Every garment worn in a movie is considered a costume. Costumes are a storytelling tool, communicating subtle details of each character’s personality and history quickly and economically to the audience. They help actors leave their own personalities behind and become new and believable people on screen.

Although people often confuse costume design with fashion design, the two are very different. Fashion designers sell clothes; costume designers help characters come alive. Costume designers can make beautiful gowns and extravagant clothes when the script requires a glamorous entrance, but they also must design everyday clothes when those are needed for a scene. Costumes are created to be worn by one specific actor, as one specific character, in one specific scene, according to costume designer Deborah Nadoolman.

The costume design process begins with a careful study of the screenplay. Scripts describe the action (what happens in the scene), time period (when the action takes place), the location (where the action takes place), and the number and identity of the characters in each scene. After reading the script, the costume designer meets with the director to discuss the overall vision for the film and to consider the personal histories of each character, possible casting choices, the overall color palette, and the mood of the film.

The costume designer then starts the research portion of the design process. As part of that process, designers visit libraries, look at paintings, and study newspapers, catalogs and magazines from the present or the past, depending on when the movie is set.

If a scene takes place in a modern high school, the costume designer may visit a local high school and take pictures of staff, teachers, and individual students. The designer would study the latest trends in jeans, handbags, and accessories and consider the socio-economic background of the school population, including how much the students spend on their clothes. Modern films are more difficult to costume than historical films because the audience is immediately aware if the costumes are unrealistic for the situation, too expensive or wrong. The designer’s goal is for members of the audience to recognize themselves on screen.

The effect that costumes, makeup, and hairstyles can have in creating characters for motion pictures is illustrated best by examining the varied “looks” individual actors have assumed throughout their careers. Kirsten Dunst is seen as she appeared as Judy Shepherd in Jumanji (1995), as Amber Atkins in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), and as the title character in Marie Antoinette (2006). Jumanji and Marie Antoinette ©Sony Entertainment, and Drop Dead Gorgeous ©New Line Cinema, All Rights Reserved.

If that high school scene takes place in the 1950s, as in the period film Pleasantville (1998, with costumes by Judianna Makovsky), the designer might use vintage high school yearbooks, personal photographs of friends and family, home movies, and magazines to research the film.

If the school is in a fantasy film, such as Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), the designer might research contemporary and traditional English private school uniforms and depend upon imagination for the rest. Although Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione exist in an imaginary world, they must still be characters that the audience can relate to.

When a screenplay covers several decades, or is set in a distant location, costumes help the audience know when and where each scene takes place. In the 2002 film Frida, based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), Frida evolves from a schoolgirl to a middle-aged woman. Costume designer Julie Weiss dressed Hayek first in a schoolgirl uniform, then as a young matron in the stylish dresses of the 1920s, then in colorful hand-embroidered Mexican Indian blouses similar to what the real Kahlo wore for the rest of her life, as she becomes a confident middle-aged artist and political activist. Kahlo’s changing costumes mirror her evolution as an individual.

Designers often adapt vintage clothing, as Arianne Phillips did in Walk the Line (2005), the story of country music star Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter. Phillips mixed the vintage garments she found with ones she designed using vintage printed fabrics from the 1950s and 1960s. She insisted on old fabric because synthetic contemporary fabrics do not move or drape in the same way.

Costumes do not have to exactly duplicate the film’s period, but they need to look right to the audience. Designers may exaggerate color, style, and silhouette for dramatic effect. For example, when the director of Memoirs of a Geisha felt that a sexier, more contemporary look would be more appealing to non-Japanese viewers, designer Colleen Atwood fashioned kimonos that were more shape-revealing than traditional garments.

Show your students a period film (one set in the distant or recent past). Discuss how the costumes reveal when and where the film takes place. Do the period costumes affect the actor’s voice and movement? Ask students to research actual clothing from that period using history textbooks, costume history and fine art books, historic portrait paintings, newspapers, and descriptions in literary and historic work. Compare actual historic costumes to the costumes in the film. How accurate were the costumes in the film? Did it matter if the costumes were not perfect reproductions?

Supplemental Activity
Have each of your students describe an article of clothing or an accessory that he or she is wearing. Ask each to relate how he or she obtained the item. Was it a gift or a purchase? Where did it come from? How long has he or she had it? Does it have sentimental value? Discuss with your students how this kind of analysis and research is useful for designing costumes.