- I don't think I've ever wanted
an expensive costume in my life.
For what I'm wearing has been made for me
by our expert Savile Row tailor.
It's custom made to the irregularities that we all have.
My shoulders are slightly different,
all that kind of stuff in this film.
This is very interesting and lovely clothes.
- Hey there, Focus Fashion fans,
and welcome back to "Dressed".
The series that celebrates the costumes
of Focus Features films.
Now today, we're stepping back in time
to 1950's gangland Chicago and Graham Moore's
masterful and gripping thriller.
Academy award winner, Mark Rylance,
plays expert English tailor Leonard in "The Outfit".
Leonard and his assistant, Mable,
played by Zoe Deutch, craft beautiful bespoke suits
for the only clientele in the city who can afford them,
a family of viscous gangsters.
- How's business English?
- [Joe] Late one night, two thugs played by Dylan O'Brien
and Johnny Flynn, pay a visit to the shop
igniting a dangerous game of deception and murder.
- There are a thousand racket boys out there
hunting for this and if they find it,
I start shooting, you follow?
- The film features the high end suits of the 1950's
showcasing a level of craftsmanship
that can only be achieved by a master tailor.
Let's go take a look.
- You could have a shop anywhere you like
and yet you're here.
- What's wrong with here?
- This is the perfect example of a finely tailored suit.
So this suit was actually created by Huntsman
and you can see, if you were here standing with me,
every impeccable detail that it takes to make this suit.
It has been fitted.
It has been measured.
It has been tailored.
It is custom designed.
These are well dressed gangsters that you can see
is really reflected in their character.
- You're making that for my Paps?
- Not this one.
- You're making those fine threads for somebody else, who?
- Master Richie, you know I can't talk about my gentleman.
- Huh, is that what we are, your gentlemen?
- Can we talk about Richie's coat?
You can see again, masterfully tailored, beautiful details.
The shoulders, the lines, the lapels,
everything in this is a thoughtful consideration.
And you thought that this didn't apply to men's wear,
this absolutely applies to men's wear.
- Mr. Boyle.
- Let's talk about Mable for a minute.
For her, it was not about the glamor of the 50's,
but really about the practicality of the 50's.
But, what I loved here about the costumes
is that they still said so much about her
and that she always wore colors that really popped,
that she really came forward.
It almost felt like she was stepping out into the light.
And of course, Violet, who was the rival gang leader.
She was impeccably dressed.
This is an authentic vintage suit from the times
which I love, because it really showed off her figure.
And you can see that Violet is not just gonna wear a suit,
because she is no wallflower.
She is gonna make a statement.
She's gonna turn heads
and she's gonna make people notice her.
She topped it off with this vintage fur, which is great,
but the final detail was the hat.
And when you saw all of this on Violet,
you can see that she meant business.
She is not there to play games.
I would actually love to learn more
about the creative process behind these costumes.
So let's speak to the design team.
- Whoa.
Full house tonight, huh?
- Well, lovely to see you all.
Sophie, Zac, Campbell.
Honestly, I feel like I have the A-team here.
This really is the best in class gathered together for this.
First of all, congratulations to all of you.
This is an amazing movie.
And what I loved is that this was a movie
so centered around fashion and costumes
and yet it was not a movie about fashion.
So Sophie, I actually wanna start with you.
How did this entire team even start to come together
in creating costumes for the outfit?
- I was very excited at the chance to collaborate with Zac
and I learned quite early on, actually,
that Campbell and the team at Huntsman
were on board, which was very exciting.
And he's obviously got the wealth
of experience in tailoring.
We were really lucky because we had a team
that was people from different backgrounds
and different strengths coming together
to create something quite special.
- Zac, I've sat in the front row of so many of your shows.
You're an a amazing designer who can create
the most elaborate, beautiful creations.
But how did you approach designing for "The Outfit"?
- It's an incredible story.
I knew that the tailoring part of this was essential,
could not be faked, was key.
It's an incredible time period.
And we really started, like a fashion collection,
with a color story and research and then developing
each look as you would with each character
and hoping that all comes together.
- Oh, I think it's interesting that you say that
because what I love about costumes
is that clothes can really enhance
or tell the story of a character in a very elaborate,
almost 3D kind of way.
And I think you've always done that, to be honest,
on the runway, Zac.
- Obviously, clothing is storytelling
and Sophie and her experience...
I remember having great conversations of just texture,
the wear, a detailed shot of a cuff was really important,
while Mark was trying on the suits
that had been fit for his outfit,
him discovering his character.
And that was a really beautiful, magical thing to witness.
It's kind of this incredible experience
of watching these costumes come to life
through Sophie's dedication and talent.
- Campbell, you are literally tailoring royalty
and of course you've tailored for royalty.
Can you tell us a little bit about your role?
And of course, the century's old traditions
and history of Savile Row and Huntsman.
- The places I've worked at before
had impressive client list.
Huntsman is another level with that royalty,
Hollywood royalty, who's who in the fashion world.
I always find it amazing when you look at the names
like Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Bill Blass,
Alexander McQueen, Mark Jacobs,
they all had their own workshops,
their own access to having they own outfits
made at their ateliers, but they chose Huntsman
as the bastion, the taste makers of where to come
for the black tie, the ultimate dress wear.
- The film opens with a very specific way
that Mark Rylance's character Leonard is cutting fabric.
And I think to the general population,
it could just be cutting fabric, but it's actually not.
It's a very specific skill aligned to say, playing a violin
or something of that particular talent level.
How did you work with the character
and of course with Mark, in making sure that
it was done accurately?
- Mark came and shadowed me for a whole week.
There's a way to hold a pair of shears.
There's a way to cut cloth.
You don't just push down on the top handle.
You have to squeeze the blades together.
Use the heel of the pair of shears to go through the cloth
'cause it's quite heavy.
He was just such a charming personality.
He was making tea for the tailors
and instantly became one of the team
and asked all the right questions.
And most importantly, just watched a lot,
to watch and just to take in
just by watching somebody going about their day to day.
What I take for granted is my day to day job.
It's actually a craft.
- Well, aren't you with sight for sore eyes?
- Roy, Richie and Francis are the most
prominent male gangsters orbiting Leonard's world,
but they're also their own unique characters
and personalities.
Now, men suiting can feel very similar.
So what did you do to set them apart?
And how is that defined amongst the three of them?
It's a lot to do with how they would want to be perceived
and that was the way that we thought about it
and engaged with it.
Richie is just so concerned about being the boss
and he wants to be in the finest threads.
He wants to be the big guy.
With him, it was really important that things
felt almost pushed slightly further
in terms of taste levels.
He had a peak lapel.
He wore it like a round collar shirt,
which was a reference to Marlon Brando who also did that.
And we liked the idea that his tailoring
would feel quite aspirational in a way that he would enjoy.
With Roy, we felt that it could be quite understated.
He doesn't have as much to prove.
We wanted there to be simplicity and a classic-ness
to the way his suit was tailored.
And not to detract from that.
And with Francis, we decided that we felt that
Francis wouldn't have had his suit
made by Leonard, actually.
It was a suit that we felt that he would've owned
and he really isn't looking for anybody's approval
in the same way as the other characters.
He wore an original 50's coat
that we found at Angels Costumes that we absolutely loved
and had all the kind of age and wear
that we needed to tell his story.
- Sophie's British.
And of course Campbell's British and Zac you're American.
So in the film, you have a British expert tailor
with a shop in Chicago in the 1950's.
Now, how did you all find that perfect blend
of those two cultures?
- There's two things at play here.
There's better than the 50's coming from 50's into the 60's
and from the UK into the US.
The suit we see him in the tailoring shop
is very understated.
It's a really heavy cloth.
It's a bit of a work horse, really.
And it's, you can tell it was actually aged
to make it look like he's worn it for a long time.
Whereas the suit he's making throughout the movie
is different in terms of weights.
It's a much more luxurious cloth.
It's a nod to American styling as well.
It's lovely to work in the pivotal change
in his character and how he progresses throughout the movie.
- The suits are show stopping, but of course the details
of the men's dressing in this movie...
The hats, the fedoras of course, the pocket squares,
the vest, the ties, I kinda feel
they're almost as important, if not moreso,
than the clothes themselves.
Now, how did you land on all of those accessories?
What stories did you want to tell
with those accessories?
- Part of the joy in kind of building narrative
within these characters was really thinking about
how we can offset these suits and make them feel
individual and specific to each person.
We ordered a lot of original 50's ties
and I think that really helped to build a specific look
for each character.
Slightly different shaped tie for each person
that would really reflect them.
We pinpointed with hats, this sort of detail and nuance
behind each character and what kind of brim and crown
they might have and how we could mold that
into a shape that would feel reflective for each person.
So, the detailing was really kind of key and quite special,
having the time to focus on that.
- "The Outfit" has a core of male characters,
but the two female characters are so strong
and then a very different and interesting perspective
to the costumes.
And of course, they stand out and pop tremendously.
But I wanna talk about Violet LaFontaine,
who is a complete head turner from the moment she walks in.
How did you land on that particular character
and how did you start to develop
what she would wear to define who she was?
- With Violet, Nikki wanted to bring
this ultra femininity into this character
who is also kind of a ruthless,
cold-blooded killer, essentially.
There was something really interesting
in finding the balance with that.
And I think it was building something
that felt really elegant and composed,
while still being believable in our setting.
So it's quite exciting thinking about the contrast
between Violet and Mable.
Nikki brings so much kind of power and energy
to that performance.
I think she wore it so well.
- What was the approach in putting together
the character of Mable and what do costumes
tell the audience about her?
Now, Mable's costume of that long red coat
is one of our featured looks.
Now I'd love to hear more about that particular ensemble.
- Mable's a really interesting character
'cause she's surprising.
She grows throughout it.
We wanted to show her humble status,
but yet her desire for a more worldly existence.
Sophie and I went back a lot about colors.
It was really building what colors would pop,
but not be too strong, not too costume-like,
but still add a femininity
and something that would look really good
within the coloration of the film.
Obviously, her red and then having
that graphic element of the skirt
came together really quite exceptionally.
Throughout the film, all the costuming
has a great subtlety to it.
It's really nuanced.
It's actually so much in depth about
all the textures and knits.
Her beret she wears and what sized beret.
It's quite delicate,
but she holds the costumes beautifully.
- I wanna thank you all so much.
And I think if there is anyone who doubts
that you can parallel a storied British design institution
with American gangster life,
well I think this movie will prove you wrong.
Sophie, Zac, Campbell, I wanna thank all of you
for your time and of course,
it is always great to hear from the minds of creativity
and understand how you put clothes together
to tell such an important story.
Wow, this is so exciting.
You've heard me talk so much during this episode
about Savile Row, about Huntsman,
about the most perfect tailored men suit.
And while this just might look like
any men's suits to you, it really is not.
And it's really in about the details.
Have you ever seen a more impeccably tailored suit
for someone who runs a tailoring shop?
But the great thing about this particular costume
is you see Mark wear this jacket once
and for the rest of the movie he is wearing the vest,
the pants, the shirt with the sleeves rolled up
because he is a symbol of the working man.
But the way that this is done, it's impeccable.
Okay, so let's talk about Mable.
What I loved about Mable was that
she was just a simple girl.
She really had a few things to wear,
but everything she wore was an incredible statement.
But what I loved about this particular coat
was just exactly so symbolic of the time.
It was 50's, it was American.
You see a little bit of a nipped waist,
a little bit of a tiny flare because that's really the time.
But also, I think it's really a symbol of saying,
"This is what that character was."
Mable was a simple person
and just really wanted to put all of her passion
into getting out of Chicago.
And again, I think that's personified in the color red,
because red is a color of passion.
And that's what she wanted to do.
She was on her way out.
Well, thank you all for joining me
for this episode of "Dressed".
And I hope you all enjoyed the peek
into the expert craftsmanship that it takes
to assemble all of these wickedly stylish clothes
in "The Outfit".
I can't wait to see you all again.
Until next time.