www.hollywoodreporter.com: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, had a blockbuster opening weekend in North American theaters.
Veteran costume designer and five-time Oscar nominee Jacqueline West — whose nominations include Dune and (most recently) Killers of the Flower Moon — talks with The Hollywood Reporter about her work creating 4,000 costumes for Villeneuve‘s latest installment of the film franchise based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel.
6 comments:
The sheer amount of work that had to have gone into costume designing for Dune and Dune: Part Two is absolutely incredible. It’s interesting to learn about Jacqueline West’s process in designing costumes for the new characters and where some other inspiration came from. I also admire Goya’s paintings and often look at his work for inspiration, so it made me happy to read that West also uses his work for inspiration. I can not believe that West designed four thousand costume pieces for Dune: Part Two. That is absolutely insane to me. I would love to be a part of such a massive production like that some day. I also love the fact that the design aesthetic for the film comes from so many different cultures such as Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic designs. The amount of research just for the different prints must have been massive. I also had not even thought about the fact that West was not able to reuse most of the costumes from the last film. A lot of the costume pieces were damaged from filming so they had to work on rebuilding them.
Yay, my favorite time on the NFTRW page: when a new movie comes out and the interview with the costume designer pops up. It’s like clockwork. Reading about the sheer scale of this production is truly mind blowing. I don’t think I can really even process what it means to have to create four thousand costumes/costume pieces, and do it with such a massive international team. Being the designer at the head of all of that has got to be at least somewhat overwhelming. I don’t think I could come up with four thousand designs. I would have loved it if there was a bit more about the timeframe of the production process for all of these costumes, just to add to the sense of scale of all of this, but this was a super interesting read nonetheless. I really like the high-fashion inspiration for the outfits of the royalty/high ranking characters, I think that it makes them look really cool and stand out next to the standard desert fashion wearers. There’s always the aspect of it being incredibly difficult to design for the future since nobody knows what it will be, but I think that having future desert upper class fashion being inspired by today’s high fashion styles certainly sells futuristic to me.
I saw Dune Part 2 the other day and the costumes are 100% one of the coolest parts. They are extremely intricate with unique designs I was just fascinated by while watching. This was no surprise given the costume designer has 5 Oscar nominations, and one literally for Dune. I also had no idea the sheer number of costumes that are made for this scale of movie. I knew it had to be a lot but 4,000 is insane, no wonder they had 80 people working to make them. It’s also extremely fascinating the different sources they draw upon when making designs for this kind of futuristic movie. Since it’s a sci-fi movie it’s always fun to read what the specific historical influences are in costume designs of this kind. I think it’s really cool that they drew upon a bunch pf different nomadic tribes to get an idea.
"Dune: Part Two" smashing it at the box office with stars like Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya is super cool, but hearing about Jacqueline West's work behind the scenes is just mind-blowing! Creating 4,000 costumes? That’s dedication on another level. It’s fascinating how she draws from art, history, and even Dante’s Inferno to bring the Dune universe to life through fashion. And the costumes for characters like Feyd-Rautha and Princess Irulan sound epic, especially with those gothic and warrior vibes. It’s awesome to see how much effort and creativity go into making the world of a movie feel real and immersive. West’s mix of old-school and futuristic styles, not to mention handcrafting everything from jewelry to shoes, really sets a high bar for movie costume design. It makes me appreciate the film even more, knowing the passion and detail that went into every piece of fabric the characters wear. Plus, imagining the accounting department’s reaction to the chainmail gown budget adds a hilarious touch. Can’t wait to see all these costumes on the big screen!
I saw Dune 2 last week, and the costumes were breathtaking. It’s insane thinking there were 4000, though it makes sense considering the vast cast and the number of costumes per characters, like how Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) had multiple extremely intricate gowns - I saw an interesting interview with Florence where she mentioned that one of the metal/chainmail mascs had to be CGI-d in because it took too long to take off to touch up makeup. Overall it’s so amazing that they were able to make costumes as intricate as hers, and soso breathtaking to watch. I love reading about a costume designers process, so reading about the process for Dune 2 was awesome. I especially found it interesting the countless locations that she sourced pieces from - from all over! The contrast between costumes of characters like the Harkonins and Feyd-Rautha versus the Freemen and Paul, Chani, and Lady Jessica is fascinating, and really made the characters stand out.
Four-thousand costumes?!?!?! That is insane. Okay besides that small feat, I find the costumes in Dune so interesting. I always contemplate the puzzle of creating something new because everything takes inspiration from something else. Furthermore, those things are a combination of other inspirations. So to see an entire fantasy universe and its inspirations is really mind-boggling to me. To have a design so deeply rooted in other cultures yet avoiding cultural appropriation and still creating something that looks innovative is no small task. I think my favorite look in this article is the look for Lady Jessica. I find the colors used so beautiful, and the contrast with her eyes is absolutely stunning. The piece itself has such a unique silhouette yet I can place it, without having seen the movie, as an outfit for some holy woman. It is no wonder Jacqueline West is so successful when she turns out products like this.
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