‘Phantom
Thread’: How Paul Thomas Anderson’s Costume Designer Channeled Reynolds
Woodcock
Working with
star Daniel Day-Lewis, costume designer Mark Bridges could win his second Oscar
with this love poem to fashion statements.
By Bill
Desowitz
December 22,
2017 5:30 pm
For costume
designer Mark Bridges, it’s always an adventure working with Paul Thomas
Anderson. But “Phantom Thread,” their eighth collaboration, represented a meta
challenge: It was a movie about his craft.
But Bridges
admits that there’s a big difference between fashion and costume design. “I’m
there to facilitate an actor’s performance and fulfill the vision of a
director,” he said.
And in the
case of “Phantom Thread,” about the world of London haute couture in the 1950s,
it’s a movie about the fashion designer as auteur. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as
the eccentric andß obsessive Reynolds Woodcock, whose world is turned upside
down when he falls for Eastern European waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps). But
imagine if “Rebecca’s” Joan Fontaine struck back at Laurence Olivier with sly
subversion, exorcising his demons while bringing them closer together. That’s
what Anderson did with his twisted and witty love story.
For Bridges,
it was an opportunity to explore celebrity designers Cristobal Balenciaga and
Christian Dior along with London staples Hardy Amies, John Cavanagh, Charles
Creed, Norman Hartnell, and Digby Morton. The trick was finding the right fit
for the fictional Woodcock. “What were the requirements? What were all those
British guys doing? And how did Reynolds fit into that?,” said Bridges, who won
an Oscar for “The Artist.”
Bridges did
intense research at the Victoria and Albert Museum (he discovered that ’50s
London glorified woolen suits), watched movies such as “Maytime in Mayfair,” a
1949 British musical comedy about Mayfair’s haute couture ladies’ fashions, and
went clothes shopping with Day-Lewis.
“He’s very
involved and knows that world so well,” Bridges said. “He grew up in a level of
London [Kensington] where gentlemen were concerned about their clothes, shopped
well, and always looked good because they were well made. And this is the kind
of man that Reynolds was. It was really fun for me to work with him on that
because I was exposed to Savile Row tailoring at Anderson & Sheppard for
the first time. Or some of the finest shoe making at [G.J.] Cleverley at the
Royal Arcade, where he had his shoes made.”
In the end,
director, star, and costume designer made Woodcock an iconoclastic,
artistically minded London designer. “Paul was interested in Daniel as Reynolds
having a sense of authorship,” said Bridges. “We all sat down one day and
decided it was rich fabrics, a heavy dose of lace, rich colors, and British
woolens. Those were the parameters.”
Naturally,
the actor had a hand in dressing his character. He chose lots of lavender
(including an eye-catching bow tie) and some offbeat choices such as a
windowpane-check jacket and blue herringbone wool coat. This took Anderson
& Sheppard enjoyably out of its comfort zone with raglan sleeves and big
patch pockets.
The House of
Woodcock
Bridges and
his team created 50 garments for the House of Woodcock, run by Reynolds and his
domineering sister Cyril (Lesley Manville). “There were normal clothes as well
as statement pieces,” Bridges said. ” It was fun deciding the millinery and the
tricks of his trade. He didn’t have a pure line of clothes. It was more
inspirational. He made garments for special clients and then modified them for
his fashion show.”
When
Reynolds first meets Alma in the country restaurant, she wears a plum dress. “I
think we wanted to do something that felt unusually modern and its very clean
shape plays up her bone structure,” said Bridges. “It reveals that she inspired
him.”
The first
dress Reynolds makes for Alma is striking in lavender. “We had gone to the
Victorian Albert for some research and there was this Balenciaga gown we looked
at that had this incredible embroidery on it, all hand done, and the sequins
were trapped underneath the stitching for a really subtle glitter,” Bridges
said.
“And we had
our embroiderer recreate that by hand on the bodice of that dress, too. We were
shooting in winter and I knew she needed some kind of a jacket and we devised a
shaped jacket with as few seams as possible so it comes out very sculptural.
And then I had opera gloves to match the brown accent lining. That’s a real
couture touch, too.”
The lavender
silk dress for Alma’s photo shoot held greater significance for Reynolds
because it grew out of an antique piece of lace. Although Anderson had written
in the script that the heirloom was satin, Bridges convinced him that lace was
more precious. “That really was 17th-century Flemish lace that we found a piece
of,” he added. “Everybody held their breath when they knew we had to cut into
it.”
“Phantom
Thread”
This evolved
into the lavender and maroon dress and cape that Reynolds made for Countess
Henrietta Harding (Gina McKee). “As we sat down, Paul would doodle a little
sketch of Henrietta’s dress and he chose the colors and put the two fabrics
together,” Bridges said. “It was up to me and my head cutter to figure out how
the little stick drawing becomes a workable, opulent, society garment.”
It was all
part of making Reynolds a cut above the other mid-century London fashion
designers. He wasn’t chic, but he had a style all his own.
‘Phantom
Thread’ Costume Designer on Creating the Look of a Fictional Fashion House
Set in the
world of London haute couture in the 1950s, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film
(starring Daniel Day-Lewis as an eccentric fashion designer) opens Dec. 25 with
lush costumes by Mark Bridges.
By Booth
Moore
December 8,
2017 11:30am
Set in the
world of London haute couture in the 1950s, Phantom Thread is one of the most
compelling films of the year for costume design. Directed by Paul Thomas
Anderson, it stars Daniel Day-Lewis in what he says will be his final film, as
Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive designer (aren’t they all?) cut from the same
cloth as real-life fashion eccentrics Cristobal Balenciaga, Charles Worth and
Alexander McQueen.
Woodcock,
his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville), and their couture workers at his London
maison are locked in a quietly suffocating routine of sketching, showing and
sewing collections for heiresses, socialites and debutantes who are drawn to
his conservative and proper style (certainly compared to French couturiers of
the day Christian Dior and Givenchy), until an Eastern European waitress named
Alma (Vicky Krieps) comes along and their whirlwind romance turns his carefully
tailored life upside down.
Mark Bridges
is the costume designer who was charged with creating an aesthetic for the
film’s fictional fashion house, making 50 original garments, including those
for an onscreen runway show, and helping to define Woodcock’s crazy-sexy,
creative genius character. In his eighth feature with Anderson, Bridges had the
pleasure of being able to work like a couture designer himself, sourcing the
sumptuous fabrics from around the world for the film’s ‘50s party dresses and
Savile Row tailoring, and having the clothes handmade by a workroom with a long
heritage in the London fashion industry. I chatted with him about how he did
it.
What did
Paul want to convey in this film about what it’s like to be a fashion designer?
You always
want to have it feel real. We were trying to communicate who Woodcock is, that
he’s creative in terms of draping and touching the fabrics, but also has the
temperament of an artist.
I love that
you worked with Paul and Daniel to determine the “codes of the house.” What
were the stylistic components of the Woodcock label and why?
Rich colors,
rich fabrics with a nod to historical references, and a heavy use of laces. We
looked at who was doing what in London in the mid-1950s in terms of fashion
design. John Cavanagh was working in wools; Norman Hartnell was doing heavy
embroidery, Digby Morton was doing riffs on Aran sweaters. The historical
references were what Charles Creed was doing. So we sort of skirted the edges
of what was happening and what people weren’t doing in London at the time to
come up with it.
Was
Balenciaga an influence?
Not as much
in the clothes as the character — Reynolds actually drapes his own clothes like
Balenciaga as opposed to Dior who didn’t, and how Cyril runs the business
operations is similar to the way the main saleswoman of Balenciaga ran the show
and the workroom.
Did you have
to hold back at all in terms of not making the gowns too over-to-top for the
time and place?
No, not
really. I’m really specific about time and place and character, and we also had
the taste of my director, too. It wasn’t going to be about groundbreaking
flights of fancy like Dior or Balenciaga, it was going to be tried-and-true,
artistic, substantial gowns that had an element of femininity but were strong
in their own right.
There were
some exquisite laces and taffetas. How did you find them?
A lot were
gotten in London, in Rome as well, a couple in New York and from the Lyon area.
Then we had a beautiful piece of 17th century Flemish lace for that lavender
dress. I thought green taffeta was perfect for the American heiress because,
you know, moneybags!
I’m
interested in the clothing Reynolds himself wears. His windowpane-check jacket
and ascots were incredible. And his colored socks were so playful, why?
That was
Daniel’s own idea as far as giving that character a stamp of individuality.
There is an element of men who dress well in London, for whom the
eccentricities are in the details. Those socks were from Gammarelli in Rome,
which makes socks for the pope and Vatican clergy, and he wears them with
everything. It was grounding for his character. I usually don’t try to draw
attention to the feet, but I think when you see them it reinforces this is not
your ordinary person, but he has really specific tastes.
Famously
method actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who is known to truly inhabit his roles,
actually learned dressmaking for this film — I’m wondering if he gave you any
notes? Or maybe Reynolds did!
Well, I’m
there to facilitate the performance, so sometimes if I was at a crossroads with
a fabric choice or color choice, I would include Reynolds in on the decision. I
trust that man’s taste, and he would choose a color and we’d run it by Paul and
run up the garment. If at all possible, I loved his input.
You got to
work with Savile Row as well, right?
They had
sources for fabrics, and we’d talk about a certain weight for it to feel more
of the period. It’s difficult to find heavy wools now that central heating is
prevalent. But Daniel will always wear a heavy wool. He’s game for it if it’s
right for the character, and he’s the only actor I know who will take it on.
Savile Row tailor Anderson & Sheppard, as tried-and-true as they are, were
really excited about making that blue herringbone wool coat for him. They don’t
really make a raglan sleeve like we used. The tailor said three people in the
shop tried it on because they were so excited about it. What we were asking for
was inspiring to them, which was fun because I thought they’d seen it all.
What was the
best part of the experience — and are the costumes going on tour?
I was so
lucky to have an amazing shop and cutters. My main cutter comes from a
background where her mother worked in couture and she was amazingly faithful to
the techniques. The costumes get so little screen time, so they are really
worth another pass. Going by the dresses on the stands, there’s something about
the luster of the silk satin, the incredible texture and how it hits the light
of that changeable silk taffeta. Some of them will be on display at the
ArcLight and at the upcoming Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising’s
“Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design” exhibition.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment