California Apparel News

Creating the look on the big screen requires not only skill in the fashion realm but a passion for creating a character. Clothes can ground a story in place and time and help an actor get into character. The posture, stance and voice of an actor can change in a fitting room as they transform to perform a part. This year’s Academy Award–nominated costume designers are recognized for creating the best and most-creative costumes. The nominations span the gamut from fantastical costumes seen in 3-D animation to the rugged styles of the American West and the regal looks of Britain’s royal family. Fashion Editor N. Jayne Seward caught up with three of this year’s Oscar-nominated designers to get a behind-the-scenes look into costuming this year’s best films.

Colleen Atwood “Alice in Wonderland”

This is Colleen Atwood’s ninth Academy Award nomination. The acclaimed costume designer won Oscars for her work on “Memoirs of a Geisha” in 2005 and “Chicago” in 2002. Other nominated works include “Beloved,” “Little Women” and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” For “Alice in Wonderland,” Atwood faced the challenge of re-imagining the classic film to fit visionary director Tim Burton’s magical fantasy world. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway star in the film.How did you research the costumes and enter the fantasy world of “Alice in Wonderland?” Were there any particular references that were important?The original “Alice in Wonderland” was my initial point of departure for designing. However, the modernized screenplay for “Alice” also became an important source of inspiration as it established several new elements that deviated from the original story. The screenplay was most captivating for me, from a creative standpoint, as it allowed Alice to enter a completely different world, replete with unlimited visual possibilities. Entering this realm, with Tim Burton at the helm, was really my main point of reference. How did you update the classic film for today’s audience? (Or was this a consideration?) The evolution lies within the film’s advanced use of technology, which obviously was not a factor in the original classic. The two major uses of this technology (which quickly pop into my head) were the Queen’s head and Alice’s grow-and-shrink dress. Both examples were both extremely challenging and extremely exciting! You’ve worked with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter many times. How does this collaboration continue to evolve and inspire your work? I’ve collaborated with Burton on many previous projects, and we have an established rapport—this simply means I have a better understanding of his visual preference. However, this doesn’t make designing any less challenging or any less enjoyable. With Tim Burton, I am always pushed to take my design to the next plateau—where it hasn’t been before.

Working with actors of Depp’s and Bonham’s caliber makes the costume design process much simpler because such actors have an in-depth knowledge of their characters and hence are able to offer a completely different and new point of view. This allows me to have a comprehensive view of the characters, and when I understand the characters better, I’m able to take my work to a profoundly deeper level. What was the most challenging aspect of designing the film? How were the costumes created for the CGI characters, such as the frogs, the rabbit and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?The most challenging aspect was dealing with both the CGI characters and the other digital elements of the film. The CGI characters were being animated at the same time principal photography was taking place, so, for these animated characters, we swatched fabrics, trims and buttons.

Of the digital elements of the film, Alice’s shrink-and-grow dress was by far the most challenging aspect of the design work as the scale of the dress had to be spot-on for the effect to be successful. To achieve this look we manipulated the laces and ribbons of the costume and created an optical illusion that Alice was both large and small.

Equally challenging was tackling the collar-to-head ratio of the Red Queen. Additionally, we had to expedite all the armor, which were subjected to a large number of action sequences—this, too, proved to be quite challenging.Jenny Beavan “The King’s Speech”

British costume designer Jenny Beavan studied theater design in London with aspirations to be a set designer. After falling into the position of costume designer on a Merchant Ivory film, she has never looked back. Since then, she has amassed a long list of awards and credits, including nine Academy Award nominations. In 1986, she won an Oscar for her work on “A Room With a View.” Other nominated films include “Gosford Park,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Anna and the King” and “The Remains of the Day.” In “The King’s Speech,” Beavan creates costumes for Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush for the true story of the future King George VI of England, who must overcome his paralyzing stammer on his way to the throne. How did you research the costumes in order to design the film?

The Internet was fantastic as I only had 5frac12; weeks from my start date to the first day of principal photography. There is wonderful archive footage and photographs to be found via the Internet. We also had great luck in finding some souvenir albums from various 1930s events for background atmosphere in second-hand book shops.Since the film depicts the life of the royal family, did you have access to the royal archives?

We had fantastic guidance from Hugo Vickers, who is a royal biographer. What was the biggest challenge in designing the film?

Lack of time and money! Also, we were depicting people and events that people still remember. Indeed, some of them are still alive, so it was very important to try and do justice to them and to get it right!Did you build the costumes or borrow/rent? Please describe your process.

A mixture of both but as little building as possible as we truly didn’t have the money. I work from a costume house in London called Cosprop, and they have a fine stock of 1930s clothes, some original pieces and some made for other productions. We would try stock clothes on the actors to find out what worked best for the character, and if it fit, they could wear those clothes, and if there were elements that didn’t work, then we made [built] them. Helena’s clothes were mainly made new in the Cosprop workroom, but some of her coats were genuine ’30s from Cosprop’s stock. Her hats were a mixture of made-new and vintage. Colin’s civilian suits were all tailored new—also, two of his top coats but other bits of his costume were from stock, including his uniforms. However, the accessories to the uniforms were begged, borrowed, made new or stolen! Very hard to get an “Admiral of the Fleet” complete Colin Firth size! Geoffery was completely stock Cosprop, as were most of the rest of the principals and all of the crowd. I like using old clothes—they already have a life to them and don’t require aging or distressing. They feel real—as, indeed, they are!This was an important film because of its subject matter—the royal family. Did you feel more pressure than normal to portray the costumes and characters accurately?

I always try and design the clothes that are completely appropriate to the character wearing them. [As I said earlier,] a lot of people remember the royal family and have a huge fondness for, especially, the Queen Mother.Throughout your career you have designed many incredible films. Which film was your favorite to design and why?

There are so many! I think my favorite end products are when they are “complete” (i.e., every part works with every other, complete teamwork), so “The Remains of the Day,” (HBO TV film) “The Gathering Storm” [and] “The King’s Speech,” but we had huge fun on “Anna and the King” making all those clothes. You can’t rent 1860s Siam and, indeed, “Alexander,” for which we made all the clothes you see on the screen.What else do you feel is important to your experience in designing this film?

This film was very hard, as I have mentioned, a frugal budget and a severe lack of time and a very fast shoot—39 days, I think! I had an incredible team who never complained, looked after the actors superbly, endlessly produced wonderful extras fittings without nearly enough costumes, loaded and unloaded costume trucks, and tried to keep actors and extras warm in impossible circumstances during a very cold winter—and they are still speaking to me!

My worry is that producers will now think that a budget such as we had on TKS is achievable, but I have to say I pulled in every favor I could, and I am sure there are still people who are owed money. ... And I really don’t think I could do it again!Mary Zophres “True Grit”

Mary Zophres studied art and art history at Vassar College, where she took a variety of film classes. After working as a production assistant in the costume department on “Born on the Fourth of July,” she decided to become a costume designer. She has designed many films, including “A Serious Man,” “Burn After Reading,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Fargo” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” This is her first Academy Award nomination. For “True Grit,” Zophres created the costumes for the Coen brothers’ adaptation of the Charles Portis novel set in 1870 about a young girl who enlists the help of a U.S. Marshal to avenge her father’s murder.How did you research the film?

I started at the Western Costume Research Library. Bobi Garland started pulling a bunch of [research]. They have files with photographs in them. I started looking at studio portraits from that time period. Through Bobi, we contacted the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce, and they have a whole historical [archive] there. The Fort Smith Library was [also] very cooperative. I feel like she went to the ends of the earth for me and found whatever she could get her hands on. I spent two months everyday after yoga going to the Western Costume Research Library to do research. It paid off because I felt like I was so embedded. By the time I started sketching, I felt like I was sketching from the point of view from that time period. I also read a lot of text because the photos were so limited and they were sometimes misleading. I read a lot of excerpts from diaries, and it helped put me in that time and place. I also was lucky enough to go the research library at the Gene Autry [The Autry National Center], and they let me look at clothing from that time period. How did you determine what would be the iconic pieces for each of the characters?

I started thinking about the characters, and I had had a brief conversation with Joel and Ethan [Coen]. I wanted to be able to see if you saw them from a distance or you saw them in shadow, you would know which character it was in the movie. I wanted to be able to have an identification with each of them without being over-the-top or fancy. For Rooster [the character played by Jeff Bridges], I think it’s his coat and the eye patch. The eye patch was also in the book, so we knew he was going to [wear one]. It’s also in the original movie with John Wayne. For La Boeuf [the character played by Matt Damon], we wanted him in a buckskin coat because in the script it said that he had “too much panache.” So it was up to me, Matt, and Joel and Ethan to try to figure out what would work on Matt that would fit that kind of description. For Mattie [the character played by Hailee Steinfeld], we wanted her to put on her dad’s coat. Before she was even cast, I imagined it being oversized because it was her dad’s. But you know, if you have something really baggy on and it’s freezing cold outside, you always make it tighter around your waist. So that’s how I got the idea of cinching it around her waist with a belt from his saddle roll. And then Lucky Ned’s wooly chaps were in the book. It said, “He’s the fellow with the wooly chaps.” That was just a matter of finding the alpaca and making them and making them right. They’re bright white when you get them, so we had to age them down. So it was finding something that was right for each character that worked on each actor and then just going for it. Mattie Ross looked almost like a modern-day hipster wearing her father’s coat and belt. Did you have any fashion considerations when designing her costumes?

No, but, mind you, we’re in the middle of nowhere and you see the same people and you’re wearing your same down coat everyday. All the girls wanted an oversize coat that was cinched at the waist. So in retrospect, it was a fresh look for all of us, but that was not the intention when I designed it. I heard someone say that it was going to be the look for fall—the oversize coat with the belt—and they’re going to call it “the ’True Grit’ coat.” And everybody wanted her pants. It was at the time when skinny jeans were everywhere, and she wears her dad’s pants, which are high-waisted, wool, stove-pipe legs. So it’s kind of baggy around the waist, but it’s held up by suspenders, and then her top was fitted. It was another cute silhouette, and then you tuck in the pants into those button-up boots. We all wanted those button-up boots. What was the most challenging aspect of designing the film?

Two things: The Bear Man was a challenge and, generally, [time]. Overall with this film, we had a 10-week prep. It was a labor-intensive project with a lot of multiples, and we manufactured everything, including the boots and the hats. So the manufacturing time and the aging time and then just having it be ready for camera—that was probably the most difficult. Plus, we were working under a budget. We had somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000, which sounds like a lot, but it’s not for a movie like this. The Bear Man wore an outrageous costume. What was the inspiration?

It’s scripted that he’s wearing a bear skin, and Joel and Ethan were very specific they wanted it to envelope him. So I drew something up, and I said, “So you want his head resting in the head of the bear?” And they said “yes.” But our actor was 6’5” and we had a hard time because there was no bear big enough—you would think there would be—that you could put his head in there and then have the bear’s arms cover the actor’s arms. So, we sewed in a way that blended everything together to make it look like it was one bear, but we had to use four skins. Celeste Cleveland really did the manufacturing of that. Celeste was my head tailor cutter/fitter on the movie, and she’s awesome. It was complicated, but I wanted it to look like it was organic—like the guy just killed a bear and he just happened to be wearing it. Many of the characters had one change of clothes throughout the movie. They get shot, get in fights and live in these clothes for days. How did you make them look so authentic?

The reason why “True Grit” looks good is because it’s aged well, I think. And the tailoring is good. It’s all about the aging, the tailoring and the hats. That’s what I learned about [designing] a Western.