Close Look at Costume Designer Nominees - BAFTA and OSCAR

This is the season of some of the highest prestigious awards of the year, Both BAFTA and OSCAR attract most of the interests from around the world. For fashionistas, the costume design segment holds special sets of fascination. This year has been wonderful for designers. Many films were produced that were demanding and challenging for costume designing. Here is a look at few costume designs that stood out for both the academies:

Given what we look for in an Oscar worthy costume, Cruella has every inch of expectations fulfilled. Anti-designer Jenny Beavan has shown her most creative side in this project. For Cruella, Jenny had to use a colour palette of black, white, grey and red, for the character shades in the movie. Emma Stone (the actress playing the title character) has at least 30 ‘30-odd looks’ in the film. Although there hasn’t been any specific inspiration to point out, but the designer did mention looking at some “classy women from the 60 and early 70s”

Next up our list is Dune, having hailed maximum appreciation for its remarkable costume ideas. Dune’s iconic stillsuits designed for the science fiction plot was a product of much brainstorming and dedicated teamwork. Jose Fernandez of Ironhead Studios was the first choice for this. He is a sculptor and designer, and has created Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman armour, Ben Affleck’s batsuit, and a bunch of other remarkable superhero costumes. For Dune, his challenge was to create a practical piece that was still aesthetically pleasing. He has done a brilliant job!

Jacqueline Durran is nominated for Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed film Little Woman. For this project she had to keep the perception of the characters in her mind, because after all “In the end, it just comes down to how you perceive it. You make design choices for each person as you go along, and you say, well, ‘That's so Jo,’ or ‘That's very Meg.’...”  Jo (played by Ronan) wears vests to reflect her tomboyish side, Amy (played by Pugh) wears luxurious gowns in Paris, as she was required to, Meg (played by Emma Watson) chooses to embrace practical apparel due to her reduced circumstances, and Beth ( played by Eliza Scanlen) compliments softer colours because of her declining health. But no wardrobe was static; pieces were frequently swapped among characters just like in real life.

Costume designer Massimo Cantini recreated Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano around the mid-1700s. He said that he kept the age in his mind while creating the lightness of the costume. For this he used delicate and transparent fabrics inspired by watercolours from the 1700s. He worked mostly with natural fibres such as silk and linen, along with fabrics like organza. According to him, the costume must grasp the essence of the historic period, which is the very essence of the film.

Finally we must talk about Nightmare Alley, where Luis Sequeira has garnered the nomination for its costume designing. The costumes gained attention for its impeccable tailoring, noting that it's the job of a tailor to know the body of the actors and actresses. And it is a job best done by the designer. Details were paid right down to the button. Flat tones and sheath, flowy fabric and carefully chosen colours to compliment the crafted set were worth of all the praise.