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Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier have their clothes fitted in Nairobi, Kenya during production of the MGM/Richard Brooks drama Something of Value, 1957.

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Love getting to see the costume sketches next to the final look, especially on a show that’s had so many folks talking about the costumes!

The Queen’s Gambit → sketches + final costume

Costumes designed by Gabriele Binder

#costume design #costume designer #the queen’s gambit #gabriele binder #costume renderings #costume illustration

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One of the challenges of costume work is creating multiples of “hero” pieces (anything worn by a principal actor on camera). There are a few reasons you might need multiples-- it could be as simple as a photo double/ stand in (an actor of similar height, build, and coloring to the actor who can stand in place for long times while the crew set up the camera and lights correctly before filming, so the movie star doesn’t have to). But it could also be that you have a stunt double or five or 12. (In this interview with Skyfall Costume Designer Jany Temime, she reveals that for the opening sequence, they had SIXTY suits!)

It could also be because the outfit has to degrade over the course of the film. My favorite example of that is Die Hard. John McClane wears one outfit through the whole movie (with the exception of the coda), but it definitely looks different at lots of different stages as he survives all kinds of chaos. We don’t film in the chronological order of the story, so that costume department probably had 30+ once-identical shirts all carefully assigned to different scenes to preserve the illusion of only one shirt undergoing everything the character was.  

Sometimes, pulling this off means just buying two sweaters at the Gap instead of one, but sometimes it means driving to every Uniqlo in a 50 mile radius to get the only size extra small skirt available in the style you need at each one, because you need 10 of them. Or sometimes, you have to figure out how to make a copy from scratch. Maybe the original was a one-of-a-kind or vintage piece, or can’t be obtained in an actor or stunt double’s size. Or maybe it’s as simple as the original was purchased a year ago, and there aren’t any more in stores or on resale sites. 

For a recent job, I needed multiples for about 20 pieces on a project that filmed last year in another country. We were able to find a few of them, and we were able to modify some new pieces to match the originals. But many of them involved being custom made. Here are two of my favorite examples that we had made (or so extensively altered they may as well have been made). When the hero and the copy are right next to each other, you can look very closely and see the slight differences, but when she’s running through the woods at night, you’d never know we made one pair of those ultra-specific pants from scratch. Or that to make the stunt double’s shoes, we had to buy a pair of shoes that’s as similar as possible, plus buckles, faux crocodile leather, d-ring rivets, grommets, and new shoe laces, and spend a small fortune at the cobbler to create the closest possible knock off. 

It was kind of like playing the world’s most fun (and crazy) game of Go Fish. I really pride myself on the little details, and this was a great way to test my ability to get every little thing right.

#costume design #costume designer #hollywood costume #fauxbles #The Craft: Legacy

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As a costume professional, I’d like to endorse this costume.

#costume design #costumes

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In these times where I don’t get to work (pandemic and all that), it’s nice to see some beautiful costumes being made in the hands of one of our great icons!

#costume design #cecil beaton

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Journalist Desson Thomson was kind enough to interview me about my career and how it’s being interrupted by COVID-19 for the motion picture industry news site The Credits. 

#interviews #costume design #costume designer #motion picture industry #the credits

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I worked on the costumes in this commercial! Man it was cold filming on top of that building.

#huawei #gal godot #commercial #costume design

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I was lucky enough to be the stylist on this DreamWorks Trolls Hair Huggers commercial! I’ve been working in serious grown up TV for so long that I’d totally forgotten how much fun it is to work with kids and how astonishingly professional LA kid actors are! I had a great time and you can tell all the kids did too.

#trolls #hair huggers #costume design #styling #commercial styling

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I’ve spent the last six months settled happily in the late 1930s, helping to make the new CBS All Access tv show Strange Angel. Based on the book of the same name about rocket science pioneer Jack Parsons, the show follows young Jack’s life trying to chase his dreams of space— eventually with the help of a sex magick cult (go figure). Enjoy the trailer and if you’ve got CBS All Access, enjoy the show! The episodes have just started to air.

#costume design #strange angel #1930s #rupert friend #1938 #1939 #jack parsons #costume designer #vintage #vintage clothing #bella heathcote #Jack Reynor

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There’s a new trailer for the movie The Clapper! I was assistant costume designer and really enjoyed working on this project. The characters were really quirky and specific, and that might be the most fun kind of character to design for. 

#the clapper #clapper #the clapper movie #the clapper film #ed helms #amanda seyfried #tracy morgan #costume design #costume designer #film costume #movie costume

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I’m quoted in this article about the history of the swimsuit!

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/history-one-piece-bathing-suit-224452015.html

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Delighted to see this in my Tumblr feed! I worked for just one day on this little indie movie, but it is where I met one of my very favorite costume designers to work for, Elizabeth Warn. I could tell from one day on her movie how much she cared about character and specificity (sometimes to an offbeat extent) and recognized a kindred spirit.

You gotta stay outside their silly little lives…

Watch the first trailer for Julia Hart’s dramedy Miss Stevens, in U.S. theaters on September 16th with Lily Rabe, Timothee Chalamet, Lili Reinhart, Anthony Quintal, Oscar Nuñez, and Rob Huebel.

Exploring the fine line between being a grown-up and being a kid, the story is about students becoming teachers and teachers coming to realize that the messiness of youth never really goes away: stuck at a crossroads in her personal life, it falls on Miss Stevens to chaperone three of her students —Billy, Margot and Sam— on a weekend trip to a drama competition. 

#miss stevens #elizabeth warn #costume design #costume designer

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRoKxW_CwlY)

Really enjoyed this featurette about the costumes in the upcoming movie My Cousin Rachel that my movie critic mom shared with me. 

The 1830s and ‘40s are a difficult era to render on screen, because the silhouettes are so absurd to a modern eye-- particularly the, as she says, “softer” looks for men. The reality of those styles are soft shoulders, nipped waists, and rounded hips-- very feminine and unattractive to us today. It looks like costume designer Dinah Collin has done a remarkable job of staying true to the period without making her heroes look too womanly.

#Costume design #film costume design #costume designer #Dinah Collin #My Cousin Rachel #film costume designer #rachel weisz #1830s #1840s #historic costume #historical costume

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIXFZjKN1Kk)

Loved this spotlight with brilliant film costume designer Mark Bridges, who voices exactly why I love being a costume designer, and what’s important about the work we do. 

Much of the video takes place at Palace Costume, one of the very fanciest and best of the industry-only costume houses-- a total M. C. Escher labyrinth of a building but one filled with such remarkable treasures that you don’t mind getting lost sometimes.

#costume designer #costume design #mark bridges #there will be blood #costume design for film #film costume #hollywood costume

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Hear, hear! Love it when our work is recognized and credited, especially for work as brilliant as this.

“I am not a bitch! I’m happy! Everyone wants to be me!” -Goldie Hawn as bitchy, unhappy, unfulfilled heiress Joanna Stayton in Overboard, 1987. Wayne Finkelman designed this outrageous jacket for Goldie Hawn to wear in Overboard. The jacket is probably best remembered from the scene where Goldie comically tries to leave a room in a huff and gets the epaulettes stuck in the doorway. This is a perfect example of how costume designers don’t just create clothes, they also study the script, analyze the character, confer with the director and star, and design costumes that contribute to a scene’s intention and tone. The character Ms. Hawn portrayed in Overboard was a rich 1980s fashion victim, and Mr. Finkelman’s over-the-top designs brilliantly conveyed that message to the audience.

#costume designer #costume design #costume #Wayne Finkelman #overboard #Goldie Hawn

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Here are two terrible quality photos of my television. Why? Well, in preparation for the debut of Feud, I watched What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (which I posted about for another reason). I was tickled by this shot (left) in the first few minutes of the film, of a producer type wearing his necktie in a casual fashion I’d never seen before. I sent the photo to a couple of vintage-fan friends, to see if they’d ever seen it anywhere, and they hadn’t, either. 

Well, leave it to brilliant and multi-Emmy-award winning costume designer Lou Eyrch to throw a little callback to that detail in the first episode of Feud, where director Robert Aldrich (played by Alfred Molina) is wearing his tie in the same fashion on set. Fabulous! Maybe we’ll start to see the style elsewhere, too (though I won’t hold my breath).

#Lou Erych #what ever happened to baby jane #whatever happened to baby jane #costume design #costume designer #robert aldrich #alfred molina

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I had the pleasure of assisting costume designer Emily Batson in creating the look of this promo for 2017 Record Store Day, starring this year’s Record Store Day Ambassador, St. Vincent. 

#Record Store Day #Record Store Day 2017 #St. Vincent #St Vincent #Annie Clark #Emily Batson #costume design #costume designer #ambassador #record store day ambassador