Behind the Best Costume Design Academy Awards

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan looks into the distance wearing a stunning crystal Prada dress and Tiffany & Co headpiece
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan looks into the distance wearing a stunning crystal Prada dress and Tiffany & Co headpiece

Carey Mulligan as daisy Buchanan wearing the crystal dress from Prada and a Tiffany & Co headpiece

This year there were some outstanding nominees for the Best Costume Design Academy Award. We take a look at the sparkling dresses, period pieces and flapper fashion in the films.

Firstly, this year’s winner was Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby. The adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1920s novel was always going to be visually impressive, directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan and featuring pieces from the archives of Prada and Miu Miu.

Martin has said that she thinks there were up to 1000 costumes in total used in the film and 1,400 metres of French lace. While the costumes were certainly in the 1920s flapper style, they weren’t ‘old fashioned’. Baz Luhrmann said from the beginning ‘I want it to feel as viscerally alive and sexy as New York felt to Fitzgerald back in the Twenties’, not a sepia toned New-York.

Catherine Martin worked closely with Miuccia Prada on the wardrobe producing pieces that that were slightly modernised styles of fashions from the 1920s and sometimes the 1930s. Martin selected forty dresses from the Prada and Miu Miu archives that were adapted and worn in the film by various actresses including the Carey Mulligan as protagonist Daisy Buchanan.

The stunning crystal dress worn by Mulligan when Daisy finally attends one of Gatsby’s infamous parties was adapted from a Spring Summer 2010 Prada dress. Martin also partnered with Brooks Brothers for the men’s suits and Tiffany & Co for the spectacular jewellery. Tiffany & Co are now selling a range of jewellery inspired by the pieces in the film, the Jazz Age Glamour collection.

Michael Wilkinson was the designer behind the American Hustle wardrobe. Set decades after The Great Gatsby, the costume in the seventies film is equally striking.

There is a strong connection between the characters and their clothes in American Hustle and as they are conning and changing their game, their wardrobe fluctuates. “Each character has such a powerful and direct connection with their clothes and they’re really using them to reinvent themselves constantly as part of their hustle,” said Wilkinson in an interview with the Telegraph.

Amy Adams’ character Sydney is a strong female con artist (for the most part of the film) and her wardrobe reflects her demeanour; full of plunging necklines and powerful pieces. Most of Adams’ wardrobe was bespoke, created in the style of stars from the time (think Faye Dunaway and Jerry Hall). Several pieces were also sourced vintage from Gucci, Diane von Furstenberg and Valentino.

Jennifer Lawrence’s Rosalyn is a complete juxtaposition; she is chaotic, messy and over the top. Wilkin said of her character, “with her clothes she wasn’t quite getting it right, she was so in her own mixed-up, mental landscape that she was never quite sure what was appropriate to wear “. One of Lawrence’s most striking dresses was a very tight white piece worn later in the film in a pivotal scene.

Wilkinson also had fun designing the male characters wardrobe, “It was a rather expressive and exuberate time for clothes for men”. For Bradley Cooper’s FBI worker Ritchie Wilkinson chose ill-fitting polyester suits and ‘garish ties’ to match his (impressive) perm. But as he gets to know Sydney and Irv (Christian Bale) he begins to understand the effect that clothes have on other people. He wears silk shirts and three piece suits, exploring the power that his clothes can have on the people around him.

Other Oscar nominees for this year’s Best Costume Design Award were William Chang Suk Ping for The Grandmaster, Michael O’Connor for The Invisible Woman and Patricia Norris for 12 years a Slave. 

Inside Film at the Baftas

Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron, director and writer for the blockbuster film, Gravity are pictured with 2 of their BAFTA awards.

Image via empireonline.com

This years Baftas ceremony is all but over and after an incredible year for British film there was certainly some deserved winners and surprises on the night.

If you didn’t join us for our liveblog of the 67th annual award ceremony, or maybe didn’t even watch the awards at all, never fear as the nominations and winners for each category are as follows (lengthy list imminent):

Edit: Just in case you can’t be bothered to read it all, here’s our podcast instead.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Philomena – Winner
12 Years A Slave
Behind The Candelabra
Captain Phillips
The Wolf Of Wall Street


Best Leading Actor
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Christian Bale, American Hustle

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave – Winner
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street


Best Animated Film
Despicable Me 2
Frozen – Winner
Monsters University


Best Leading Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench, Philomena
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine – Winner
Sandra BullockGravity


Best British Short Animation
Sleeping With The Fishes Winner
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody


Make-Up and Hair
Behind The Candelabra, Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin
The Butler, Debra Denson, Candace Neal, Robert Stevenson, Matthew Mungle

The Great Gatsby, Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn
American Hustle, Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell, Kathrine Gordon – Winner
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater


Best British Short Film
Island Queen
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Orbit Ever After

Room 8 – Winner
Sea View


Best Original Music
Gravity,Steven Price – Winner
12 Years A Slave, Hans Zimmer
The Book Thief, John Williams
Captain Phillips,Henry Jackman
Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman


Best Cinematography
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska


Best Original Screenplay
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
American Hustle – Winner
Nebraska


Best Costume Design
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Behind The Candelabra
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr. Banks


Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Peter Greenway


Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity – Winner
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Paul Greengrass,Captain Phillips
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street


Outstanding British Film
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom|
Philomena

Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
Gravity – Winner
The Selfish Giant


Best Documentary
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish

Tim’s Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
The Act Of Killing – Winner


Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Kieran Evans, Kelly + Victor – Winner
Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks
Paul Wright, Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril
Scott Graham, Shell


EE Rising Star
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will Poulter – Winner
Léa Seydoux


Best Production Design
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Behind The Candelabra
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Gravity


Best Editing
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Rush – Winner


Best Sound
All Is Lost, Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur
Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis, Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Paul Urmson
Rush, Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse


Fellowship
Dame Helen Mirren


Best Film
12 Years A Slave – Winner
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena


Best Special Visual Effects
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3, Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick
Pacific Rim, Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny – Winner
Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton


Best Film not in the English Language
The Act Of Killing
Blue Is The Warmest Colour
The Great Beauty – Winner
Metro Manila
Wadjda


Best Supporting Actor
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Daniel Brühl, Rush
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips – Winner


Best Supporting Actress
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle – Winner
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine