Fashion steals spotlight in Scott’s ‘Gucci’
For a century, the Italian fashion house Gucci has made its reputation straddling a line between dignified luxury and conspicuously branded consumption. While its merchandise has long been a staple of the discreetly moneyed, the company’s clothing lines and logo-saturated prints have a reputation as flashy status symbols for the newly prosperous and aspirant.
Those intersections are evident in Janty Yates’ costumes for Ridley
Scott’s “House of
Gucci.” The film, in theaters now, tells the story of the house’s founding family from the 1970s to the
’90s, and centers on not only the rapid evolution of fashion in those decades but also the clan’s internal battles for control of the label. In real life, those fights eventually erupted in the murder for hire of heir Maurizio
Gucci, played by Adam Driver, at the behest of his ex-wife, Patrizia, played by Lady Gaga.
From a fashion standpoint, the film is as epic as Scott’s “Gladiator” or his medieval-set “The Last Duel,” which premiered this fall, also with costumes by Yates. The pair first worked together on 2000’s “Gladiator,” for which Yates won an Academy Award for best costume design.
Gaga wears 54 different looks in “House of Gucci,” with not a single item repeated in any of the ensembles. “Not even the jewelry,” Yates added. In total, Yates estimated that more than 300 costumes were created for the film.
“He’s very fashion-forward and very aware of costume,” Yates said of Scott. “It’s great because he’s very collabora
“House of Gucci” (R) in theaters now.
tive, and that’s a huge help.”
There were also extensive wardrobes created for Jeremy Irons, as classically suited patriarch Rodolfo Gucci; Al Pacino as Maurizio’s more rakish uncle Aldo Gucci; and an unrecognizable Jared Leto, who wears layers of prosthetics for his role as Aldo’s son, Gucci family black sheep (and sartorial risk-taker) Paolo Gucci.
Yates was able to access the Gucci company archive for research and had many pieces re-created for Gaga, notably a logo-covered pant ensemble and logo blouse paired with a leather skirt. Yates also sourced clothes and accessories from vintage clothing dealers as well as fashion houses Alaïa, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino for the star.
Gaga was intimately involved in helping shape her character’s look, which comes as no surprise, as she is a performer who so expertly uses fashion onstage and offstage to define her public persona. She even suggested her Italian American mother, Cynthia Germanotta, as a source of inspiration for the character’s style.
“LG (Lady Gaga) wanted to wear two necklaces, four bracelets, the biggest earrings,” Yates said. “The dresses were all beautiful silk, but they’re animal print. She’s got a great body; the tiny nipped waist and the bosoms are always on show, her parts always wiggle. She (the character, Patrizia) knows what she’s doing and that she can sell physical attraction.”
Among Yates’ favorite looks created for Gaga was Patrizia’s white lace wedding dress. Even for a formal wedding it’s just a little too much — like the rest of the character’s wardrobe — with its heavy applique motif.
Leto’s Paolo, though born into the family, is a fashion outsider with gauche tastes. The character wears selfdesigned corduroy suits in the earlier scenes and eventually nylon track suits with neon prints that were popular in the ’80s and ’90s.
“Jared was really enjoying it as well, even though he was spending six hours in prosthetics every day,” said Yates of the real-life Gucci brand ambassador. “We had Cesare Attolini from Naples make all his costumes, apart from the corduroys.”
One of the most revealing fashion moments in the film takes place on the snowy slopes of St. Moritz when Maurizio appears in a white ski suit. Paola Franchi, Maurizio’s childhood friend played by Camille Cottin, also wears a white ski suit, which draws comments from Patrizia, who wears red and black.
For viewers, the costumes highlight how Patrizia will never be fully accepted into the Gucci world or even in her own marriage. For Yates and Scott, they are as vital to the film’s success as the performances.
Whether costuming characters in space in the recent “Alien” films or dressing Moses fleeing Egypt in “Exodus,” in projects with Scott, “it’s always terrifying,” said Yates. “But you do your research, and you absolutely know the period inside out before you start. Luckily, Ridley and I have this shorthand, and we both lived through the ’70s, ’80s and the ’90s.”