Clothes on Film

The study of costume design in cinema and television. Featuring exclusive articles, news, interviews, videos, podcasts, essays and competitions.

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  • Girls on TV,  Guys on TV,  Interviews,  Premium

    Sons of Anarchy: Identity and the Outlaw: Women of SAMCRO

    19 Sep ’14 /

    Part two of our essay looking at sartorial identity in Sons of Anarchy, featuring exclusive insight from series costume designer Kelli Jones. Catch up with part 1 HERE. The women of SAMCRO include porn stars and pole dancers, but the club matriarch is Gemma played by Katey Sagal, formerly known as Peg Bundy in Married with Children. Gemma is the Queen of this world so her look is regal rock chick, “to make her look badass without looking like a slut. This sexy mama bitch doesn’t need to TRY” costume designer Kelli Jones says. With her background in music (she has performed with the likes of Bette Midler, Gene Simmons…

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    Sleepy Hollow: Q&A with Costume Designer Kristin M. Burke

    4 Feb ’14

    The Star Wattage of Mildred Pierce (1945)

    6 Mar ’17

    HBO Sessions Video: Clothes on Film Discuss Mildred Pierce

    21 Nov ’11
  • Clothes from now,  Guys on TV,  Interviews,  Premium

    Sons of Anarchy: Costume Identity and the Outlaw

    15 Sep ’14 /

    Sons of Anarchy portrays the fictionalised world of an outlaw motorcycle club; although the plots are dramatic in the extreme, many of the details are firmly based in realism, including the costuming. Series creator Kurt Sutter has described it as pure soap opera, but this family drama has earned the tag of “Hamlet on Motorcycles”. It has been embraced by pop culture and by the biker community, and spurred an upsurge in sales of Harley Davidsons (and a $25k SOA branded bike). Motorcycle club culture took off after WW2, when returning veterans with experience of riding bikes on service, and often undiagnosed post-traumatic stress, took to the lifestyle looking for…

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    Trailer for Spike Lee’s Oldboy: Nothing New?

    10 Jul ’13

    Skyfall Teaser Trailer Hits: Provocative

    21 May ’12

    The Hangover 2 Image Debuts: More Costume Wackiness to Come

    29 Nov ’10
  • Clothes from 2000-10,  Clothes from now,  Girls in Films,  Guys in Films,  Premium

    About Time to Dress Upper Middle Class

    9 May ’14 /

    SPOILERS Despite all the hoo-ha over films such as Blue Jasmine and Stoker contemporary is still pretty much overlooked as a form of costume design. If it’s invisible, well, nobody notices it, and if it’s designer it becomes all about ‘the fashion’ (OMG TOTES WANT THOSE SHOES). We are currently in an age when costume design means period and sci-fi. It comes to the extent that if a costumer wants to tell a story through contemporary attire, he/she needs either a director with a key grasp of semiotics, or one that doesn’t care less about semiotics and offers a degree of autonomy. Watching About Time we presume that Richard Curtis…

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    Costume Designers Guild Award for Doctor Parnassus

    27 Feb ’10

    Ghost Town: Yellow Shirt, Perfect Screenplay

    7 Aug ’09

    Review: The American

    15 Oct ’10
  • Clothes from Fantasy & Sci-fi,  Clothes from now,  Girls in Films,  Interviews

    Why is Miss Piggy Wearing a Vivienne Westwood Wedding Dress?

    11 Feb ’14 /

    When Clothes on Film visited The Muppets Most Wanted set back in March of 2013, we were given a tour of the bustling ‘wardrobe’ (their words) department, as overseen by costume designer Rahel Afiley. You can read more about that HERE, but after chasing Ms. Afiley around the room while she was trying to work, we managed to get a bit more out of her about using designer fashion, i.e. Vivienne Westwood, in the film. As always we are pushing the same old costume/fashion debate, though in this instance hearing from a costume designer on the front line is rather enlightening. Focusing specifically on Miss Piggy, for she is the…

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    Preview Tickets for Tron Legacy! Two Pairs to Give Away!

    22 Nov ’10

    Tron Legacy: Light Suit Costume

    9 Nov ’10

    Luke Cage: Swiss Cheese Hoodie

    14 Nov ’16
  • Clothes from 1980s,  Clothes from 1990s,  Girls in Films,  Guys in Films,  Premium

    Tailoring The Wolf of Wall Street

    7 Feb ’14 /

    There is a problem with the costumes in The Wolf of Wall Street, and it has nothing to do with the film itself but the coverage they have received. Namely, that this coverage is incorrect. Articles such as this one for Vogue France, or this for The Hollywood Reporter, or a ‘suit guide’ by Esquire, concentrate almost solely on Giorgio Armani’s contribution to the project with barely a mention of costume designer Sandy Powell. And this is the Sandy Powell by the way: 10 Oscar nominations and so well respected she has an OBE for services to the industry. It was Powell who costumed The Wolf of Wall Street, not…

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    The Iron Lady: Costume as Distinction, Gender and Protection

    4 May ’13

    Reading Costume Design in No Country for Old Men

    5 Apr ’13

    The Bloody Sartorialist: Christian Bale in American Psycho

    16 Jan ’14
  • Clothes from now,  Interviews,  Premium

    The Muppets Most Wanted: Set and Costume Visit

    9 Jan ’14 /

    ‘Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theatres in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid, Dublin and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit the Frog—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais. The film stars Ty Burrell as Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon, and Tina Fey as Nadya, a feisty prison guard.‘ That is the boilerplate pitch for The Muppets Most Wanted. Verbatim. If you think that sounds like…

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    Inception: Jeffrey Kurland – Follow Up Costume Q&A

    20 Aug ’10

    World War Z and the Art of Breaking Down

    27 Jun ’13

    Brigbsy Bear: Interview with Costume Designer Sarah Mae Burton

    14 Aug ’17
  • Clothes from 1837-1919,  Premium

    Peaky Blinders: Q&A with Costume Designer Stephanie Collie

    15 Oct ’13 /

    If you’re not watching BBC 2’s gangster western Peaky Blinders, stop reading now and seek it out on iPlayer – there’s still one episode left so you have time to join the party. Peaky Blinders is the slow burning tale of a volatile, family led criminal gang, headed by calculating brother Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), and their rise to power in post-World War I Birmingham. It does not sound glamorous and it isn’t, yet is all the more compelling for embracing the filthy side of what many considered to be the cusp of the ‘Roaring Twenties’. Not in Birmingham it wasn’t. Thankfully Peaky Blinders had costume designer Stephanie Collie (Lock,…

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    Review: War Horse

    16 Jan ’12

    Sherlock Holmes Costume Guide Part 1: Frock Coats & Bustles

    17 May ’10

    True Grit: Full Trailer Moseys Along

    5 Oct ’10
  • Clothes from now,  Girls in Films,  Guys in Films,  Interviews,  Premium

    Much Ado About Nothing: Colour Blind Costuming

    11 Jul ’13 /

    Analysis of Shawna Trpcic’s subtle costume signifiers with input from the designer herself.

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    Bond 23 Not Gonna Happen. Not Yet Anyway

    20 Apr ’10

    Colleen Goes Contemporary: First Official Pic from The Tourist

    14 Jun ’10

    Designer Style: The Counsellor (or Counselor?) Trailer Hits

    26 Jun ’13
  • Clothes from Fantasy & Sci-fi,  Girls on TV,  Premium

    Game of Thrones Costume Analysis: Sansa Stark

    24 Jun ’13 /

    The costume evolution of Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones.

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    Film Review: Iron Man 2

    3 May ’10

    Iron Man 2 Fan Costume: Fan-tastic

    21 Jul ’10

    Snow White & the Huntsman Trailer: Atwood Hits It

    11 Nov ’11
  • Clothes from Fantasy & Sci-fi,  Girls in Films,  Guys in Films,  News

    All the Catching Fire Fashion Portraits in One Place

    9 Mar ’13 /

    A fun glimpse at the bizarre fashions to expect in Catching Fire thanks to costume designer Trish Summerville.

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    Inception Revisited with Costume Designer Jeffrey Kurland

    17 Jul ’20

    The New Batsuit Reveal: Cute But Sinewy

    14 May ’14

    Eiko Ishioka Has Died

    30 Jan ’12
  • Clothes from 1837-1919,  Girls in Films,  Premium

    The Phantom of the Opera: Colour, Character and Costume

    5 Dec ’12 /

    The Phantom of the opera demonstrates that the colour, size and shape of a character’s costumes can communicate on a subliminal level.

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    Exclusive Costume Featurette for My Cousin Rachel

    31 May ’17

    Dual Analysis: The Young Victoria – Chris’ Thoughts

    28 Jul ’10

    The First Great Train Robbery: Sean Connery’s Victorian Coat

    5 May ’09
  • Clothes from 1960s,  Girls in Films,  Premium

    Sandra Dee in If A Man Answers: A Salmon Run Up Beacon Hill

    9 Nov ’12 /

    The evolving costumes worn by Sandra Dee in classic sixties gender comedy A Man Answers.

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    The Suits of Lee Marvin in Point Blank (1967)

    2 Sep ’19

    Goldfinger: Sean Connery in a Towelling Playsuit

    29 Mar ’11

    George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

    12 Oct ’12
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