Grace Snell is an award winning Costume Designer working on internationally
acclaimed feature films, television and advertising campaigns.
Born in
Norwich, England. Grace graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2012 with a BA in Theatre Design; Costume
Interpretation.
Starting
out in music promos Grace quickly established lasting relationships with
production companies such as Riff Raff & Blink; often called upon to design
and make all her costumes on tight
budgets, picking up a UK MVA nomination for Best Styling in 2017 and a British
Craft Arrow nomination in 2019.
Grace
continues to design commercial work collaborating with directors including
Georgi Banks-Davis, Sam Brown, thirtytwo, Francois Rousselet, Megaforce and
Michael Gracey and has shot in Cuba, France, Spain, Iceland, Romania, Hungary,
Ukraine and the UAE.
In 2015,
Grace signed to her first agency aged 25. For the following 8 years Grace’s
passion for long form storytelling has seen her work on visually rich films
including Rare Beasts (Dir. Billie Piper) premiering at Venice Film Festival in
2019 and Mogul Mowgli (Dir. Bassam Tariq) winner of the Fipresci Prize at
Berlinale 2020.
After
being put forward by Billie Piper, Grace went on to design I Hate Suzie, the
BAFTA nominated show co-created by Piper & Lucy Prebble for Sky Atlantic.
Grace’s designs for the show would see her lauded by the press with British
Vogue saying the show was ‘Full of stand out pieces’ and was also included on
the ‘Best Costumes in TV 2020’ list by the Evening Standard.
Grace picked up Best Costume Design at the British Independent Film Awards in 2021 for her work on The Souvenir Part II, after being nominated the previous year for her work on The Souvenir. Grace’s third film with director Joanna Hogg, The Eternal Daughter (A24), is due for release in 2023.
2023 also
sees the release of The Gold (BBC) a 6 part 1980s drama directed by Academy
Award winner Aneil Karia, Grace’s second collaboration with Karia, having
previously designed his BAFTA nominated short Work (Film 4) in 2017.
Grace has recently arrived back from the
Orkney Islands where she wrapped on The Outrun directed by Nora Fingscheidt.
The film is an adaptation of the Sunday Times Best Seller of the same name by
Amy Liptrot and stars Saoirse Ronan as the lead.
In
addition to her design work Grace has sat on the jury for the British Arrows
and internationally for the Shots Awards, where she was Head Judge for the
Casting/Production & Styling Category. Grace is actively involved in
training and mentoring industry peers from trainees to heads of department, one
of whom was recently accepted onto a ScreenSkills Leader of Tomorrow programme.
A proud moment for Grace as she herself was recognised by Screen Daily as an
International Star of Tomorrow in 2021.
‘The Souvenir’ Costume Designer Put a Decadent Twist
on Opulent ’80s Style
By Tomris
Laffly
https://variety.com/2019/artisans/production/the-souvenir-costume-designer-1203248000/
Set against
the backdrop of London’s early-1980s cultural renaissance, British auteur
Joanna Hogg’s exquisitely sculpted and critically acclaimed “The Souvenir,”
which A24 has been widening in platform release for the past month, follows
film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) and her gradually destructive romance
with the magnetic Anthony (Tom Burke). “We didn’t want a film that screamed
’80s,” says costume designer Grace Snell, who, instead of browsing fashion
magazines for secondhand ideas, mined Hogg’s old Polaroids and Ray Roughler
Jones’ “3000 Hangovers Later,” a
pictorial examination of Notting Hill decadence in the ’80s, for inspiration.
The result is a softly nostalgic film that avoids the stereotypical shoulder
pads and lamé of the era.
Snell distilled
Julie’s artistic spirit, her preppy or “Sloanie” fashion sense (cashmere/silk
instead of wool/polyester) and her chameleon-like desire to mimic Anthony to
create an aspirational closet. For the couple’s first date, she dressed the
student in Vivienne Westwood pirate buckle boots, as well as including daily
staples: Levi’s, tomboy shirts (Ben Sherman and an ’80s original Katharine
Hamnett) and various 1950s blouses from Norwich’s Lulu Vintage. For Julie’s
classic-inspired loungewear, Snell considered the young woman’s evolving
sensuality. “Phantom Thread” head cutter Cecile Van Dijk was brought on board
for the Charles James-inspired couture gown (an original design by Snell), in
which Julie elegantly strides in a scene set in Venice. On the train ride
there, she wears a Hitchcockian, uncharacteristically waist-cinching gray skirt
suit (another original) — a nod to Kim Novak in “Vertigo.”
For one of
Anthony’s signature looks, Snell notes that Hogg wanted a pinstripe suit. “We
went to Earl of Bedlam,” a punkish South London fashion house that Burke
favors. “The fabric is Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, blue chalk stripe,” she
notes. But to amplify the precise character that defines much of Anthony’s
wardrobe, Snell gave the suit a pink lining. His shirts were custom-made, but
his silk bow ties were original ’80s pieces, hand-painted by Hugh Dunford Wood.
Costume trainee Harriet Waterhouse made the dressing gown Anthony wears
throughout the film: a military-style piece imagined as an old school coat.
Snell had
fun with the film’s mother-daughter facet, with Tilda Swinton, Honor’s
real-life mom, playing that role for Julie. For an intimate birthday dinner
scene, she put the duo in Fendi geometric prints; she also created subtle
mirror-image moments between the two. “Maybe they swap clothes,” Snell
suggests. “I imagined Julie had been given her scarves by her mother for
Christmas.” A sizable portion of Swinton’s wardrobe, which conveys the
character’s loyal commitment to ’60s style, came together thanks to a
coincidence at a Norfolk charity shop, where Snell spotted a man donating boxes
of clothes from a late family member. She bought the lot, discovering
pristinely pleated petticoats, matching handbags and shoes and floral dresses.
She added a red Mackintosh raincoat and vintage Wellington boots to the mix, as
well as various silk scarves, including one of Swinton’s own.
The
designer, who’s currently working on Bassam Tariq’s “Mughal Mowgli,” can be
seen in “The Souvenir” in a fun cameo. “I’m the seamstress when Julie’s being
measured,” she says proudly.
Costume Designer Grace Snell on the Look of ‘The
Souvenir: Part II’
By Tomris
Laffly
https://variety.com/2021/artisans/awards/grace-snell-joanna-hogg-souvenir-part-ii-1235110997/
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THE
SOUVENIER 2 DAY 4 246.RAF
Joss
Barratt
A
melancholic memory piece that continues to follow the young, budding filmmaker
Julie’s (Honor Swinton Byrne) personal and artistic journey, Joanna Hogg’s
semi-autobiographical “The Souvenir: Part II” picks up her tale where the
former film had left it off, sculpting a B-side just as haunting and immersive.
Reuniting
with Hogg after infusing “Part I” with her thoughtful vision, costume designer
Grace Snell once again dresses Julie and her world through a sophisticated ‘80s
lens. It’s a refined aesthetic that graciously sharpens and matures while the
five-year period in which “Part II” is set progresses and Julie navigates her
grief over Anthony [Tom Burke]; her older, manipulative boyfriend who passes
away from an overdose in “Part I” after an invigorating yet toxic relationship
with the innocent Julie. Snell also shoulders a double-duty of sorts here as
one of the film’s key artisans. Mirroring the film-within-a-film structure of
“Part II” as Julie makes a personal film school graduation movie about her experiences
with Anthony, Snell repurposes some of her “Part I” looks with the misty polish
of both Julie’s and Hogg’s remembrances.
In a recent
conversation with Variety, Snell—a two-time British Independent Film Awards
(BIFA) nominee for her work in both films—broke down her approach to costuming
Hogg’s sequel with consciously stylized colors and silhouettes.
(The below
is edited for clarity and flow.)
Let’s start
with Julie’s evolved style in Part II as a young woman moving through her grief
and growing into a mature voice.
We
definitely wanted a departure from the Julie that was in Anthony’s shadow,
under Anthony’s spell. [In Part II], we pick up exactly where we left off in
[Part I]. So I didn’t want to make an immediate jarring change. There needed to
be some continuity. I did this through one scene, when Julie meets Antony’s
parents [wearing] that scarf [around her neck]. That was the last time we get a
sense of the [old] Julie. I just introduced a jacket and some new things. I
wanted the overlap to be seamless. The film is [set over the course of] five
years as well, so Joanna and I agreed we’d like to push the fashion a bit
[with] a few more conscious choices. Along with production designer Stéphane
[Collonge], Joanna came up with a color palette for the stages of grief to use
as a framework. That was a nice approach. I liked this idea of playing around with
light and dark. And we never wanted to [use] black—that was a conscious
decision. [Instead, we used] midnight blue when we wanted [something] dark.
Julie
gradually relaxes into her Part II style, in roomy but well-tailored trousers,
shirts and sophisticated blazers, confident and sexy, can you talk about that?
When I
watched “Part I” again, I really loved Julie in her coat that’s quite
oversized. It’s a man’s coat. That was kind of a starting point for me to grow
in Part II. But also [I took] Joanna’s generous input on how she likes to
dress. She loves suits, blazers and this masculine outer shell. I had fittings
with Honor. She just wore them so well. Not many people can pull off that look
so effortlessly. It [can] look forced or stylized, but it looked completely
natural on her. But I also wanted to make sure that we didn’t always associate
that too much with Julie, so I introduced skirts and dresses. She has such a
wide interest in fashion. But her go-to look would be a blazer or a jacket.
Silver
pants reflected grief
Joss
Barratt
While we’re
on jacket-and-trousers, what is the story behind her gorgeous pair of silver
pants? Were they leather?
That
particular stage of grief was assigned [the color] silver. One of my
inspirations for them was the ’80s fashion designer, Romeo Gigli. He was a
great influence for my mood boarding in the early stages. And then Joanna said,
“I was obsessed with Romeo!” [We used] this bizarre metallic material—I can’t
even remember what they were—but I knew it would work on camera. And what I
love about them in that scene is, it’s quite a dark scene but [the pants] catch
the light so well. She comes into the hangar of the film set like a shining
light. There is a glimmer of what she’s capable of being.
Julie’s
coming-of-age story comes full circle in Part II, as she makes a film about her
experiences in Part I. And your costumes are very much a part of that journey.
What was it like for you, to see your Part I work come back to life like that?
Some pieces seemed exactly the same and some felt like renderings.
I used a
lot of the same pieces and then I deliberately found some pieces that looked
slightly similar, like a pair of shoes or a shirt. I did that because I liked
the idea that I was a costume designer for Julie within the film, so that there
was the Grace designing for Joanna Hogg. Then there was a different costume
designer, designing for Julie. And then a different costume designer designing
for Patrick [Richard Ayoade], etc. So I didn’t want to get everything
completely correct by the book. Because a costume designer approaching an
autobiographical piece would probably be given some pieces of clothing by the
director, but then would be asked to [supply] others, maybe based on pictures.
[That] small detail was important to me. We just had very [key] pieces
[identical], like the coat and the scarf around [Anthony’s] head.
And then
deliberately, Garance [Ariane Labed, who plays Julie in Julie’s student film]
wore the pink cardigan and cherry blouse in different ways. Because that’s what
happens, it’s like Chinese whispers in essence, a re-interpretation. It was
really exciting actually. It was just very meta. My head had to be thinking of
many things at once.
There are
two specific outfits that I would love for you to break down. One, her
beautiful graduation presentation outfit—a mandarin collar jacket, high-waist
trousers and sash belt, all in gold tones. And the other, a gorgeous
one-shoulder, square-neck cocktail dress that she wears for her birthday.
With the
midnight blue dress at the end of the film: it’s a color that we now associate
with Julie. It’s about this independent woman, dressing for herself and loving
clothes; not necessarily having a formula when she goes shopping. Maybe she
just loved the elegance and [that] it’s grown-up. And because it’s her 30th
birthday, this is the oldest we’re seeing Julie. I did want us to look at her
in a different light. [That dress] just feels really playful. I hate to use
that word normally, but it doesn’t feel too serious. She doesn’t take herself
too seriously; she’s just very strong and independent. I found it online at a
vintage shop that I really love.
With that
particular [graduation] outfit, the stage of grief is we are in is acceptance
and its [color] was gold. I said to Joanna that I would really like to dress
the whole audience in shades of golden brown. Joanna was really up for that. It
was a stylized choice, [something we didn’t do in Part I]. When Julie was in
this gold jacket, everything [feels] very warm and together in that scene. I
had found that jacket in a charity shop a month earlier for 5 pounds. I had it
on a hanger in the room for ages. [Then] my seamstress and I conceived the
trouser pattern, the same that we used for the metallic pants. We took the
garment to fabric shops to match the colors. And so we made the trousers and
the sash—it’s one of my favorites as well. There is a catwalk show that Romeo
Gigli did, which is all browns and golds. That was a big inspiration for me.
What was funny about it was how similar it is to the gray Venice suit in Part
I. The shape of the jacket, [also] the collar and the buttons. So I loved that
there was continuity there, but in the opposite color. Gold rather than silver.
There seems
to be a subtle, slight shift towards the ’90s here in Part II, to perhaps
reflect a transitional period in style. We’re still in the ’80s, but we also
see signs of the incoming fashion.
For the
costumes, I do try to get inspiration from a set of five-year periods around
the [actual] period, whether it is the future or the past. So I was definitely
looking at early ’90s. I was looking at Yohji Yamamoto. And we do want to see
the progress of time here. Whereas in Part I, we kind of wanted to make it
timeless. It was important to show how Julie was becoming a filmmaker and
independent in her own right. And so it’s important to start showing these
markers of time in the costumes. You don’t want to scream, but push it forward
where the story is going slightly.
I want to
mention Richard Ayoade briefly, who plays a hilariously obnoxious, in-your-face
sort of character. What was your approach to his costumes? I love the pink and
white suits and that fur coat.
Richard and
I worked very closely together. There were probably over 50 emails about this
character. He had a lot of ideas which were welcome. He wanted to wear those
sunglasses. I had the idea of having a quite simple silhouette, [like] he’d
always wear a suit, whether it’s with a shirt and a tie. We left his shirts
crumpled on purpose. And then he was generous with some of his own suits—he’s
got a lot of suits in his wardrobe. That’s how I work as a designer: I like
having collaboration with an actor, even if I don’t agree necessarily with some
of the things they bring to the table. I really value their opinion and the character
work they’ve done. I can’t remember where the fur coat came from but it really
works within that Soho alley. Designing [costumes] for [his character
Patrick’s] musical was also a lot of fun. I had all the suits made for his
actors in Technicolor bright colors specifically to be shot in black and white.
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