OF LOVE AND VISUAL METAPHORS

The ‘king’ of modern dark cinematography, Guillermo del Toro, this time decided to combine victorian mystery and elegant romantism in order to give birth to various characters — all opposite from each other but yet attracted to one another. No need to mention that a this goal is difficult to achieve and most of the job was probably on the shoulders of a costume designer — Kate Hawley, who never worked with historial times before (‘Pacific Rim’, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and a very much expected ‘Suicide Squad‘). All that actually explains why working on ‘Crimson Peak’ was basically a fresh breath for her.

It is truly impressive how deep and accurate was the approach to every character of the film. It is all about how much attention you pay to details: the better you look, the more you know about what’s happening inside the characters. For instance, each costume and every detail of ‘Crimson Peak’ is based in the end of 1980s – beginning of 1900s, however, Lucille is old-fashioned, so she is wearing dresses famous in 1870s.

The Victorian era was the era of ‘mourning’ fashion, and that is why in its canons the main character is wearing a tape of her dead mother and her jewelry. Meanwhile, er outfits are embellished with flowers made of antique velvet, and mourning victorian lace combined with vintage accessories. On the other side, we can easily see that Kate Hawley was also influenced by esthethics of fall collections by Alexander McQueen and Oscar de la Renta, also gothic and romantic. Kate basically invented her own visual language, some symbolic colour code, so each detail in the movie is a part of it. Lucille, for example, has some intertwining branches covered with leaves on her dress — a symbol of autumn, predecessor of winter — time of death.

The main character — young Edith Cushing — is, according to Guillermo del Toro, a strong representative of ‘light’ side. She represents the creation beginning, love. Edith’s dress is blooming and full of butterflies. Flowers mean fertility, antipode of death.

Everything Katy Hawley created for Peak is about decadence and exaggeration. It is ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte plus ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ by Caspar David Friedrich. Sunny, prosperous Buffalo and collapsing cold Allerdale Hall — they are inseparably connected to movie heroes and it is showing with a fine and delicate work of costume creators.

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Game of Thrones: Dorne

 

Since the minds (first of all, its writer George R. R. Martin) behind Game of Thrones have created a whole universe whose variety resembles the world we live in, it is obvious to find different countries and cultures in it. The greatest contribute to the visual representation of this story in terms of costumes has been given by Michele Clapton, who was able to match the geographic features of every region with the personality of its citizens.

In a few posts ago, we read how people from the North are strong and practical and how this is reflected in their clothes, which don’t show many decorations but instead are made to face the merciless cold of this territory. Like the North, also the South has its own particular environment, and costumes have been thought and made to meet these precise characteristics.

At the bottom of the Seven Kingdoms as they were conceived by Martin, there is Dorne. This region is pictured as arid and desert, even if punctuated with luxuriant areas, especially in the capital city, Sunspear. House Martell used to rule the kingdom, until the recent rebellion led by the Sand Snakes sisters. To represent this particular climate, the production shot the scenes relative to Dorne in Spain, first in the surroundings of Seville, then in Cordoba. This choice also led to transmitting some Islamic influence on Dornish culture, whose centres of powers are situated in medieval Arabic palaces. Moreover, also the costumes of the characters that live here have the same mark. For example, Prince Oberyn used to wear silky layers of yellow and okra fabrics, decorated with golden suns. In the same tones of yellow and spices-like shades Michele Clapton created the armours for the guards of Dorne, for which the inspiration was taken from padded uniforms she saw in Firenze, Italy. In addition, these armours are accompanied by soft belts and turbans, which recall the ones of Berber tribes of North Africa.

A few episodes ago though, House Martell was deposed from the throne and substituted by three daring women, known as the Sand Snakes. Even if their costumes still present the same Arabic influence, the costumes of Obara, Tyene and Nymeria are very sexy and suitable for combat. Their clothes are often hemmed by details in leather and in many occasions they wear metallic bustiers that resemble small female armours.

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THROUGH FIRE AND WATER

No doubt, “Revenant” can surely be called one of the most long-suffering Hollywood projects of this century. The adaptation of the novel by Michael Punk of a hunter who survived a grizzly attack, back in 2001 has been first conceived by a screenwriter and producer Akiva Goldsman (“I am Legend” and “Hancock”). For various reasons the film was delayed for more than ten years, and it was just 2011 when Alejandro Inarritu and Leonardo DiCaprio joined the project. As a result — an impressive amount of awards and an undeniable visual masterpiece. The movie is striking not only for the enormous amount of job done but also as a perfect example of great group interaction. From light and landscapes to nomad images, the movie conveys beautiful locations and harsh reality of conflicts occuring there.

Jacqueline West — costume designer of the movie — created multi-layered designs, including leathers, pelts, and closures made from animal claws. In working with Inarritu, she revealed “it was my goal to give Alejandro the look for each of these characters that would create the emotionality that he was going for. All these costumes had to invoke for him the complexity of the character and invoke a certain kind of feeling from the audience.” One of the books that helped her to come up with final designs, as Jacqueline says later, was “40 Years of the Fur Trade in the Upper Missouri”.

Each element — from moccasins and hats to uniforms and coats was sewn according to historical drawings and descriptions. However, due to excessive wear in severe conditions, for the majority of actors had been made up to six copies, while DiCaprio had twenty, including several variations of wet fur that never dried out.

“Alejandro had only one requirement — everything should be realistic. As much as possible. After seeing my initial sketches and references he noted that after several years of travelling, as it happenned to characters in the film, it is impossible to distinguish the fabric of their clothes. It’s going to be all covered with fat. These words became a real mantra for me”, says Jacqueline. “As a result, we could not come up with anything better than wax, closely replicating a bear grease.”

Most of the main characters’ costumes were made for them exclusively using the finest fur ordered in Canada through special auctions. “The bear skin I can easily call an additional protagonist of the film”, laughs Jacqueline West.

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Wes Anderson’s kingdom

If we were supposed to do a list of the elements that characterize the most Wes Anderson’s universe, formal perfection would probably be the first. In the world that he has created, that pervades all his movies, this trait of sought perfection is recognizable in different aspects. This balance is that cherry on top that makes his movies result visual-wise very inspiring and exciting, and that helps giving an appearance of light movies, easy to watch and enjoy, even if the plot does not necessarily have a happy ending.

For a start, the most evident one is the constant research for symmetrical framings. Very often his characters are at the center of the scene, with an equal portion of background on both sides. There are some really famous frames that make this perspective absolutely visible, such as in The Darjeeling Limited or Grand Budapest Hotel.

Another way Wes Anderson uses to get formal perfection is matching palettes and attention to details. We can revise this tendency in the vivid yellows of his short movie Hotel Chevalier, where an enigmatic Natalie Portman smokes a cigarette in a decadent golden bathrobe, covered by a silky yellow cover, in a (perfectly symmetrical) luxurious bed. Or also in a famous scene of his most famous movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, in which the lobby boy Zero’s light blue uniform matches perfectly the ribbons on the tons of Mendl’s patisserie boxes, that surround him and Saorsie Ronan’s Agatha.

The universe Wes Anderson has created is not necessarily a happy one: there are still depression, resentment, need for revenge or desire to emerge, secret love-stories and difficult family relationships. What makes him completely different from any other director though is his care for the details, aiming to find the right way to express these complicated feelings, which is basically another way of communicating that even in the darkest moments, even in the most problematic ones, there are still things to cheer us up.

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GAME OF THRONES: THE NORTH

Being compared to the world-famous Lord of the Rings by the success and budget, attracting record number of viewers this series is a heavy hitter in the world of fantasy. Very recently a new season of already a cult serial Game of Thrones has been released. Even if you are not interested in the outcome of numerous intrigues or the struggle for the Iron Throne, you should watch it at least for the sake of the costumes, which have started to resemble fashion-trends.

The world of Game of Thrones can be compared with medieval Europe of XII-XIII centuries with only one distinction – something mystical happens there, and this very distinction provides costume designers with an opportunity to create in many different directions.

To begin with, two women are responsible for the visualization of this quite cruel, I would say mannish story: they are production designer Gemma Jackson and costume designer Michele Clapton. Michele has done great job: there’s a dozen of dresses, armours, fur coats, jackets in the show, and everything is thoroughly thought out and executed. It’s a big budget project, so this gives costume designers a chance to pay attention to every small detail from the creation of homespun textiles to the incuse of jewelry symbols. Today we will take a closer look at the style of peoples of the severe North, protected by the Starks, one of the central Houses in the serials.

The Starks live in a cold and wet place. Only wool, leather, fur and a limited range of dyes are accessible to them: they must take into consideration the cold, and for the status they put on high soft embroided collars. Women embroid in order to decorate their dresses while northmen’s clothes are made of leather. During the creation of these costumes the clothes of Inuits and Tibetans were inspected. Stark’s costume cannot be imagined without fur: a rich mantle is a part of the image as well as the protection against the cold weather.

To attain such striking credibility, Michele studies not only how the costumes looked like in the Middle Ages but also what dyes were accessible to the people of those times. It’s interesting that costumes of some characters are sewn for a few days and after that they are deliberately aged. Even Vaseline is in use to make the costumes look dirty and greasy.

It’s obvious that costumes play a great role in the TV show: they create the atmosphere of the serials, make viewers become more interested in it, besides they reflect the temper of characters, highlighting their development. Dresses of Lady Catelyn show her devotion to the origins and her family, and details of her image illustrate that. Being from House Tully with its sigil “silver trout”, Cat continues decorating her dresses with the native symbols even after becoming Lady Stark. Her attires have fancy double collars that resemble fish gills. Fibules on her dresses and mantles are in the form of “trouts” but not “direwolves” that symbolize House Stark.

When it comes to fabrics and decoration, Clapton has born in mind that Winterfell does not border with any sea, there’s no trade, and consequently overseas fabrics are not available there. Dresses have been made of homespun fabrics of coarse texture, so to make the images more vivid, the fabrics were produced manually. As to decorations, embroideries were intentionally made primitive to create an impression that a woman decorated her dresses herself as she had no opportunity to go to a master from the capital.

Take Sansa for example who wears clothes of high quality but they look coarse and untidy. To emphasize her snow-white skin and a rare hair colour costume designers and stylists of Game of Thrones have decided to use muted shades of purple and violet in her garments. References to her images you can find in collections of Carolina Herrera and Dries van Noten.

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UNDER THE MOONLIGHT

 

The masterpiece by Jim Jarmusch is not the newest of movies, but it can be considered an evergreen in terms of beauty, style and atmosphere. It is one of those films where, even if you would like to pay attention to the movie itself, your imagination is being constantly dragged somewhere else by some framings, some details, some games of light.

The plot is not extremely strong: Jim Jarmusch’s movie is more a piece of art, slow and meandering. The costumes of the movie were designed (and in some cases hand-made) by Bina Daigeler, who had previously worked with both Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston in The limits of control. The characters of the movie — all vampires (but do not expect anything similar to Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch’s costumes of Twilight) — have been living for centuries and their clothes reflect both this aspect and their personality. Tom Hiddleston’s character, the vampire Adam, lives in Detroit. He’s dark-souled, melancholic, completely detached from the world outside. He lives basically hidden in his house, surrounded by old guitars. We see him most of the time in dark shirts, barefoot, with slim jeans and — in the few occasions when he goes out — black leather jacket. Everything regarding Adam is dark-coloured, heavy, even if decorated with some touches of old-times Romanticism. Adam’s beloved wife, Eve (played by Tilda Swinton), is on the contrary full of life and she is living in amber Tangier. Her colour palette is made by whites, cream colours, ivory, sometimes even gold and pale yellow, enhanced by her white mane (enriched with yak hair). Her loungewear at home shows orientalistic pieces, probably collected around the world, such as Chinese pyjamas and a golden-and-black robe, handmade by Daigeler. Mia Wasikowska’s character instead, Eve’s sister Ava, who arrives in Detroit to find shelter and forces them to go out and party, is represented as very young. For this reason, her clothing is made by polka-dotted tights and printed cocktail dresses.

At the end of the day, this movie, that is not much of a movie but more of a tale with unbelievably beautiful photography and things (furniture, clothing), still is frozen in our minds as the most memorable and complex portrait of vampires.

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ON THE WARPATH

‘It was such a relief!’ — says Charlize Theron about her new hairstyle after she had to shave her head for the latest Mad Max movie. ‘Fury Road‘ itself was a relief too — for everyone who is somehow familiar with the franchise: Tom Hardy painlessly replaced Mel Gibson, however, we have to admit, female cast grabbed most of our attention. The casting indeed is amusing: Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington–Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, Courtney Eaton and Abbey Lee turned an action movie of the year into a true feministic fashion film.

In addition to the tense storyline and logical for a blockbuster special effects, art directors and costume designers also played a significant part in its success: dark post-apocalyptic aesthetics of the movie hypnotise, as much as images of half-naked concubines dressed in sandy colours and expressive Imperator in combat boots and khaki skinny jeans.

In charge for the visualization of a steampunk post-apocalyptic world was a three-time winner of the ‘Oscar’ Jenny Beavan (‘Sherlock Holmes’ with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, ‘The King’s Speech’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, etc.). Her main mission was to make the characters actually wear rags that would look stylish — and that Jenny managed to achieve. Imperator Furiosa — the major feminist of the movie performed by Charlize Theron —was supposed to look both brutal and emphasized sexy, and bold. An outfit developed for her combined a lightweight fabric with leather accents and corset. Instead of accessories she is carrying a countless number of weapons, on her feet – brutal men’s boots; Her styling presents unevident sexuality built on contrasts.

The wives of Immortan Joe, who were kidnapped by rebels and carried with them through the endless deserts, received very light garments barely covering their bodies — as a symbol of vulnerability and lack of choice, wives are shown unprepared for the prevailing conditions. The outfits are representing girls just as objects of male desire, made for their satisfaction, while Furiosa’s goal is entirely different, and that is another example of their antagonism.

We’ve seen such clothings already, on the characters of ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace‘ in scenes that took place on the desert planet Tatooine. Lost heroes, dressed in draped bleached linen garments looked quite impressive, so it is no surprise that Jenny Beavan decided to refer to the visuals of sunburnt travelers, who cannot get out of the sand dunes.

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