CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, September 03, 2013

The Look of Love: Q&A with Costume Designer Stephanie Collie |

clothesonfilm.com: As is often the way with costume designers, Stephanie Collie is something of an unsung hero. We will not reel off her entire back catalogue, but it does include South Riding (2011, TV), Telstar (2008) Peter’s Friends (1992) and perhaps most exciting of all, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That's so cool! She made the gangster look! It's neat that she picked an era of time (the 70's) and just ran away with the idea, going from rich to poor clothes and such without overdoing it. I have helped my mother costume shows before, and there are times when we have just finished giving out costumes and take a step back thinking "That is way too busy on stage!"

AlexxxGraceee said...

I am constantly going back and forth between stage management and costume design and i want to work in film no matter what, so when ever I read something about costumes it really makes me think about what i want to do. I found it interesting that she felt that a passion of hers made the task difficult. She talks about how she loves vintage clothes she she felt that the task of 60's and 70's she felt it would be easy to get carried away with it. And how the time periods over lap because of money and things. Its something that ive thought about before but i feel like most costume designers dont take into consideration- the fact that people dont have new clothes from that exact time period so that time periods over lap.

Camille Rohrlich said...

This interview opened my eyes to all the different layers of thought that go into costume design. The fact that she thought so much about not only placing the costumes in the right time period but also staying realistic, such as giving poorer characters a slightly outdated look, is really amazing. I think it's really fascinating how much a good costume design can "create" a character.
But what I really liked best in the interview is how obvious it is that this woman cares about her work.

Albert Cisneros said...

I think the part in the article that describes Collie as an "unsung hero" is true about so many costume designers. Costumes can set the scene, change to tone and setting of a play, and really alter how people see a performance. There could be no set or lights, and the costumes of a performance could still clearly define a certain place and voice. Collie's accurate and beautiful portrayals of the 70s is design done at its best. She knew what was too much and what was just enough for this performance.