'Poor Things' Costume Designer Holly Waddington's Top 5

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But we definitely didn't design it for black and white. That whole house and all the work that the set design that Shona and James did, it was all very, had a very specific palette. You see a little bit of it later on in the film. These clothes are not designed to lift your arm above your head – they’re almost like an extension of the corset, keeping the body in a particular way.

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I decided to forget that and go with my own dressing. Well-versed in the modern period drama with a twist, director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Favourite) had a simple edict for the costume design of Poor Things. As British costume designer Holly Waddington notes, “He didn’t want it to be like a period drama, he didn’t want it to be like a sci-fi film, and he didn’t want it to be too ‘fashiony.’ ” The result is Age of Innocence meets surrealism meets couture. Located in the charming city of Savannah, SCAD offers costume design studies in the School of Entertainment Arts’ production design program. The school’s innovative curriculum for 2023 prepares students for careers in TV, film, and live performance and the opportunity to work on the school’s latest sitcom, Tours and Attractions, which is filmed before a live audience and premiered at SCAD TVfest 2023. And the school’s first Collaborative Experience course in film and TV places students on professional productions shooting in Georgia’s multi-billion-dollar industry.

Barbie, Poor Things, Saltburn Win Costume Designers Guild Awards - TheWrap

Barbie, Poor Things, Saltburn Win Costume Designers Guild Awards.

Posted: Wed, 21 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

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"We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and, for better or for worse, we're all living in Oppenheimer's world, so I would really like to dedicate this to peacemakers everywhere." This awards season, Nolan has won a Golden Globe for best director and BAFTAs for best director and best film. Other nominees in the category included Annette Bening for "Nyad," Lily Gladstone for "Killers of the Flower Moon," Sandra Hüller for "Anatomy of a Fall" and Carey Mulligan for "Maestro." "Oppenheimer" earned seven Oscars from its 13 total nominations, including the top prize of the night, best picture, as well as best director for Christopher Nolan.

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(12 designers recently contributed to the Todd Haynes film May December shot in Savannah). I remember exactly what I was wearing when I went to see The Piano when I was 15. I went to see it with my mum, and I remember wearing these 1970s dusky pink cords and a black jumper.

Poor Things’s Costume Designer on Creating a Sexually Liberated Fashion Fantasia

The men — including Duncan, who seduces Bella into a sexfest abroad — are often dressed in three-piece suits, top hats, and erect collars, Waddington says, to reflect “the cartoons of men” who made up the ruling class. Though the protagonist tows the line between infancy and adulthood, Waddington says she didn’t worry about sexualizing the lead. I had a lot of references of really beautiful, almost anatomical drawings of shells and late Victorian studies of specimens.

Beyond 1800s inspirations, the designer looked to a variety of references, such as Bella’s “tap pants” that were influenced by French knickers in the ’30s (and reminiscent of the Busby Berkeley costumes of the ’20s). The ’60s “space age” designers André Courrèges (white leather boots with peep toes) and Pierre Cardin, along with fashion icon Elsa Schiaparelli and cult favorite Moncler, were also influences. I got a little advert for Edward Scissorhands framed, it's from a magazine that I used to read called Just Seventeen. Of course, I had a massive crush on Johnny Depp, like everyone did. But this character, Edward Scissorhands, the tragedy of him and the world of this small community, all gossiping and curtain-twitching. Colleen Atwood's costume designs are marvelous, as is the color palette of those 1970s bungalows on that cul-de-sac that they're all living on.

When I spoke with Waddington recently, she first shared how her preliminary research period worked. “I had lots of references from historical references and costumes,” she said. “Fashion plates from the late 19th century are very interesting to look at because they show the madness of the clothes of the period. Clothes in every period are really interesting. What kinds of materials are used to decorate clothes?

At the beginning of her story, Bella is depicted in a state reminiscent of infancy, waddling around barefoot. She adorns costumes that evoke a childlike innocence and vulnerability during her early scenes at home. Waddington stated they were "committed to the idea that you'll never see her properly dressed," much like a child. "These are the films that I often think about and always refer to," she says.

Unpacking the Complex, Campy Fashion of Poor Things

And I’m a big lover of Busby Berkeley musicals and things like marching girls. I did meet Emma Stone in Athens too, because we were preparing during the pandemic. I’m in London and most of the cast is in America. Most of them were coming out two weeks before the shoot, and I knew that that wouldn’t really work for her character, because there was lots to think about.

So, Baxter's wardrobe was different shades of maroon. What you need with black and white is a lot of highly contrasting elements. Anyway, the thing that did work well with the black and white was texture. So, we had lots of texture to play with, so that was good.

She wears it in Lisbon, she wears it with shorts, and she wears it when she gets on the boat. It was quite a studied costume plot, I spent a lot of time agonizing over it to try and make it work. But, actually, when I got into the details of it, she couldn't keep re-wearing things again and again. Waddington said she was given a bit of free rein when it came to curating Bella's style, and that she was initially kept away from what "Poor Things" production designers Shona Heath and James Price had come up with. Bella’s primary love interest in the film, played by Mark Ruffalo, was outfitted to reflect the classic style of an upper class man in the late 19th century.

She’s fully evolved mentally, and she’s no longer dressing up. It’s good for the period and the world, but it’s a sort of inconspicuous, understated look. I was thinking about beatniks actually with the black.