Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Promising Young Woman Costume Designer on Carey Mulligan's Outfits
Variety: After reading the script for Emerald Fennell’s revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman,” costume designer Nancy Steiner pictured a leading lady who was “disheveled” or, in gentler terms, “less-than put together.”
After all, Cassie — the film’s main character portrayed by Carey Mulligan — is depressed.
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2 comments:
This was a super interesting article-- I always love reading about how costume designers go in depth on the characters’ actions and story line, and how that informs every decision they make on the characters’ clothes for each scene. For this particular movie, a thriller type film dealing with the trauma of a 30-year-old med school drop-out, each costume that the article talks about is focused on the main character’s goals for that scene mixed with how it fits into the world around her. For example, her outfit for the “Business Bar” is very different from what she wears to the “Eurotrash Bar” and both are very different from her date night clothes. Each is connected to Cassie’s personality, but suit each task and location they were designed for. I think it can be easy to overlook the smallest details as an audience member for films, shows, theater, art of all kinds; this article is a deep dive into those exact, fascinating, details-- I highly recommend reading this.
I liked how much thought goes into each outfit. It makes me want to pay more attention to why characters wear what they wear in each scene. All her outfits were so different but they were specific to the context of the scene. This costume designer is very good at telling the story and adding to the depth of the character through clothes. My favorite part of the article is when she describes the subtle reasoning behind each outfit and describes her process as “telling the story without shouting.” I think we all strive to do that. The audience wants to work for the story, that’s what makes theater so great. If a play writer stated the takeaway of the play outright or if the lighting designer overtly pushed the mood of the character using not subtle color choices or if the costume designer based their clothes off of stereotypes the character is based off of— then the show isn’t interesting, the story is flat, and frankly the audience is treated like they are stupid.
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