From Wings to Stars: Costume Designer Gersha Phillips on Redesigning Captain America
Gersha Phillips is no stranger to the kind of immediately recognizable costumes that tell a viewer immediately what world she’s in, like the intergalactic looks and Starfleet designs she crafted for the recent Star Trek feature Section 31 and the Star Trek series Discovery and Strange New Worlds. Skewing to the realism side of the closet, Phillips ...
Bare-Knuckle Couture: “A Thousand Blows” Costume Designer Maja Meschede’s Knockout Designs
Editor’s note: Spoiler alert! This story discusses plot lines of A Thousand Blows Season 1. The subtle storytelling of Maja Meschede’s costume designs is hiding in plain sight if you’re able to look away from the simmering drama of A Thousand Blows, a six-part series from Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight that follows Hezekiah Moscow ...
“Conclave’s” Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer Lisy Christl on the Fashion of Faith
Following his Oscar-winning WWI epic, All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s latest, Conclave, focuses on a different kind of battle, dropping us into the Vatican in his twisty ecclesiastical thriller. After the death of the current Pontiff, the honorable and evenhanded Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is charged with convening one of the most ...
“A Complete Unknown” Costume Designer Arianne Phillips on Channeling the Bob Dylan Mystique
Costume designer Arianne Phillips has never met Bob Dylan, but she did discover a personal connection while researching the singer’s early days for her new project A Complete Unknown (in theaters now). “I was born in 1963 in New York City on Cornelia Street,” she says. “I thought I knew a lot about Bob Dylan, but ...
“Maria” Costume Designer Massimo Cantini Parrini on Designing Angelina Jolie as a Legendary Diva
“I am happy with the theater behind my eyes,” utters legendary American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas (portrayed by Angelina Jolie after seven months of intense vocal lessons) at the film’s beginning. Drenched in the melancholy of a woman well aware that her days are numbered, the stunning film traverses between the heights of La Callas’ ...
“Gladiator II” Costume Designers Janty Yates and David Crossman on Lunatic Emperors & Blood-Splattered Warriors
She won an Oscar for outfitting the first Gladiator, and 20 years later, costume designer Janty Yates once again teamed with Ridley Scott to cloak ancient Rome’s ruling class in bespoke finery. Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as a slave who fights his way to freedom, with Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, and ...
Mushroom Couture: “Wicked” Costume Designer Paul Tazewell on Drawing Inspiration From the Natural World
Few films this year showcase intricate detail and epic scale like director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked does. The breathtaking costuming created by acclaimed costume designer Paul Tazewell is a vital element of the filmmaker’s captivating vision. Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, is inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s ...
“Yellowstone” Costume Designer Johnetta Boone on Beth Dutton, Dueling Sons, and the End of an Era
Yellowstone rides again, six years after creator Taylor Sheridan defied Hollywood expectations by creating the country’s most-watched cable series. The show’s fifth season, part two, streaming weekly through December 15 on the Paramount Network, continues to follow the dysfunctional family of Montana ranchers formerly ruled by Kevin Costner’s grumpy patriarch, John Dutton. Now he’s gone, ...
“Blitz” Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran Threads Through a Traumatic History in Steve McQueen’s WWII Epic
Costume designer Jacqueline Durran first dressed Saoirse Ronan in director Joe Wright’s sweeping English drama Atonement in 2007. She did so again for Wright’s action thriller Hanna and Greta Gerwig’s heartwarming period adaptation of Little Women, winning an Oscar for Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Aclott’s beloved book. Durran collabs with the dazzling Irish performer ...
“The Penguin” Costume Designer Helen Huang on Gotham’s Gritty Glamour
Costume designer Helen Huang bridges reality and comic book storytelling in The Penguin, finding a brilliant balance that gives the series weight and a churlish glamour befitting a story set in Gotham’s criminal underworld. The hit series led by showrunner Lauren LeFranc is familiar—Gotham is our most explored comic version of New York City—yet heightened ...
Designed to Shred: How “Alien: Romulus” Costume Designer Carlos Rosario Stylized Horror
Previously, we talked to Alien: Romulus costume designer Carlos Rosario about how American farmers’ attire from the 1940s-1960s inspired some of the wardrobe for our Jackson’s Star inhabitants and several sartorial callbacks from the first two films in the franchise. In part two, Rosario discusses how director Fede Alvarez’s approach to his ferocious interquel helped the designer ...
Eye on the Emmys: Outfitting Feudal Japan with Emmy-Winning “Shōgun” Costume Designer Carlos Rosario: Part Two
*After the 76th Creative Arts Emmy Winners, announced on September 8, and ahead of the 2024 Prime Time Emmy Awards on September 15, we’re looking back at our interviews with some of this year’s nominees. Costume designer Carlos Rosario won for Outstanding Period Costumes for a Series for Shōgun, episode 6, “Ladies of the Willow ...
Eye on the Emmys: Outfitting Feudal Japan with Emmy-Winning “Shōgun” Costume Designer Carlos Rosario: Part One
*After the 76th Creative Arts Emmy Winners, announced on September 8, and ahead of the 2024 Prime Time Emmy Awards on September 15, we’re looking back at our interviews with some of this year’s nominees. Costume designer Carlos Rosario won for Outstanding Period Costumes for a Series for Shōgun, episode 6, “Ladies of the Willow ...
“Deadpool & Wolverine” Costume Designer Graham Churchyard on Bringing Back Logan’s Yellow Suit
Deadpool & Wolverine is more than a comic book movie—it’s like 20 comic book movies slashed and smashed into one, pulling characters from the past, present, and future of Marvel and 20th Century Fox’s film history. Audiences witnessed these characters all coming together again in the void, some even making history in the process. The ...
“The Acolyte” Costume Designer Jennifer Bryan on Dressing Jedis, Witches, Wookies & More
Note: this interview contains spoilers for the first three episodes. In its newest Star Wars franchise, The Acolyte, Disney+ heads back in time to a century prior to the rise of the Galactic Empire. Amandla Stenberg stars as identical twins Osha and Mae, the former an ex-Jedi Padawan and the latter a vengeful warrior on ...
“Horizon” Costume Designer Lisa Lovaas on Dressing Kevin Costner’s Epic Western
“I like big,” says costume designer Lisa Lovaas, and that’s exactly what she got by signing up for Kevin Costner’s new mega-Western. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, in theaters now, runs three hours, and its sequel, two hours and 44 minutes long, hits in August. Production on Chapter 3 is now in progress. ...
“The Bikeriders” Costume Designer Erin Benach’s Vintage Vibes for Rough Riders
They never achieved the notoriety of the Hell’s Angels, but during the 1960s, when the California biker gang became infamous outlaws, the Vandals were wreaking their own brand of hog-riding havoc in Chicago. The Bikeriders (in theaters June 21) dramatizes the rise and fall of the Midwest club led by Tom Hardy’s “Johnny” and his ...
How “SNL” Costume Designer Tom Broecker Recreated Barbenheimer for Ryan Gosling’s Sensational Monologue
It’s the week of April 13th and on the call sheet to host the 17th episode of SNL’s 49th season is Ryan Gosling, an actor who’s been capturing the hearts of hopeless romantics since The Notebook. The Canadian’s filmography is a treasure trove of unforgettable performances, from Blue Valentine, Drive, The Big Short, La La ...
How the “Bridgerton” Costume Designers Dialed up the Romantic Fantasy in Season 3
In the Bridgerton universe, imagination is key. One of the reasons the show skyrocketed in popularity since its season one debut is that it’s a romance and a period drama reimagined. It’s a romance set in a royal world with diverse characters, whimsical clothing, and orchestral covers of modern-day pop hits that give the period ...
Dressing a Spy in Plain Sight and Many Robert Downey Jrs. in “The Sympathizer”
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 novel “The Sympathizer” won the Pulitzer Prize and was subsequently adapted into a miniseries by showrunners Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar, a historical black comedy now airing on HBO. The show follows the journey of the Captain (Hoa Xuande), a communist operative working as a mole in South Vietnam’s army who ...
