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Behind every memorable character is a memorable costume, and behind every costume is a costume
designer.
Their job is to create a look for each character that serves the needs of the story, sometimes
to make a character stand out from the crowd, sometimes to blend in to one, but always to
make sure that they're clothed in the appropriate attire.
"That's the definition of good costuming, that it's the most appropriate thing for that
character to be wearing."
Deciding on what would make for the most appropriate outfit requires a deep understanding of character
and story.
"Sometimes we're more like psychologists figuring out our characters, how messy or neat they
are, where they shop, we set the time and the place with our costumes."
Stage One: Script Analysis The first step to designing a great costume
is understanding the script, and each of the characters.
For each character to feel believable, you have to consider everything about that character
when designing their wardrobe, where they're from, their financial situation, how fashionably
conscious they are, not to mention the specific context of each scene.
Princess Ann in Roman Holdiay should be wearing something elegant while fulfilling her royal
duties, and something rather dressed down while incognito in Rome.
"This is what we call transformation through wardrobe.
The main thing that I want to be very clear and explain to you is that fashion is not
the primary thing - the primary effort in motion pictures is to tell the story".
A good costume designer knows how to analyze a screenplay much like an actor would, to
get inside the head of the character, to develop an understanding of the world that character
belongs to and design the wardrobe accordingly.
Stage Two: Coversations with the Director After a thorough reading of the script, the
costume designer will begin conversations with the director.
Each director will have their own unique vision for any given project, and it's that vision
that every crew member on a film should be working towards.
"It is a true collaboration in that we're all reading the same screenplay, and the screenplay
has clues but you have to have conversations with the director, and not just one but a
lot of conversations, because it's the director's movie.
Maybe not at Marvel, but it's the director's movie."
Those conversations are crucial to understanding what themes are going to be explored, the
transformations a character may go through and how the costume should reflect that.
How color can be used to subtely imply a character's pride in their heritage and subsequent journey
to a new country, or how it can show us that a character has fallen in love, or to us that
a character fallen out of it.
A costume can show us a character following in his father's footsteps, a character's descent
into a criminal underworld where moral lines become increasingly blurred, or foreshadow
a character's affinity for pretty things.
"There is something about him that is slightly vain, that little neckerchief he wears.
So again it comes back to starting to let the audience know beforehand that there's
something about Smeagol that isn't as endearing as a hobbit."
There are endless possibilities for costume design to contribute to the storytelling,
and that's something that the costume designer and the director will work closely together
to achieve.
Stage Three: Research Once the vision has been established, the
costume designer will often enter the research phase.
An essential part of the process that doesn't just apply to a period piece, but even something
like fantasy or sci-fi because more often than not you're pulling from real world examples
to influence your design.
But even a contemporary piece still necessitates research to understand the culture or economy
of any given setting, and the characters that exist within.
Creative license is often taken, the level of which is ultimately up to each director
and designer, but regardless of how much liberty is taken with the historical references it's
still important to have a base level understanding of the history governing the clothing so that
the work feels grounded in reality.
Nearly every design choice has a practical function underlying the aesthetic, and understanding
why something is designed a certain way allows a designer to create a costume that feels
convincing within its narrative.
This of course involves further collaboration with other crew such as the hair and make-up
department or the production designer to follow the same guidelines as far as color palette
or tone, to make sure that each costume can fall into place within the larger tapestry.
Stage Four: Sketches Before any design is manufactured, it starts
as a sketch.
Not only does this allow for quick changes if a certain fabric or color isn't working
with the rest of the crew's designs, but most importantly, it saves the entire production
valuabe time and money.
It also gives the costume designer the opportunity to explore their best options, based on things
like budget, the specific actor, or a costume's functionality; say designing an outfit that
can cover the stunt rigging for Neo in The Matrix.
But whatever criteria may be influencing different design decisions, I think the most important
thing to realize about costume design is that everything you see a character wearing, from
the lead actors to the background extras, is designed.
"nothing is random, everything in the frame is designed to tell one story."
The reason that everything is designed, is because in film, everything matters.
"With a camera you can zoom in and get close to every single part of the human body.
You can tell if a shirt has been pressed or not pressed, or you can tell if shoes are
cared for or neglected.
You know, all of these little things that help give the audience little clues about
who the character is."
Stage Five: Production Once sketches have been finalized the crew
will begin manufacturing the costumes.
Sometimes things can be pulled from a shelf or rack but the vast majority of costumes
have to be manufactured to maintain continuity.
"All of these clothes are manufactured, designed and manufactured, why?
Fight Club, so many fights!
Right?"
"You could not just buy a piece, you had to have-" "Doubles, triples, quadruples, right?"
"This is a thing most people also don't realize is that the clothes don't deteriorate through
the course of making a movie, every scene in which they're deteriorated is a separate
piece."
The scale of the production is entirely based on the size of the budget, and what's needed
for each film, but it's not unusual to have hundreds of people working on costumes for
a project.
Expert tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths, tanners; will all come together to craft the costumes
that you see on screen.
And for a film like Ben-Hur, that involved creating thousands of costumes that were all
researched and designed for every single background actor, even if they only appear for a few
frames.
Two crew members at Weta Workshop famously lost their fingerprints after making the chainmail
for all of the different suits of armor required for the films, which had around 13,000 rings
per suit.
But it's that dedication to the craft, to getting every single detail right that makes
these movies great.
Costumes help to tell us something about a character, and the world they inhabit.
They aid the actor in the transformation process and help them to deliver their best performance.
They become important pieces of iconography surrounding any classic character whose outfit
is often the most recognizable part about that character.
"The costumes that stick in your mind are the ones the character has inhabited and the
character has really come alive in, and that's why you remember them, that's the goal I think."
And just like a costume designer will create an iconic look to help tell a story, you too
can tell your own story by how you choose to dress.
But picking out clothes can be hard, stores don't always have the right size or style
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