Los Angeles Times: Being tasked with re-creating Billie Holiday’s iconic looks in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” was a challenge for costume designer Paolo Nieddu, both because director Lee Daniels’ biopic required so many costume changes and because there was a pressure to get the history right. Ultimately, Nieddu, who previously collaborated with Daniels on “Empire,” determined that the film’s aesthetic was an imagined take on Holiday rather than a definitive reality.
2 comments:
Recreating the style if an iconic public figure is always a big challenge because, as the article pointed out, there will always be someone who says "they wouldn't wear that". However there should still always be room in a costume design for the designer to put their own sense of who the person or character is or was. Something to make the design unique to the designer. I think that Nieddu did a Wonderfull job of blending the to aspects into their designs. Basing the looks on actual photographs of Billie Holiday is a sure fire way of making sure that the pieces were accurate to the time and the person. However as Holiday is played by an actress with her own body and comforts and designed by a designer with their own name it makes sense that the actual wardrobe that Holiday wore would be altered to fit these two people as well as the rest of the show. I can't wait to see this movie and I will definitely now be paying more attention to the costume pieces and choices as I watch.
I found this article very inspiring and an interesting glimpse into the work on this film. I think the designer was very clever not to just reproduce garments that eh could see in the photos. The method and style of story telling is a very important consideration to think about when you are designing for anything. Even though Billie Holiday was a photographed historical figure, they are not trying to accurately recreate a story of her life. This is a dramatization and that must be captured in the costumes as well. If the designer was to only copy the looks this would limit the other aspects of design and also change the tone of the film. I thought it was interesting that they collaborated with Prada on some of the clothing. Seems like kind of a plug in for the brand but it isn't the first time this happened, Prada made some of the costumes for the Leonardo DiCaprio version of The Great Gatsby. He compared it to Givenchy doing some of Hepbrun’s costumes for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but i dont think that makes much sense because Givenchy was designing contemporary clothing while this is Prada doing a period look for the film.- Evan Riley
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