UK in Focus - page 13

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION
UK IN FOCUS 2016
Powell, who trawled through photos and paint-
ings as well as magazines such as
Vogue
and
Harper’s Bazaar
to build a sense of the era. She
made about 80% of the outfits worn in the film
by Carol (Cate Blanchett), while sourcing most
of the other characters’ clothes from costume
houses, vintage fairs and dealers.
In contrast, the costume designer started
completely from scratch when it came to Dis-
ney’s big-budget fairy tale
Cinderella
. “Usually
the biggest challenge on any film is not enough
time or money, but I was given the resources to
explore different things and come up with a
whole new world,” explains Powell, who took
influence from 19th-century clothing, while
adding individual touches such as the fairy
lights sewn into Helena Bonham Carter’s god-
mother costume.
A designer of great versatility, Powell won
Oscars for
The Young Victoria
,
The Aviator
and
Shakespeare in Love
, and most recently worked
on John Cameron Mitchell’s low-budget UK
comedy
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
, which is
set in the 1970s punk era and stars Elle Fan-
ning.“It was the craziest script involving aliens,
on a crazily low budget, but I took the chal-
lenge and had a ball,” she says.
Finding original punk clothing was more dif-
ficult — and expensive — than Powell antici-
pated, however, so she improvised by adapting
1970s clothes. “This was where [London-based
costume house] Angels stepped in,” she says. “I
rented their 1970s stock, destroyed it, put it
back together, painted all over it and turned it
into punk. But in return they got a collection of
punk clothing.”
Powell is reteaming with Todd Haynes on
Wonderstruck
, set in the 1920s US midwest and
1970s New York, and based on the book by
Brian Selznick. It is a return to Selznick territory
for the designer, who worked on Martin
Scorsese’s adaptation of the author’s
The Inven-
tion of Hugo Cabret
—released as
Hugo
—one of
six films on which she has collaborated with
Scorsese, including
Gangs of NewYork
in 2002
and, most recently,
The Wolf of Wall Street
.
Design across the decades
Fellow UK designer Steven Noble, mean-
while, has carved out a reputation for his
fresh and eclectic approach to costumes.
“I immerse myself in the period to get as
much reference as possible, but I don’t
stick to the period itself, I mix it up slightly,”
says Noble, who was nominated for a BAFTA in
2015 for
The Theory of Everything
, which saw
him create costumes that span four decades.
Yorkshire-born Noble is preparing for Danny
Boyle’s highly anticipated
Trainspotting
sequel
(he was assistant costume designer on the
11
1...,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,...84
Powered by FlippingBook