: Fashioning Costume
MINOR SPOILERS Movies that feature contemporary fashion, particularly high-end and particularly for women, are a tricky sell costume wise. While men’s semi-formal to formal attire is generally shaped around the fundamental guise of the lounge[…]
Superfly Solo
MILD SPOILERS Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) is far and away the most ‘A New Hope-like’ film in the series yet. In terms of tone, sure, but particularly costume. What costume designers Glyn Dillon[…]
Costuming Hitchcock: An Extract from Hitchcock’s Heroines by Caroline Young
Author Caroline Young has just released a fascinating new book entitled Hitchcock’s Heroines (published by Insight Editions). It celebrates and studies the women in Hitchcock movies; their influence, semblance and iconography. What’s more, Young also[…]
Infinity War Costume Design: The Unfamiliar Familiar
SPOILERS For anyone with an eye to costume, The Avengers: Infinity War (2018) seemingly takes few evolutionary leaps. This makes perfect sense when we consider the timeline following particularly significant events of Captain America: Civil[…]
Ken Takakura Wearing Levi in The Yakuza (1974)
The Levi jacket worn by Ken Takakura as Ken Tanaka in Japan set thriller The Yakuza (1974, costume design by Dorothy Jeakins) is not Japanese denim. It was not made in Japan but is nonetheless[…]
The Alienist: Costume Featurette Provides Glimpse into Gilded Style
Netflix have released a short featurette about costume design for The Alienist, giving an overall glimpse at the work of Michael Kaplan and his team in putting together the era of 1896, New York. What[…]
Phantom Thread: An Insight into Autism and Relationships
SPOILERS If you’ve heard anything about Phantom Thread (2017, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson), you are bound to uncover a multitude of thoughts on the astounding Academy Award winning costume work of Mark Bridges or[…]
The Last Jedi: Interview with Costume Designer Michael Kaplan
MINOR SPOILERS There are already lots of good interviews with Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) costume designer Michael Kaplan on the internet (we recommend this one in particular), so for Clothes on Film we[…]
Homecoming: Betsy Heimann on Costuming Godless
MINOR SPOILERS At a pivotal juncture during the Fathers & Sons episode of Godless (2017), the camera tracks into a pink ribbon tied on the back of young woman’s hair; a woman who is suffering[…]
The Post Trailer Debuts: Ann Roth sets the Tone
Costume designer Ann Roth, arguably one of the greatest of her craft still working in Hollywood, has costumed director Steven Spielberg’s latest The Post, and by the looks of this first trailer we are in[…]
The Passenger: Always at Odds
Filmmaker Nic Fforde discusses how he come to realise the importance of costume design in his projects. Stories in films are all familiar to us in some way, no matter how remote the setting. The[…]