The Stories Behind Emma Stones Costumes in Poor Things The New York Times

Table Of Content

• Savannah College of Art & Design
• This film also makes a serious case for bringing back the leg-of-mutton sleeve.
• Victoria Justice Shimmers in Sequins at Latin American Music Awards in Dazzling Cutout Dress
• This couple in their 70s is winning the internet with their 'outfit of the day' videos
• Ray Chan, Art Director and Production Designer for Marvel Films, Dies at 56

It also matures right along with her as she discovers the joys of sex — or "furious jumping" as she comes to call it. Innoative classes, networking with a who’s who of costume professionals and a prime location in Westwood with the film industry at its back door makes UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television a magnet. TUITION MFA tuition-free upon acceptance, thanks to David Geffen’s $150 million donation to the school in 2021, said to be the largest gift of its kind in the history of American theater. I’m very passionate about historical clothes—and I really do love throwing them on their head a bit.

Savannah College of Art & Design

I was coming up with references of things that were sort of fleshy and skin tones and quite like the body colors. I wanted Emma to just keep going back to the fact that she was a creation. We did have her start off in longer knickers in the beginning, like a 1930s knicker. And on the first day of shooting, I realized she needed really short bloomers, to show more of her body, to reveal all of what she was doing with her body. Whenever sleeves have been big for women—the Elizabethan period, the 1940s, the 1980s—women have generally been in a good place. Let’s say we had gone for an 1880s skinny sleeve—that would have put all the interest on the skirts and the bottoms, and it would have felt totally different.

This film also makes a serious case for bringing back the leg-of-mutton sleeve.

First-year students begin with technical skills and costume history, followed by a second year of analytical thinking and collaborations with fellow students and directors, while students in the final year create costumes for a professional production. (Last year’s Tony awards featured design nominations for 15 alumni and faculty members). New courses include a class on working in the film and television industry with a focus on collaborative SyncOnSet software (essential for budgeting, script breakdowns, reports, and digital continuity books). It’s unusual when you do these period costumes, because normally your leading actor isn’t flailing around [in a period piece]. 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.

Victoria Justice Shimmers in Sequins at Latin American Music Awards in Dazzling Cutout Dress

For me, that was a significant texture that had to do with almost like the frills that you might see if you looked at a piece of tripe, or if you looked at the innards of an animal, or if you look at the frills on a piece of seaweed, or a sea creature. Yorgos was really open-minded to anything I would have come up with, and I presented him with a lot of ideas and options from the late 19th century, and he kept going towards these enormous sleeves. It pushes forward this sense of otherness – these highly textured fabrics that are quite creature-like.

'Barbie' and 'Poor Things' Go Head to Head for Best Costume Design - IndieWire

'Barbie' and 'Poor Things' Go Head to Head for Best Costume Design.

Posted: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

“So the looks are all over the place.” As Bella matures, her outfits begin to better match the conventions of her surroundings. We had four cutters, lots of makers, one dyer working with me all the time, dyeing everything. Crowd costume people doing things and on-set people.

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In this wild and fantastical world, from the backdrops to the clothing, every detail tells Bella's tale of self-discovery and newfound empowerment. The dreamlike atmosphere adds an extra layer of magic to the narrative, giving us the space to dive deep into themes like identity, agency, and societal expectations. As Emma Stone's character grows from innocence to freedom, her wardrobe undergoes its own journey, morphing with each step of her evolution.

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While most of the costumes are based in that period, Bella had to stand out. Yorgos Lanthimos new, surreal sci-fi period piece, Poor Things, is a visual delight from the first frame. Perhaps the star of the frame is not Emma Stone’s transformative Bella Baxter or Mark Ruffalo’s haughty Duncan Wedderburn, but the clothes created for this visually rich world. When I was thinking about how I would approach Bella, I looked at my own children. I spend a lot of time with children in my life, and when they’re very tiny, they very quickly start to unravel – they end up with things missing, and have this kind of innate will to be naked. I liked the idea that Mrs Prim would get Bella ready in the mornings in a ladylike skirt and bodice, but by 10am, the skirt would be gone.

This couple in their 70s is winning the internet with their 'outfit of the day' videos

I was quite interested in that quality, finding its way somewhere into these clothes, and particularly the wardrobe of Bella. I'm a bit of an image hoarder, so I had images from a very wide range of periods. Periods in the history of dress, and art movements, had lots of images of organic textures, sea creatures, organic textures that are kind of frilly and sort of alive and light, and that I felt could somehow replace Victorian decoration.

In the movie (a Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival and now an Oscar contender), Stone is a scientist’s creation who evolves from a childlike naïf to a sexually and politically liberated woman. When Bella's going to the medical school in Paris, I wanted her to be a bit more formed. So she has this proper suit, and I wanted her to be totally blended with men. I didn't want her to be at all conspicuous in that scene in the medical school.

At the 96th Oscars, Waddington won Best Costume Design, amongst Poor Thing's four total wins. She says the entire experience has been "the opportunity of a lifetime." "Yorgos has a very good way of getting his collaborators to be playful and experiment and explore and create their own thing," the designer reflects. Waddington, who has worked on period dramas like Hulu’s The Great and Altitude Films’ Lady Macbeth, says that working with the Oscar-nominated director Lanthimos is like walking a tightrope. With no boundaries around timeframes, style, and architectural design, Lanthimos steered the surrealist ship, ultimately helping Waddington, Heath, and Price land their first Oscar nomination.

I didn't have the foggiest idea of what it was all about — I was only about 19 when I watched it — but I was really drawn to the imagery. It's set in the early '60s, and it's all filmed on a Greek island and the light is just stunning. Brigitte Bardot is wearing these incredible early-1960s suits and really chic little skirts and this fabulous headband. Waddington notes that while the production designers had already sketched out a look for the film when she came onboard, Lanthimos wanted her to first develop her own visual response to the script. “The only brief really was that he didn’t want it to be overtly like a period drama” — the script is set in the 1880s — “and he didn’t want it to be overtly like a science fiction film,” Waddington said.

Below, Waddington talks us through all of Bella’s key looks and phases, from the sculptural bustle cage inspired by a Moncler puffer, to the mac designed to resemble “a period condom”. Beyond that, Lanthimos offered conceptual freedom. “He just doesn’t need to have a whole back story,” she said. Bella’s statement sleeves are already having a moment.

State-of-the-art training in scenic, lighting and costume design combined with practical production experience with working professionals make the USC School of Dramatic Arts a highly conducive environment for learning. Known as the first degree-granting institution in the U.S., the school has a conservatory program which partners with the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Quantum Theatre and City Theatre as well. This past year saw current students and alumni participate in a Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden fashion show inspired by Billy Porter’s looks and roles. "Thank you to the academy, thank you to my fellow nominees," Waddington began. "It's an amazing privilege to be in the same room as you all. You're the people who inspired me to be a costume designer in the first place." The color palette keys into the sexual overtones of the film.

I designed the costumes for the pilot episodes and had a great time with Tony—we got on very well, loved working with him and loved his work. He made the introduction to Yorgos, so I got to have an interview with him, and it went from there. My first thought after watching Poor Things was, “I am going to be Lisbon Bella for Halloween.” Of course, I had other thoughts about the movie, but I was obsessed with the costumes! There was something modest, yet sexy about the nearly translucent fabrics, yet also silly with the humongous puffed sleeves. My advice would be just to be lapping it all up, whether it's learning how to sew and make, and dye, looking at art history, watching films, just all of it. It’s interesting because other actors really need to have tried something on, walked in it, felt it, so that was interesting… She’s a real firecracker of a person – fast, quick, and just gets everything.