Patricia Norris, possibly my all-time favourite costume designer, died earlier this year. The only person to receive a lifetime achievement award from both The Costume Designers Guild and The Art Directors Guild, she worked on some great films, designing costumes which I go back to again and again, films such as Days of Heaven and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Her contribution to Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart influenced all of us in the costume department at Wimbledon School of Art in 1990.

Incredibly still designing for both departments in her late seventies on Killing Them Softly and being Oscar nominated for 12 Years a Slave in 2014 at the age of 82, she must have had phenomenal energy and determination. Sometimes I feel too old to keep this up and yet I've barely got started in comparison.

So I knew she was an amazing woman who had achieved difficult things in a different time, but then I read this in the LA Times:

In 1965 she got a job as a stock girl in MGM's costume department to provide for her children she was raising as a single mother. Working her way up, she earned her first credit as a costume designer on the James Garner western "Support Your Local Gunfighter." (1971).

Not only a single parent but a single parent to five children. 

I tried to track her down when I was in LA last year as I was keen to meet her to discuss her work and experience, but she was living in the mountains at the time, nowhere near where I was, so no chance to meet in my tightest of schedules. Shame, it would have been so interesting to hear her take on it all.

What an incredible woman.

I was interested to see this article at Flavorwire magazine - 'costume test photo's'.

Fitting photo's are a vital part of our process but it is unusual to see them published. There is a big element of trust involved in the rehearsal period, the photo's being quite intimate because the actors generally aren't wearing any make-up and the costumes usually have pins and visible markings for alterations and whatnot. 

They are most definitely not for sharing. 

Maybe there is a thirty year rule or something! 

Anyway, in these old studio photographs I particularly like the blackboards and the small details in the notes; the real names, costumer credits, black and white or colour tick-box options, the scenes for each costume all plotted in advance. They don't appear to be expecting much to happen organically throughout filming whereas I'm used to lots of costumes filtering onto the truck throughout the schedule and I am open to new ideas from cast throughout. Even when the costumes all have to be made it's not the norm to have them all ready before we shoot, the workroom will be busy making most of the way through.
They reek of a slower pace of life.

It's quite amazing to see technology change so fast. I used to be sent out to Snappy Snaps with a roll of film to get prints developed and then go to use a public phone box so I could let the designer know how long it was going to take.  Around that time I can remember saying to Phoebe de Gaye that one day I would be able to sample for her and send pictures from my mobile phone back to her in the office, saving me the journey from the West End to Angels so she could make a decision and then for me to go back to town to buy the items. It seemed like a sci-fi vision at the time and, believe me, it wasn't very long ago.

The John Paul Gaultier exhibition at The Barbican is excellent.

Since working together last summer on How I live Now, stills photographer Agatha Nitecka and I have become friends. We bonded with each other on the train journeys we shared going back and forth from Welsh locations and have been collaborating on a stills project throughout this year.
Agatha's photographs are beautiful and, unusually for film stills, they are often black and white. I find it interesting to see parts of the film through a different eye. Agatha's blog and website can be viewed here.

As someone who has designed a fair few 'gritty urban drama's', I know it's tough to get the pitch just right when you want to create a heightened world. Designing something which feels very real, where the design is playful and pronounced, whilst not distracting the viewer from the drama, isn't easy.

Breaking Bad is a great piece of contemporary costume design, cranked up but believable. I've thoroughly enjoyed Costume Designers Kathleen Detoro and Jennifer L Bryan's considered approach to the work, the characters are authentic yet their costumes are pushed right to the edge of realism.

In season 5, during the episode 'Gliding All Over', I was sure Skyler White changed her top to fit with the colour design of two scenes.  She appears to go directly from muted purple, for a scene in Marie's house, into a muted blue for the scenes which start with Walt beside the pool. Breaking Bad is full of colour-play and visual references which are witty and defined yet somehow manage to pull off being distinct and subtle at the same time. As I googled about the use of colour in the series I found a few interesting posts regarding the symbolism used by the team:

Kathleen Detoro's comments.

The Colourful World of Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad/Wiki/Colour

Time Article

It's not always the case that there is enough time spent together with the other creative HOD's on a film. Whenever there is proper time laid aside to discuss mood, tone and colour thoroughly, there is only benefit. I have worked on jobs where I've barely conversed with a make-up designer or a DOP in prep and looking back at the work it's not only crazy but it shows in the finished piece. I always try to share my process in order to gel with other departments but not everyone works in the same way. 

When the team push each other to collaborate closely during prep then their instincts throughout the shoot are more cohesive and the finished work is always stronger. It's fair to say that charging around like crazy with hardly any of the prep spent in the same room as other departments isn't my favourite way to work. 

It's clear in Breaking Bad that there was good collaboration throughout.

Images via The Colourful World of Breaking Bad

At the V&A with Synergy Theatre Project

I have recently finished working at the V&A on a short course: An Introduction to Costume Design for Ex-Prisoners.

The four sessions were a collaboration between the V&A and Synergy Theatre Project.

Marisa Smith, our incredibly well organised co-ordinator and her trusty assistant Bryony Smith, along with Kirsten Shirling from Synergy, steered us through the sessions and helped us all deliver the best we could offer in the time given. This thoughtful planning and concise use of time meant each week we were able to provide an afternoon's workshop with enough space for everyone to have time to communicate and get to know one other, structured around high but achievable goals.
I have a tendency towards bounding enthusiasm and Marisa's judgement about what we could fit into each session was spot-on. The result was a very high standard of visual communication of costume ideas and a solid understanding of character from all attendees.

It was great fun as well as a learning experience and I'm sure all of us 'outsiders' found being in the V&A once a week, and calling it work, a pleasure in itself.

Marisa's blog post with more detail is here.
And the V&A's Director mentioned the classes in last night's Evening Standard.

Fellow costume designer sharing Middle Eastern research  - The costumer.

 

Marina De Caro on Flickr.

Hollywood Costume at the V&A

Hollywood Costume opened last night at the V&A.
It is excellent, well worth a visit and quite magical seeing the likes of Charles D Hall's Charlie Chaplin costume right there, still full of life and holding its own beside the big guns of modern cinema.

The exhibition is clear and informative about the process we go through to achieve a character but, chatting to Jacqueline Durran on the way round, we agreed there is rarely a mention of the amount of things that happen purely by accident or as an on-the-spot solution to a particular problem which end up being considered 'iconic'.
Often we are flying around in a mad panic, up against a crazy schedule, and the result of the smash and grab can look like genius.
Maybe that's it.
I have found that when my research is thorough and I know the script backwards, decisions I've made on instinct in the heat of the moment are better than solutions I could have arrived at given a month to think.

There's a great quote beside the Darth Vadar costume which captures some of this brilliantly -

   'For Darth Vadar', designer John Mollo said, 'we put on a black motorcycle suit, a Nazi helmet, a gas mask and a monk's cloak that we found in the middle-ages department.'

Rummaging around a costume house with no definite idea of what we are after, just an open mind and a strong sense of character, can provide the answers.

(picture via)

Unpicking Costume design - The Next day

Last night we took part in the Q&A at the BFI with Deborah Nadoolman Landis. I think it went quite well. We were pleased there were lots of costume folk in the audience who supported the event and joined us afterwards for drinks.

 My feelings in retrospect:

• A couple of people didn't have their questions properly answered and I regret that. We veered off on a bit of a tangent which was hard to come back from and then we were onto the the next question. Apologies from me.

• We were all quite unprepared for some questions which we could easily have thought about in advance - favourite films etc. Of course people are likely to be interested in knowing what interests or inspires us and I wish I had considered more of this beforehand instead of thinking about why I do the job and the daily workings of it all - I was barely able to remember the name of any film at all once I was under the spotlight - costume designers function on the other side of the camera and I am not well practiced at dealing with an audience.

• We could be doing more, as a community of designers here in Britain, to raise the profile of our profession.
Deborah has done a huge amount of work in this area and curating Hollywood Costume at the V&A will do a whole lot more. I think it's all brilliant but it has highlighted, for me at least, the lack of input from us working in the British film industry.

When we get together it tends to be for BECTU or Christmas drinks or we bump into each other in costume houses and have a passing moan about budgets and schedules. We rarely get the chance to gather and talk about the reasons we love the job and consider the creative fulfillment that comes when it all goes to plan.

It's not unusual for a costume designer to feel their work is being sidelined or even dismissed by people who know little about costume but have strong opinions and the power to contribute to the outcome. Some of that will never change but what we do is front of camera, central to the mise en scene, yet we have all had experiences where colleagues on set, who frankly ought to know better, leave us feeling like we are hindering proceedings rather than contributing to the visual outcome.

I am sure we all want the job to be better understood in order for it to be taken more seriously.

I'd like to use this experience as a springboard for us to get going with some sort of regular gathering which both celebrates and investigates the job.
Maybe screening a film and discussing the costumes afterwards? Talks? Interviews? Quarterly?
I shall put out my feelers to find out if people would be interested and if they are then let's see what we can arrange.

Unpicking Costume Design at the BFI

Tonight I am taking part in a panel discussion at the BFI - Unpicking Costume Design.

Michelle Clapton, Dinah Collin, Sammy Sheldon, Rosa Dias and myself have been invited along by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, author of Film Craft's Costume Design and curator of the upcoming Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A.
We all have films screening in this year's London Film Festival and tonight we will be discussing the job.
Deborah has been doing a lot of good work raising the profile of the profession, I feel honoured to have been asked to join in.

Willy Wonka's Costume Notes

There's an article published on The International Design Times website which contains a copy of a letter Gene Wilder sent to director Mel Stuart during the prep of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The letter contains Gene Wilder's feedback and further ideas in response to having seen the initial costume designs.

The collaborative aspect of film making is clear. Wilder's comments are generous to the Costume Designer but he is still pushing on with further investigation into the details of the character they are building together.

What I find most surprising about the article, from a contemporary perspective, is the simple fact that there was enough time for Wilder to write a letter. Instant communication coupled with shorter prep periods, attached to tight-as-possible shooting schedules means we often feel there is not enough time to digest ideas for long enough to be able to move them forward beyond the first concept.

It's a shame that having enough time to consider, double check and step back from our work, to try to take an objective view of it, feels like a rare luxury.


Thanks to Natalie Ward for sending me the link.

Stills found here.

Historical Costumes in the Year 1400

I found this book plate in Camden Passage recently, I absolutely love this kind of costume history reference material. It reminds me of old Ladybird books such as The Princess and the Pea, I used to scrutinise those drawings when I was little, charmed by the world of the Olden Days. I am sure they were part of the reason I do what I do.

Demanding Types: Undulating Undies with the Marabou Frills!

Tee Hee.

BBC Costume Design Trainee Scheme

I have spent two very interesting days going through the portfolio submissions from this year's applicants for the BBC Costume Design Trainee scheme.

Costume Designer Linda Mattock originally set up the scheme which is now run by Alice Skidmore. Linda and Alice are regular assessors so I was really pleased when they asked me to join them this year.

We looked through roughly 100 portfolios and whittled them down to a group of ten who will be invited for interviews in July, competing for two positions.

I can't wait to meet the applicants who got through, their work is strong, all quite different from each other and each one, at this stage, showing great potential.

A Costume Guild for the UK?

Annie Symons has asked the question 'Costume Guild, Anyone?' and now there is a gathering of people picking up at pace who are interested in coming together to organise a Costume Guild in the UK.
Topically this quarter's Selvedge magazine has an article by Robert Chenciner about the formation of early guilds and trade unions, his closing paragraph:

'It is tempting to make direct connections between guilds and unions. But clearly there is a difference between guilds, designed to protect and uphold standards, train artisan workers and develop markets, and later trade unions which aimed to prevent the mistreatment and exploitation of workers which arose from industrialisation. However they both fought exploitation by the ruling class.'

Annie is organising the first meeting, and then I guess it's up to all of us to add our support, commitment, creativity and energy to get right behind it and look at what we can achieve together.

For more information go here.

Annie Symons

Belated Congratulations to Annie Symons who won the Costume Design BAFTA at last week's Craft Awards for her brilliant work on BBC 2's drama Worried About The Boy.
I know Annie struggled with budget constraints so it's an even bigger 'Well Done' for managing to pull it off with so much wit and accuracy, I loved it.

Anna-Maria Garthwaite and James Leman

Top three photo's show Mora Thunder and Staley Rondeau alongside a design by James Leman.

Last week I went on a field trip with The Gentle Author and Stanley Rondeau to the VA to meet Curator of Designs, Moira Thunder. Stanley is a direct descendant of a Spitalfields weaver called John Rondeau, who was born in France in 1666.

We went to look at some of the original designs Anna-Maria Garthwaite had produced for John Rondeau to weave.

Seeing the original notes and dates on the paper brought home how very long ago this was and just how vibrant the colour must have been in its fresh newness but to accompany Stanley and to witness his emotional connection to his ancestor, whilst at the same time picking Moira's brains about the various people and their skills and responsibilities involved in producing a woven silk design for a client was, for me as a Costume Designer, the perfect framework for a museum visit.
Considering the human element and the world in which these people lived, made their stories come to life and I felt their characters lift off the pages which is, in the end, my job.

Kazuko Kurosawa

This is Costume Designer Kazuko Kurosawa. I met her whilst in Tokyo, she is the daughter of Akira Kurosawa.
Kazuko designed one of my favourite films, Zatoichi, it was a great pleasure to meet her. She offered us her help in dealing with the Tokyo costume houses and textile shops. Her experience will be invaluable I am sure and being an avid flea market goer and vintage textile collector, she offered to keep her eyes peeled on behalf of our production.
I would have liked to interview her properly but it felt like a bit of a liberty to take advantage of our interpreter for selfish purposes. I'll keep in touch and try to do it another time.

Second Hand Kimono Dealer. Tokyo