Some keys to ‘Costume as Character’
Designers discuss crafting look and feel of 2018 films
The costume designers who helped shape the look and feel of some of biggest movies of 2018 gathered at the Skirball Cultural Center early last month for the Envelope Live’s “Costume as Character,” a roundtable discussion about their craft.
Onstage for the discussion were Colleen Atwood (of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”), Erin Benach (“A Star Is Born”), Ruth Carter (“Black Panther”), Caroline Eselin (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Sandy Powell (“Mary Poppins Returns” and “The Favourite”) and Mary Zophres (“First Man”). Here is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length.
Q: What’s the difference between a “costumer designer” and a “costumer”?
Zophres: A costumer designer is the one who conceptualizes and designs the look of the feature film or TV show or play or opera, and the costumer is the person, generally, who helps carry out that vision.
Q: One of the things that all of these films have in common is that there is some original source material. How do you break free of the confines of that to make your own vision?
Eselin: (“Beale Street”) is a book by James Baldwin and I tried to figure out how to honor him, so not really “breaking free,” but I will say there are lots of costumes that are taken directly from the book and we wanted to honor him as much as we could. But sometimes, also, what’s written won’t work for the film, so it’s figuring out what can work there.
Q: Can you give me an example of a costume or two from the book that you have in the movie?
Eselin: Fonny, who is our young lover— Tish and Fonny — he wears a black and red lumberjack jacket that’s plucked straight from the book. The mother who comes in, she’s written in a cream-colored shopping hat — beret — we put that in.
Carter: For “Black Panther,” the way that the color palette was crafted and communicated was an homage to the comics. There are specific things there — like the isicholo crown that Queen Ramonda wears in the comics — but she also wears yoga pants and a tunic. It’s crafting an experience that’s not so specific one-to-one.
Q: Are there any benefits — or maybe drawbacks — to working with someone over and over and over again?
Atwood: Well there’s never a drawback to working with Johnny Depp, just sayin’ — we should all be so lucky. I guess the trick is not to go to the same place because you know the person, (but to try) to evolve what he can do, understand the span of stuff that he can do.
Q: Erin, in “A Star Is Born” there are two standout dresses. The gold one and a blue one at the end. Did those have specific inspirations?
Benach: Well, the funny story about the gold dress is, because the gold dress precedes a scene where she has to get into the shower with Jack, we knew we needed multiples. Then the morning of shooting the Grammy scene, Stephanie — Gaga — called me up and said, “I think I want to wear the other dress.” We got Gucci on the phone and they said they would build us another dress in Italy and send it to us in two days, and it all worked out.
The blue one was a dress that I designed as well and it was inspired by a dress that Grace Kelly wore. We knew the stage was going to be very dark and I think the emotion for the scene was hopeful, and that is what we wanted to convey ... not sadness but a hopefulness.
Q: Let’s talk about “The Favourite” for a minute. Am I correct that the costumes were not completely historically accurate?
Powell: The cut of the costumes is historically accurate (to 1708) — for the men and the women — (but) the treatment of them is different; I used contemporary fabrics so there are kitchen servants in the film that are (wearing costumes) all made from denim. I wanted them to feel like work wear. I actually used jeans that we bought from thrift stores and turned them into corsets and bodices and men’s waistcoats.
Q: Mary, there are some plaid suits that
Ryan Gosling wears that make him stand out whether he’s at a news conference or talking to the guys at NASA. Was that intentional?
Zophres: Yes, it’s a sport coat and it’s a tool that you often use — well, I do — when you’re dressing your lead so that no one else surrounding them is in the same sort of thing. But it was actually inspired by a photograph that Ryan showed me from the Armstrong family — it’s a personal photograph that’s never been shared from his mother — of Neil in a plaid ’60s sport coat (and) it said on the back, “You look so handsome, love Mom.” And, honestly, tears came to my eyes — and Ryan’s — it was just a really touching note.