KINDRED SPIRITS

Costume designer Alice Babidge and The Vampire’s Wife founder Susie Cave have both forged creative careers behind the scenes. But a collection of otherworldly dresses has drawn their unique connection out of the shadows and into the light. By Alice Birrel

The Vampire’s Wife founder emerges from behind the scenes, thanks to a dreamy dress collaboration with costume designer Alice Babidge

THE BEST CREATIVE partnerships can be difficult to define. Mercurial and at times chimeric, they are the result of a rare synergy. Alice Babidge, who has designed costumes for the best in film and theatre, and Susie Cave, the model and muse who established The Vampire’s Wife label five years ago, recognised this when they met. When Cave asked Babidge to collaborate on a collection for her brand, debuting this month, their relationship crescendoed, throwing new light onto Cave’s dark yet wistful signature dresses.

Entitled Pussy Bow – each design features a bow – the collection draws together Babidge’s knack for bringing fantasy worlds to life and Cave’s unwavering romantic vision, through dresses her husband Nick Cave describes as “complete mind-blowers. I’ve never seen dresses so powerful.” Here, the two women speak across different continents – Babidge from a film set in England and Cave in New York – to share their unique design process and what it’s like to recognise an accomplice in life and work.

Susie Cave: “The original, original contact Alice and I had was when Cate Blanchett had very sweetly asked me to make her a dress for an awards ceremony and I needed her measurements. The Vampire’s Wife had just started and Cate asked me to email Alice at the Sydney Theatre Company [Babidge was appointed resident designer in 2010] to ask for her measurements. Alice sent me a beautiful, theatrical profile; it had Cate’s name and eye colour, and was so beautifully formatted. I didn’t really know Alice then but we started communicating. That was four years ago. Our paths didn’t really cross again until … You tell the rest, Alice.”

Alice Babidge: “We didn’t meet properly until we had dinner one night. We were both invited to a friend’s house and I remember it was winter, it was very dark, we were in the countryside and it was raining. The doorbell rang – I didn’t know who was coming – and in walks Susie and Nick and [their son] Earl. Susie looked so incredible. I was completely unprepared. I was essentially wearing a tracksuit and Susie walked in with this incredible make-up, the most phenomenal hair and this long black gown. We sat next to each other at dinner and had the most delightful night. We talked about dresses and sleeves and period tailoring.”

SC: “I was obsessed with Alice and her aesthetic. I just kept looking at her. I tried to stop staring but everything about Alice was fascinating.” AB: “In my tracksuit.”

SC: “[Laughs] You looked gorgeous! I thought: ‘I’ve got to start looking around the rest of the table.’ Alice had this most incredible embroidered watch that wasn’t a watch – what was it, Alice?”

AB: “It was like a bracelet. Cate had just given it to me that night.” SC: “It was embroidered in gold. That was a Christmas present from Cate, wasn’t it?”

AB: “Yes, funnily enough, I was [later] asked to design [costumes for True History of the Kelly Gang] an Australian film Earl had been cast in, and he arrived on set with Susie. I felt a huge affection for Earl as one of the members of the gang in the film. I sent Susie photos of Earl’s fittings as we were going and when she came in again there were all these boys wearing 1930s-but-Victorian-but-Edwardian gowns. I remember the day she said to me: ‘Would you ever come and do some dresses with me?’ And I thought: ‘Yes, why not?’”

SC: “When I was in Australia, I had to pop in and see Earl one morning. I walked into the fitting and honestly I have never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. The cast was in the rehearsal room and they were actually having band practice because the director had asked them to form a band so they would get to know each other. So they had their guitars hanging off them and they were standing around in these dresses of pale green and pink, and tulle and lace, with this incredible Australian light coming through the window. I was speechless.

Alice was a professional; she didn’t take her eyes off what she was doing. I was looking around and saw [actor] Thomasin McKenzie in this dress that was just so beautiful, exactly the same colour as her eyes – lavender. I was a little bit nervous but I worked up the courage to ask her [to collaborate with me]. Until the day Alice actually arrived in Brighton [England, Cave’s home town at the time], I didn’t really believe she would want to work with me.”

AB: “I knew all about The Vampire’s Wife dresses and how deeply covetable they are. There’s this incredible energy, empowerment and confidence a woman gets from putting on one of these dresses – I see it every time I’m with someone who’s never worn one before. They’re sort of magical. I’ve never encountered it before with a dress. You try to give this gift to actors when you make them a costume. I was so touched to be asked to be part of it because it just felt like such an insular, secret world.” SC: “Up until I met Alice, the only person I ever listened to was Nick.” AB: “Aesthetically, we’re incredibly aligned. Susie has the keenest, most uncompromising eye. It is so great to work with someone who is just as obsessive about stuff and makes you feel like you’re not being too harsh a critic … There’s an acceptance of our pickiness.”

“There’s this incredible energy and confidence a woman gets from putting on one of these dresses. They’re sort of magical. I’ve never encountered it before”

SC: “It’s so true. We approach things in exactly the same way. The model will put on a dress and everyone in the room will say: ‘Oh my God, that’s incredible!’ and Alice and I will say: ‘No, that’s wrong. No.’ We see the faults immediately … I don’t feel like I’m on my own anymore and as a result, the dresses are getting so beautiful.” AB: “They’ve always been so beautiful.”

SC: “Well, no, they’re getting there, but they’re going into a new stratosphere with Alice.”

AB: “Our creative process is really fluid. We both come from very similar reference points. The whole thing is more of a conversation; one of us starts, the other responds, it builds and we make a dress. It’s incredibly gratifying. At the beginning, there’s a gentleness and ease to our process. In terms of colour, we respond in a really natural way. We create a little world and everything just falls into it.”

SC: “It’s not just dresses: it’s art direction, it’s set design. We direct the shoots together. Alice’s vision is really far-reaching; we’ve already realised so many of my dreams and it’s just the beginning.”

AB: “It’s a holistic approach, [we are curating] the whole world of The Vampire’s Wife. It has its own very clear language.”

SC: “My inspiration comes from film and art: the feeling, the atmosphere and the psychology of the characters. I do it subconsciously; I gather ideas from my affiliation with certain characters, like Claudia Cardinale in The Leopard and Isabella Adjani in One Deadly Summer, so I come from that sort of wonder. Plus, obviously, all of Nick’s world: his storytelling and his poetry.

“I’m always in different time zones. A lot of the time, people will say to me: ‘Susie, it’s Sunday.’ To me, it’s all work, 24/7. I don’t think of it any other way. Alice is even more like that than I am.”

AB: “I’m incredibly fortunate in that I really love what I do. I get to do it every day and I find it incredibly satisfying. I take every moment and opportunity as it presents itself, and it’s fun. Not everyone gets to experience that – Susie and I are really lucky.”

SC: “I’m also a very one-person person. I have few people in my life: just a few friends I’m phenomenally close to and also work with. [With Alice] our ideas are not limited to being in the same country or the same room. We relate to each other, not even in a literal way; we almost have this telepathic understanding of each other’s ideas. We don’t have to have an enormous conversation or meet in person. We just send each other a photograph and we know exactly where we’re going and get really excited. Often we even send each other the same photograph, or Alice will send something that’s beyond what I’ve been thinking of – it’s another level.

“I don’t think that comes along very often in your lifetime. When Nick and I met, it was similar: we had this understanding of each other without even knowing one another, and I recognise that with Alice. We like to work at night. People go out for dinner and they socialise. Alice and I work. We would rather be sitting together and working than having dinner and socialising.”

AB: “We do shy away from social events. We’d much rather bunker down in a corner somewhere and talk about what we should be doing next week or next year.”

SC: “Working has saved me, especially since my son [Arthur] died [in 2015], because I would rather be working than doing anything else. I don’t like to do small talk and socialise outside my small circle of friends. Work is my escape and it’s this beautiful world that now has a purpose. Before, I escaped but I had no purpose; now I have women who are waiting for dresses, and Alice and I can do all of these beautiful things for all these amazing people. It’s phenomenal.”

AB: “Susie’s brain works in the most fascinating way, very differently to mine. I’ve learned to emulate some of that: to push away from what’s become a default and just let my mind wander and explore … We sent each other a good amount of images a couple of days ago with those clips you sent me, Sus, from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

SC: “Oh yes! Even the font for the title and credits is amazing. And the costumes. What else were we looking at? Barry Lyndon.”

AB: “So much Barry Lyndon. And so much Fred Astaire.”

SC: “Our new headquarters is in Lewes, this incredible Medieval town in Sussex [England]. One of the first things we did [together] was drive here and Alice said: ‘I used to live here and I’m obsessed with it.’ It just has this incredible atmosphere. We’ve found this Medieval church, which will be our headquarters.”

AB: “There’s an incredible pagan fire festival there in November.” SC: “The festival goes through the whole town and is apparently terrifying. It’s one of the biggest festivals in England, I think, and it dates back hundreds of years. It’s something they’ve been celebrating since before Guy Fawkes. So, dare I say, look out world once Alice and I have moved in. There’s going to be a lot of exciting things going on.

“I’m just willing to take everything Alice has to give. To carry on would be a dream come true, but obviously I don’t take things for granted. Alice has an incredible career in costume design so I’m crazy grateful for this experience we’re having together.”

AB: “What we do is so much fun. There’s no reason why – while we’re enjoying it and it’s fruitful – we shouldn’t continue doing it in this really natural way.”