Oscars 2020: Costume Design Nominations Breakdown

The Oscar for Best Costume Design is not nearly as anticipated as the awards in the “major” categories such as Best Actor/Actress or Best Picture. However, in an industry where costume, makeup and hair design are notoriously underappreciated (often due to their status as “feminine” jobs), it is important to acknowledge the large team of designers, makeup artists and hair stylists who contribute directly to the believability of the film, and therefore the film’s success.

This season, the five nominations for the Best Costume Design Oscar are Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson for The Irishman, Mayes C. Rubeo for Jojo Rabbit, Mark Bridges for Joker, Jacqueline Durran for Little Women, and Arianne Phillips for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The Irishman

The Irishman, a story of organized crime in the 1950’s, is inspired by the true story of Frank Sheeran, a union leader and alleged hitman. The film features the somber, clean-cut mafioso suits worn by De Niro and the other gangsters, juxtaposed by the colorful, quirky fashion of the 1950’s. Clothing plays an important role in this film – as an indicator of wealth and power. The characters frequently bring up appearance and fashion, like when is yelled- “Who the f*** wears shorts to a meeting?” Powell is up against tough competition, but some sources are predicting that she will take home the trophy, as she has already achieved substantial praise for her earlier films The Wolf of Wall Street, Shakespeare in Love and The Favourite.

Jojo Rabbit

Many were surprised when Mayes C. Rubeo received a nod for her styling in Jojo Rabbit. The film notoriously features a satirical reinterpretation of Nazi Uniforms, but her expertise is also showcased in the brillant, whimsical outfits worn by leading lady Scarlett Johansson. The fantastical elements of the film are explained by the fact that it is told through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, and his impressions shape the world around him. In an interview with Variety, Rubeo explains how the movie starts with an upbeat, colorful palate, and then “as the story develops and Jojo’s world starts to change, however, challenging his ideologies, so does the color palette around him.” Rubeo notes how the only constant in Jojo’s life is his mother, and hers is the only clothing that does not change with the rest of the film’s color palette.

Little Women

From Meg’s frilly pink party dress to Jo’s tomboyish silhouettes, Jacqueline Durran has been highly praised for the intricate, individualised costuming of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Durran states that while she wanted to keep the costumes authentic to their 19th-century setting, she also wanted to express the personality of the March sisters. She said to Entertainment Weekly that “I think that it was about bringing a kind of new life to Victorian girls – keeping it Victorian but not doing it in the way that we’re used to seeing it.”

One especially interesting element of Durran’s costume designing is the fluidity expressed by Jo (Saoirse Ronan) and Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). Jo never wears corsets or hoop skirts, and often dons more masculine pieces, such as vests and hats. Instead of sharing with her sisters, Jo frequently swaps clothing with Laurie, the son of a wealthy neighbor who is very close to the March sisters throughout their adolescence. Durran explains that by trading with Laurie, Jo expresses her resistance to female stereotypes and rebels against the patriarchy, as well as reveals the intimacy of her friendship with Laurie.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Known for her work on films such as The Crow and Tank Girl, as well as her long creative relationship with pop icon Madonna, Arianne Phillips crafts a nostalgic love letter to 1960’s filmmaking in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In an interview with Collider, Phillips claims that one of the main focuses of this film was the unique “talismans” created to capture the personality of each character. For Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio), a medallion necklace, inspired by the likes of Steve McQueen and monogrammed with the letter “R, because ”the person who has monogrammed clothes has a bit of an ego, a bit of bravado.” For Cliff (Brad Pitt), Phillips selected a Stuntman’s Association belt buckle. However, she claims that the most complicated piece of Cliff’s wardrobe was his iconic Hawaiian print shirt, which she personally designed after drawing inspiration from dozens of real vintage shirts.

Lastly, for Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate, the actress tragically murdered by the Manson cult in 1969, Phillips was granted access to Sharon Tate’s personal jewelry.

Joker

After taking home two Best Costume Design Oscars for The Artist (2012) and The Phantom Thread (2018), Mark Bridges has been nominated once again for his work on Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Before his transformation into the Joker, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is a worn-down, working class man, and his clothing reflects that. All of Fleck’s/ the Joker’s clothing needed to be manufactured instead of thrifted, Bridges explained to Deadline, due to the use of stunt doubles in the film. “There’s a lot of physical stuff,” he stated. “We couldn’t just find this golden piece in a thrift store and hope that it would work, because two or three guys needed to wear the same costume. So, that’s why everything had to be manufactured, and then aged to look like it was from a thrift store, or very off-hand.” Bridges also explains how he wanted to emphasize Fleck’s thin, sickly physique, and as a result selected several pieces that were small and tight-fitting. The Joker’s bright burgundy suit was also Bridges’ doing. He explained that in the script, the suit was described as terracotta, but he wanted something more bold, and felt that burgundy more accurately represented the early ’80’s time period of the film.

With the exclusion of Mark Bridges, the major designer for every film nominated is a woman. One other thing these films have in common is that they are all historical. Although Joker is the most surreal, it is still set in New York in the 1980s. It is interesting then, what kind of history the Oscars choose to celebrate. Qwhite interesting. A very interesting article posted by Vogue critiques the prioritization of white American history over other perspectives, stating, “the Oscars can often feel as if they celebrate not that which is best, but that which feels most familiar.”

As with many other Oscar categories, the films that are snubbed tend to cause much more conversation than the nominated films, as audiences and critics alike speculate why certain films were passed over.

A few surprising snubs were Dolemite Is My Name, styled by Ruth E. Carter, Rocketman, styled by Julian Day, and Hustlers, styled by Mitchell Travers.

Dolemite’s extravagant suits are a vibrant depiction of black culture in the 1970s, and are packed full of color, pattern and texture (that purple velvet collar? Wonderfully ostentatious). This snub was especially surprising given Carter’s very recent success of taking home the award for her Afro-futurist work on Black Panther.

“Flamboyant” takes on a new meaning in Julian Day’s elaborate costuming for Rocketman. Based on Elton John’s real wardrobe, Day constructed beautiful, original pieces, including this feather-filled ensemble. Day, who had also worked with director Dexter Fletcher on Bohemian Rhapsody, explained in an interview with i-d the creative liberty that he was given on Rocketman. “With...Bohemian Rhapsody, we did copy some of the outfits...I think I prefer to do the idea of designing myself. It was great, it was completely liberating.” In addition to Elton John’s personal wardrobe archive, Day cited Rio Carnival, Venetian carnivals and drag queens as his main sources of information.

Set during the time of the 2008 financial crisis, Hustlers tells the story of a group of strip club dancers banding together to up their income – overcharging customers’ credit cards after spiking their drinks. Vox defends the film’s status as a period piece, claiming “the signifiers of wealth and status of the pre-recession period are a stark contrast to the ones that followed immediately after, providing an unexpected texture to the experience of watching the film.” Costume designer Mitchell Travers cites 2000s era stars such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as inspiration, stating “The amazing thing about this period in history is that it’s heavily photographed. It was a time where paparazzi were following women pretty much around the clock... It was a sad state of affairs that people were followed so relentlessly, but in terms of my work, it gave me amazing insight into these human beings.”

The final snub is perhaps the most egregious snub of all – a masterpiece in its own right and perhaps designer Jenny Eagan’s magnum opus.

That’s right guys, gals and nonbinary pals, The Sweater. I don’t want to live in a world where this sweater doesn’t win the Oscar it deserves. I need to write a dissertation on the aesthetic perfection of Chris Evans saying “Eat sh*t” while wearing this cable-knit work of art.

In all fairness, every costume in Knives Out is exquisite, and in an interview with Digital Spy, Eagan reveals how much work went into these crafting outfits to perfectly express the film’s dynamic characters. She recites director Rian Johnson’s instructions “to make each character as distinct as a Clue [Cluedo] character but with some version of modern dress,” and states that she also, “wanted to make sure that they are separated, but still maintain some sort of unity as a family.” Now, time to start on that dissertation.

Oscars 2020: Costume Design Nominations Breakdown

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