Tuesday, April 30, 2024

'Poor Things' Wardrobe Secrets from Costume Designer Holly Waddington Exclusive

poor things costume design

Other nominees in the best director category at the 2024 Oscars included Justine Triet for "Anatomy of a Fall," Martin Scorsese for "Killers of the Flower Moon," Yorgos Lanthimos for "Poor Things" and Jonathan Glazer for "The Zone of Interest." "Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old," he continued, adding, "We don't know where this incredible journey is going from here, but to know that you think that I'm a meaningful part of it, means the world to me. Thank you very much." Stone then thanked director Yorgos Lanthimos for giving her "the gift of a lifetime in Bella Baxter." She ended her speech by thanking her mom, her dad, her brother Spencer Stone, her husband Dave McCary and her daughter. In scenes depicting her work, her attire reflects a celebration of the female form, with pastels and translucent fabrics dominating her outfits, or lack thereof. However, when Bella steps out with her friend Toinette, played by Suzy Bemba, we witness a shift to a more sophisticated look—think knee-high socks, pointed black boots, a statement coat with voluminous shoulders, and a crisp white collar.

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The effect is wondrous and discombobulating, both accentuating Bella’s otherworldliness and confirming her to be a heroine far ahead of her time. “I knew that Yorgos didn’t want this to look like a sci-fi or period film,” Holly Waddington, the wildly talented costume designer behind the looks, says. For the aspiring costume designer who dreams of creating looks for film, television, theater and concert stages, the journey typically starts with the right school, where a host of considerations awaits. Classroom size, location, specialized classes, participation in theater programs, job placement, networking with alums and, most important, tuition are all part of the equation. As schools meet the demands and technology of an ever-changing entertainment landscape, nothing tops a good education. This marked one of dozens of choices Heath, Price, and costume designer Holly Waddington made to transform the sharp satire into a visually arresting, surrealist fairy tale.

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)

The film was released theatrically on Friday and Waddington’s artful costumes from the film are currently being exhibited at ASU FIDM in Los Angeles. “Poor Things,” the latest dark comedy from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, emerged from the Venice International Film Festival earlier this fall with the festival’s top award — and as an early awards season front-runner. Included in the buzz is the film’s costume designer Holly Waddington, who was tasked with outfitting the gorgeously wacky onscreen world. It started with deciding who is dressing her. So in my mind it was [housemaid] Mrs. Prim (Vicki Pepperdine).

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poor things costume design

Her specialty there was ladies' period costuming, and she spent endless hours poring over the fashion archives used for movies like Moulin Rouge, Doctor Zhivago, and Titanic. She would no longer have Mrs. Prim, and she would have to put it together herself, and there would be moments when she would be helped by Duncan. He’s not going to go for dinner with her where everyone’s in evening wear and she’s wearing a mashup.

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“One of the great things about working with Yorgos [Lanthimos, director] is that he isn’t somebody who comes to you with a finished sense of what things should be. He very much encourages a rich, creative process for each of his collaborators,” she said. So, Poor Things' costume design not only deserves more attention but also offers profound insights into the film's thematic depth and narrative progression. It's like stepping into a mesmerizing alternate reality where fashion isn't just about style but about resilience and breaking free from constraints. Let's journey through the enchanting landscape of Poor Things, exploring how its lacy and ruffled costume design adorns the characters and serves as a visual declaration of feminism, resilience, and sexual liberation. When I was at art school, my tutor, Una, said, "You really need to watch Eraserhead," and that was my introduction to David Lynch.

poor things costume design

Maybe he would buy her a dress, but then we would see her in other scenes where she’s kind of just stepped out into the street in her pants with half the costume on, or she would go out dancing, wearing a petticoat with the blouse worn the wrong way. I wanted her to feel almost like a five-year-old who’s dressing up in their mother’s clothes. I’m trying to remember what the initial response was.

Unpacking the Complex, Campy Fashion of Poor Things

The frills of a sea creature, the dimples on a sea urchin, the textures in the body, the lining of the intestine, even cellulite. We had a couple of fabric buyers going around trying to find fabrics that had these textures, and when we couldn’t find them, we would make them. So we had this little smocking machine that would smock fabric to create these ripply, delicate [fabrics]. We did so many things that didn’t make it into the film, but we spent a lot of time creating textures. Our 2023 fashion bingo cards may not have expected a late entry for wanting to dress like a horny Frankenstein science experiment-turned-liberated woman, but Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter is a certifiable fashion plate. Stone commands the screen in her latest collaboration with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos in Poor Things, where Bella is brought back to life by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

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Godwin (Willem Dafoe) is a proud father, who struggles in his attachment to and protection of his reanimated daughter. He’s a scientist above everything else, though, and allows Bella to just be, all the while observing her natural behavior and testing her abilities as impartially as he can. This allows Bella to be as buttoned up or down as she pleases to express her curiosity. Under his care, he has her dressed by the maid, but doesn’t reprimand her for trying to break free from it. The wedding dress was an absolute nightmare to make.

Describing “Poor Things” as a “dream project,” Waddington relished the opportunity to create a sartorial world that wasn’t firmly rooted in any one time period. “I had this sense that it shouldn’t be obviously sci-fi, and it shouldn’t be obviously period drama,” says Waddington, noting that she ended up grounding the sartorial story in Victorian-era silhouettes, without being confined to that fashion era. This blue [in the beginning] isn't an easy blue, it's very rich. The fabric was beautiful and already blue but not intense enough, so we overdyed it and overdyed it. I worked very closely with a dyer and she did about 20 different samples of how she could push this blue and identified this particular shade. We're very saturated with images of sexy underwear and pornography and sex work.

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Poor Things costume designer took inspiration from her toddlers.

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Yet as we see throughout the film, while the patriarchal society expects Bella to look a certain way, a “kind of discordance is expressed through how she's speaking and the things she's saying.” A completely original, creative book behind a standard cover. Then, Max McCandles needed to look a bit impoverished, and a little bit ill-fitting, the clothes needed to reveal him as being a bit lacking in confidence, with little sexual agency. Nothing like the wealthy, confident students that he's in medical school with. So, the fabrics were quite cheap and poor-looking, and the cuts that we went for were quite ill-fitting.

I wanted his clothes to feel utilitarian progressive and practical. So, he has these boiler suits and they're like unison suits, they're a bit like the sort of thing Winston Churchill used to wear, he called them siren suits because they were utilitarian. The kind of thing he'd have on if the air raid sirens went off in the war.

Free and open to the public, the costume display features memorable looks from the film alongside Waddington’s original pencil sketches, props and behind-the-scenes photos from Lanthimos. As production designers Price and Heath created Bella’s first stop on her journey, Lisbon, it was important to tune out of reality. Built in Budapest, home to the largest soundstage in continental Europe, the fictionalized capital of Portugal took about 20 weeks to build, looking to Ricardo Bofill’s Brutalist architecture to arrive at a slightly unusual city. Lisbon included three- and four-story structures, streets made from undulating steel decks, and a 170-foot scenic backdrop. I feel, for me at least, it was about empowerment.

Whimsical yet slightly unkempt ensembles featuring textured knickers and cage-like bodices evoking discomfort. These outfits possess a doll-like quality with a hint of sci-fi flair, brilliantly conveying Bella's vulnerability and infantile mental state, a motif reinforced as she grapples with restriction, control, and exploitation. Adapted from Alasdair Gray's novel, the film captivates viewers with its stunning imagery that blends surrealism with realism, crafted by creative director Simon Hughes and the VFX team. The brothel’s interior included light-up floors, whereas the exterior included penis-shaped windows and massive carvings of nude women, Heath adds.

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