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Designers share their stories of bringing art to life, seamlessly
Fans have passionately championed what they believe is the best movie in this year’s Oscar race. But have you had a glimpse inside those films?
Ahead of Sunday’s Academy Awards (ABC, 8 ET/PT), we’re unveiling our first-ever augmentedreality Hollywood experience, allowing readers to explore the underpinnings of epic costumes from Oscar favorites “Black Panther,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Favourite,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “Mary Queen of Scots.”
This USA TODAY AR experience has everything: the ability to explore famous costumes as though you’re standing right in front of them, interviews with the films’ acclaimed costume designers and new celebrity tidbits.
Here’s a taste of the stories we discovered behind the seams.
‘Black Panther’
You were right to be amazed by the costumes of “Black Panther.” Oscar-nominated designer Ruth E. Carter drew inspiration from ancient Africa and propelled the aesthetic of Wakanda forward with wearable art and futuristic details.
“When you look at the art of Africa, you see so many unique shapes, spiritual meanings – you see history, but overall, you see their version of beauty,” she says.
And she made sure the formidable Dora Milaje warriors weren’t sexualized.
“We wanted to honor the female form and not exploit it. So the costume is covering the vital organs. It’s devoid of high heels. We wanted the Dora Milaje to be taken very seriously as the highest-ranking female fighting force in Wakanda.”
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Disappointing Queen fans was not an option. “One of the challenges in representing Freddie Mercury in this film was to make sure that the fans were happy,” says costume designer Julian Day. “Freddie was very loyal to his fans as well, so I wanted to make sure that they were happy with his look.”
Even a simple outfit, such as his famous Live Aid costume (Adidas sneakers, jeans and a white tank top), “was actually one of the biggest challenges,” says Day, calling star Rami Malek’s involvement “extraordinary.”
For the first fitting, “we’d bought a few pairs (of jeans) and they weren’t quite right. Rami went back to the States and found a pair and brought them back,” he says, “Then we approached Wrangler and then they found lots of pairs in their archives and sent as many pairs as we needed.”
‘Mary Poppins Returns’
Talk about artistry: Emily Blunt wore gowns that were hand-painted with watercolors for a portion of “Mary Poppins Returns.”
For the Royal Doulton Music Hall song-and-dance sequence, the liveaction and animated characters needed to be integrated, “which is why I had the idea to maybe make them look as if they are painted in the same way,” says Oscar-nominated costume designer Sandy Powell.
It was an unbelievably involved timeline. “That actual process will take several painters a good couple of weeks to do, and then the costume makers work a few days on top of that,” she says.
‘The Favourite’
Focusing on a palette of black and white for Emma Stone’s social-climbing scullery maid in “The Favourite,” Powell (also Oscar-nominated for this film) decided to slowly lighten Abigail’s wardrobe, “adding more and more white to the costume.”
As Abigail climbs rank inside the royal household, her outfits proceed to have “a little bit more white, and the one after that has a bit more white until we end up with her final costume, which is mostly white with the bits of black, and actually a bit more decorated than anybody else is,” she says. “I wanted to show her sort of determination to succeed and rise up the social ladder.”
And, yes, corsets were required. Unlike co-stars Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz, Stone “had never worn a corset before,” Powell says. Between the underpinnings and the boning, “it was a new thing to get used to.”
‘BlacKkKlansman’
While building the ’70s-infused wardrobe for undercover detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, costume designer Marci Rodgers went thrifting, seeking out Stallworth’s groovy suits, platform shoes and jewelry. New York thrift stores “have a lot of ’70s clothing,” she says, but you have to “make sure the lapels are wide.”
Dressing Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace) brought its own challenges. Rodgers describes high emotions during the shooting of the crossburning scene, and how director Spike Lee forbade any phones being out.
Even in dressing Duke, she strove for accuracy. “I would hate as an artist for him to say ‘That wasn’t me,’ or ‘That didn’t look like me’ or ‘My clothes look terrible,’ ” she says.
‘Mary Queen of Scots’
Royals would often wear the same ornate gowns over the course of their life. Gowns would be altered as monarches aged or their weight changed, so “it’s hardly surprising that nothing really exists of the fabric of her clothes,” says Oscar-nominated costume designer Alexandra Byrne, who adorned Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I in “Mary Queen of Scots,” which pits her against the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan). “They were stitched into, they were altered. The fabric would have been destroyed just by the day-to-day of it.
“It’s not as if I walk into a fitting room with this big Elizabethan dress and say ‘Here you are, Margot, put this on,’ ” Byrne says. “It’s very much an incremental stage where you’re building the silhouette, you’re building the layers, the proportion, the balance, and how the movement works.”
Did you know gems were sewn onto royal gowns?
Elizabeth’s lady of the bedchamber “was in charge of the jewelry,” Byrne says. “One of her duties when all the clothes were taken off was to sweep the floor to pick up all the stones that had fallen off. We used fake stones but they were real stones. These dresses were crusted with jewelry.”