Unveiling the Bene Gesserit’s Secrets With “Dune: Part Two” Costume Designer Jacqueline West
After just nine days in release, Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated sequel to his first Dune film has already scored $367 million in worldwide box office. The massive response to Dune: Part Two is due in no small part to costume designer Jacqueline West’s intricate designs that went beyond adding depth to the characters—they are integral in building a complex, harsh world thousands of years into the future.
After designing 2,000-plus costumes—including the bespoke stillsuits—for the first film,
“Henry Sugar” Costume Designer Kasia Walicka Maimone on Weaving an Oscar-Worthy Story for Wes Anderson
When she was five years old, Kasia Walicka Maimone started making her own clothes. “Growing up in Poland, a lot of people had that skill,” she says. “My grandmother made clothes. My mother, a doctor, made clothes. And I did clothes for my musician friends without giving it a thought. I was like, ‘What’s the big deal?'”
As it turned out, Maimone’s talent for costuming became quite a big deal. After studying English in Warsaw,
“Lisa Frankenstein” Costume Designer Meagan McLaughlin Luster on Dressing a Muse and a Monster
In Juno and Jennifer’s Body, screenwriter Diablo Cody depicted the worldview of alienated teenage girls with pitch-perfect wit. Her latest film, Lisa Frankenstein (in theaters now), directed by Zelda Williams, grafts Mary Shelley’s 19th-century monster myth onto the modern horrors of high school. Set in 1989, the movie casts Kathryn Newton as depressed Goth girl Lisa Swallows, who gains a whole new perspective after a muddy corpse (Cole Sprouse of Riverdale fame) breaks out of the graveyard and into her life.
“Mean Girls” Costume Designer Tom Broecker on Dressing the Plastics as Gen Z
The movie based on the musical based on the 2004 movie Mean Girls is here, with Angourie Rice taking Lindsey Lohan’s place as Cady, the homeschooled teenager plunged into the catty horror of American public high school social politics. Written by Tina Fey and directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., in this musical Gen Z update, everyone has smartphones now, but the movie stays true to the original’s most beloved beats.
“Lift” Costume Designer Antoinette Messam on Finding Fresh Looks for Kevin Hart’s Heist Film
In director F. Gary Gray’s new heist movie, Lift, now streaming on Netflix, Kevin Hart plays Cyrus, a blue chip art thief backed by an international crew with a penchant for “freeing” work, from Van Gogh paintings to trendy NFTs. After a showy sleight of hand in Venice, Interpol agent Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) almost has Cyrus pinned, but a bigger threat than missing artwork offers him a shot at redemption. Cyrus and his crew are tasked with heisting a pallet of gold before it reaches Leviathan,
“Maestro” Costume Designer Mark Bridges on Charting the Bernstein’s Ever-Changing Style
It’s no accident that Maestro (on Netflix and in theaters) begins with Bradley Cooper’s elderly Leonard Bernstein reflecting on how much he misses his late wife Felicia, portrayed by Carey Mulligan. The biopic, of course, includes bits of Bernstein’s greatest hits as a composer and conductor, from West Side Story to Mahler’s 2nd Symphony. But the movie concentrates mainly on the complicated relationship between the bisexual Bernstein and the stylish actress who found herself living in the shadow of America’s most celebrated classical music talent.
Best of 2023: “Succession” Costume Designer Michelle Matland Breaks Down the Roy Family’s Signature Looks
*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year.
Early this season on Succession, Waystar Royco executive Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) mocks the $2900 Burberry handbag carried by cousin Greg’s (Nicholas Braun) date as being “Ludicrously capacious…You could slide it across the floor after a bank job.” And in the show’s first year, Kendall (Jeremy Strong) bought a pair of $500 Lanvin sneakers to ingratiate himself with potential Silicon Valley investors,
Best of 2023: “Poor Things” Costume Designer Holly Waddington on Bringing Yorgos Langthimos’ Ecstatic Vision to Life
*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year.
Before costume designer Holly Waddington got started on Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos gave her a visual reference: inflatable pants. The futuristic-seeming trousers made by London College of Fashion graduate Harikrishnan buck the movie’s late-19th-century setting, which encouraged Waddington to ignore the norms of time and space.
Best of 2023: “The Color Purple” Costume Designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck’s Stunning Creations
*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year. This interview works doubly well as “The Color Purple” is in theaters today. Merry Christmas!
There’s a famous line in Alice Walker’s 1982 novel The Color Purple that goes: “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” It’s a message that even God can become annoyed when people overlook the wonderful things he creates.
“The Color Purple” Costume Designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck’s Stunning Creations
There’s a famous line in Alice Walker’s 1982 novel The Color Purple that goes: “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” It’s a message that even God can become annoyed when people overlook the wonderful things he creates. One such creation is what the character of Celie represents. “She’s a beautiful flower and a beautiful person that’s being trampled on,” costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck tells The Credits.
“Wonka” Costume Designer Lindy Hemming on Dressing the Joyous World of a Budding Chocolatier
Costume designer Lindy Hemming knows her way around both sides of the color coin, having worked on Christopher Nolan’s texturally moody Batman trilogy and the playful palette of Paul King’s Paddington movies. She reunites with King for Wonka, whimsically outfitting the candy maker’s origins in a Gene Wilder prequel that has Dune actor Timothée Chalamet playing the title character to a joyous reaction among reviewers.
“Poor Things” Costume Designer Holly Waddington on Bringing Yorgos Langthimos’ Ecstatic Vision to Life
Before costume designer Holly Waddington got started on Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos gave her a visual reference: inflatable pants. The futuristic-seeming trousers made by London College of Fashion graduate Harikrishnan buck the movie’s late-19th-century setting, which encouraged Waddington to ignore the norms of time and space. No material would be too anachronistic, no fit too audacious. “I designed a whole series of things based on this idea of inflation and compression,”
“Napoleon” Costume Designers Janty Yates & David Crossman on Designing for Coronations and Conquests
A hat is merely a hat unless it’s a Napoleon Bonaparte hat, in which case the detailing and contours need to possess star quality equal to the man who made it famous. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (in theaters now) casts Joaquin Phoenix as the world-conquering French commander, co-starring Vanessa Kirby as his un-adoring wife Josephine, and a series of scene-stealing “bi-corn” hats designed by David Crossman. An expert in military history, Crossman previously worked on World War 1 epic 1917 and more recently designed Robert Pattinson’s superhero suit in The Batman.
“Barbie” Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Unpacks That Eye-Popping Wardrobe
British costume designer Jacqueline Durran, unlike Greta Gerwig, barely felt any attachment to Barbie dolls during her childhood. On the other hand, she’d enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Gerwig on Little Women, for which Durran won an Oscar. So when the writer-director invited Durran to design clothes for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as life-sized dolls in her feminist comedy Barbie, Durran promptly pivoted 180 degrees from Little Women‘s subdued 19th-century aesthetic and conjured a candy-colored wardrobe inspired by Mattel’s line of plastic figurines.
How Cate Adams’ Costume Design Helped David Fincher’s “The Killer” Disappear
The coldest assassin is the kind you don’t see coming. In a lineup of globe-trotting sharpshooters from the movies, The Killer (Michael Fassbender) may be the most difficult to identify. On a crowded city street, he could be anyone—and that is by design. Costume designer Cate Adams developed the style for director David Fincher’s vision of a dangerous character you would hardly ever notice.
“Basically, he wears clothes that he can just find anywhere.
Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Stitching Together Her Legendary Career
With more than 70 films to her credit, including Malcolm X (1992), Amistad (1997), Selma (2014), Black Panther (2018), and Dolemite Is My Name (2019), costume designer Ruth E. Carter has created a visual representation of Black history and the Black experience for generations of moviegoers.
“Costumes can be another character in the film. For Do the Right Thing,
“Air” Costume Designer Charlese Antoinette Jones on Designing the Near-Jordan World of 1980s Nike
Except for a glimpse of his back, we never once see Michael Jordan in person in Amazon Prime’s Air. This Ben Affleck-directed film, in which Affleck also stars as Nike founder Phil Knight, tracks the course of Nike’s surprise successful bid for an endorsement from the greatest basketball player of all time, leading to the 1980s creation of Air Jordan sneakers, which, four decades on, are a multi-billionaire dollar icon of fashion history.
“Winning Time” Costume Designer Emma Potter on Bringing Magic and Larry Bird Into the 1980s
In all their gold and purple splendor, the Lakers are back for a second season of HBO’s Winning Time, which tracks the rise of the team’s path to glory during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The show’s first season focused on Magic Johnson’s (Quincy Isaiah) rookie season and the team’s unlikely title win. This time around, the returning champs get off to a rocky start, with Magic out with a knee injury,
How “Bel-Air” Costume Designer Queensylvia Akuchie Brought an African influence into Season 2
Culture was costume designer Queensylvia Akuchie’s (Long Slow Exhale, Grand Crew) inspiration behind creating the bespoke wardrobe in Bel-Air Season 2, a series that refreshes the beloved Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sitcom of the early ‘90s with a whole new cast.
“Connecting the culture of the roots and background of each character was immensely important to me,” Akuchie shares with The Credits.
“Poker Face” Costume Designer Trayce GiGi Field on Dealing Out Vintage Vibes
“The show was a huge challenge, and I love a good challenge,” costume designer Trayce GiGi Field (Dead to Me) shares about working on Rian Johnson’s (Glass Onion, Knives Out) clever crime drama Poker Face.
The breakout series stars Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) as Charlie, a no “bullsh*t” crime solver on the run from her own troubles.
