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Friday, November 06, 2026
Costume Designers Shatter the Myth Behind Contemporary Costume: "It's Very Difficult"
variety.com: Contrary to popular belief, contemporary design in film is not just about shopping; it involves deep storytelling and thought behind how characters are dressed.
Bear with me: reading this article, I'm reminded of a clip from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" Making Of documentary (and no, I haven't seen Fifty Shades, it was a Folding Ideas video). Mark Bridges, the costume designer, is incredibly prolific -- he's the go-to guy for PTA, who I LOVE -- and it's really something to watch him carefully explain how he told a story through precise menswear tailoring for a movie that, let's be honest, does not deserve that level of work. Back to the article, contemporary work is hard! Costume design isn't all period accurate undergarments and natural dyes (though that is some of it, as the article describes, and it's equally interesting), it's about communicating a character and working with budgets. Contemporary design is an art form that requires both knowledge of the world around you and a genuine eye for story. Put some respect on Ellen Mirojnick's name!
I thought this article was really interesting! I think costume design, as a whole, is super cool, and I never considered how contemporary character designs might differ from shows with less time specific storytelling. I also had no idea that so many people thought costume design was just about “shopping”; I think it’s so much more than that, and it was really surprising to learn just how many people have no idea about all the meticulous work that goes into it. For contemporary pieces, i think the most interesting thing is all the research that goes into the costume pieces; for Werwulf, for example, costume designer Muir did a lot of research into ancient viking clothing, and discovered that wool, something we think of as incredibly common, was actually a sign of wealth and luxury. In that way, research was critical to the accuracy of the costumes. it was more than just shopping for the right pieces - it was research, and planning, and construction, and meticulous detail in order to tell the story that needed to be told.
With the amount of times people rewatch movies nowadays, always looking for more depth and detail they may have missed the first time around, I am not surprised at the sheer amount of effort it takes to costume a movie. There is a significant difference between costuming and high fashion in most cases, but there are those few exceptions, like the movie The Fifth Element in which the costumer was none other than Jean Paul Gautier, famous fashion designer. I think that costuming for historical movies is easier because there is a lot of precedent and a backlog of costumes from movies that can be taken from storage, but modern fashion is harder because it is easier for an audience to nitpick. We as an audience aren’t removed from modern clothing and fashion so we notice the inconsistencies between actual fashion and what is worn by characters. This also applies to clothing going back as far as the modern audiences have been alive as they have had first hand experience with these fashions that are being used in films.
I had never considered the challenges that might come with contemporary costuming as opposed to doing something set in the past. In my mind, I had thought that pieces set in the past would be much more difficult than contemporary due to the sheer amount of research and finding/making older pieces would be required. Having thought more about it, though, I now realize more of the individual challenges that would come with designing contemporary costumes. In particular, the struggle of directors wanting to do brand placement really draws my attention. I would have never thought of that being a problem, but it makes a lot of sense that this would happen, with product placement and brand deals being such a big part of film and television now. Though the article didn’t mention this, I would also imagine contemporary costuming is difficult because modern fashion is always shifting so quickly you can barely catch up.
I think contemporary costumes are a very interesting problem that costume designers have to face. I think the biggest difference between contemporary and historical/fantasy costumes is that there are people currently living who may wear those styles and make decisions on their clothes that can influence how they see the costume. While the audience that knows the intricate aspects of period clothing is small but vocal, there is an even larger group that knows what it is like to live and wear clothes in the present. To me, this is a big challenge because I am balancing my understanding and research of the ever-changing period against the experiences of the audience and trying to find a way to explore the characters through my choices. Additionally, I feel like the audience’s familiarity with the clothing makes all the choices very clear. If a character wears a T-shirt, tank top, or long sleeve says something that all the audience can see, whereas we can’t directly point to armor choice and see how that is reflected in our lives.
Getting to hear about the why behind costume design is always a super cool and enjoyable learning experience. I love how this article showcased multiple designers and their creative process. It really puts into perspective how much detail and research is done to create (and recreate) such iconic pieces. I particularly loved the detail about the wool in the odyssey, that it would only be reserved for the very rich because they had to import it during that time. The historical context that so many different films are made in and how that affects the designers has always been a very cool concept. I thought the comment about product placement was very interesting. I had never previously thought about how product placement, especially with costumes, can disrupt what the original designer intended. I’m curious as to how these conversations develop when designers fight for what they intend is needed for their design.
I thought this was a really interesting article to read. I feel like I see a lot of articles that are about costume design for historical movies where the designer has to do crazy amounts of research in order to be historically accurate, or sci-fi/fantasy movies, where the design team has to create an entirely new world and culture of clothing that has to fit the movie but also feel realistic, but I don’t see a ton about contemporary costume design. It makes a lot of sense that contemporary costume design is a lot more challenging than it might initially seem. While a lot of the clothes that fit into a contemporary world might be easier to acquire at a store, one thing that I imagine might make contemporary costume design more challenging that the article didn’t really discuss is that the average audience might be a lot more inclined to critique contemporary design since they are a lot more familiar with contemporary clothes than historical.
7 comments:
Bear with me: reading this article, I'm reminded of a clip from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" Making Of documentary (and no, I haven't seen Fifty Shades, it was a Folding Ideas video). Mark Bridges, the costume designer, is incredibly prolific -- he's the go-to guy for PTA, who I LOVE -- and it's really something to watch him carefully explain how he told a story through precise menswear tailoring for a movie that, let's be honest, does not deserve that level of work. Back to the article, contemporary work is hard! Costume design isn't all period accurate undergarments and natural dyes (though that is some of it, as the article describes, and it's equally interesting), it's about communicating a character and working with budgets. Contemporary design is an art form that requires both knowledge of the world around you and a genuine eye for story. Put some respect on Ellen Mirojnick's name!
I thought this article was really interesting! I think costume design, as a whole, is super cool, and I never considered how contemporary character designs might differ from shows with less time specific storytelling. I also had no idea that so many people thought costume design was just about “shopping”; I think it’s so much more than that, and it was really surprising to learn just how many people have no idea about all the meticulous work that goes into it. For contemporary pieces, i think the most interesting thing is all the research that goes into the costume pieces; for Werwulf, for example, costume designer Muir did a lot of research into ancient viking clothing, and discovered that wool, something we think of as incredibly common, was actually a sign of wealth and luxury. In that way, research was critical to the accuracy of the costumes. it was more than just shopping for the right pieces - it was research, and planning, and construction, and meticulous detail in order to tell the story that needed to be told.
With the amount of times people rewatch movies nowadays, always looking for more depth and detail they may have missed the first time around, I am not surprised at the sheer amount of effort it takes to costume a movie. There is a significant difference between costuming and high fashion in most cases, but there are those few exceptions, like the movie The Fifth Element in which the costumer was none other than Jean Paul Gautier, famous fashion designer. I think that costuming for historical movies is easier because there is a lot of precedent and a backlog of costumes from movies that can be taken from storage, but modern fashion is harder because it is easier for an audience to nitpick. We as an audience aren’t removed from modern clothing and fashion so we notice the inconsistencies between actual fashion and what is worn by characters. This also applies to clothing going back as far as the modern audiences have been alive as they have had first hand experience with these fashions that are being used in films.
I had never considered the challenges that might come with contemporary costuming as opposed to doing something set in the past. In my mind, I had thought that pieces set in the past would be much more difficult than contemporary due to the sheer amount of research and finding/making older pieces would be required. Having thought more about it, though, I now realize more of the individual challenges that would come with designing contemporary costumes. In particular, the struggle of directors wanting to do brand placement really draws my attention. I would have never thought of that being a problem, but it makes a lot of sense that this would happen, with product placement and brand deals being such a big part of film and television now. Though the article didn’t mention this, I would also imagine contemporary costuming is difficult because modern fashion is always shifting so quickly you can barely catch up.
I think contemporary costumes are a very interesting problem that costume designers have to face. I think the biggest difference between contemporary and historical/fantasy costumes is that there are people currently living who may wear those styles and make decisions on their clothes that can influence how they see the costume. While the audience that knows the intricate aspects of period clothing is small but vocal, there is an even larger group that knows what it is like to live and wear clothes in the present. To me, this is a big challenge because I am balancing my understanding and research of the ever-changing period against the experiences of the audience and trying to find a way to explore the characters through my choices. Additionally, I feel like the audience’s familiarity with the clothing makes all the choices very clear. If a character wears a T-shirt, tank top, or long sleeve says something that all the audience can see, whereas we can’t directly point to armor choice and see how that is reflected in our lives.
Getting to hear about the why behind costume design is always a super cool and enjoyable learning experience. I love how this article showcased multiple designers and their creative process. It really puts into perspective how much detail and research is done to create (and recreate) such iconic pieces. I particularly loved the detail about the wool in the odyssey, that it would only be reserved for the very rich because they had to import it during that time. The historical context that so many different films are made in and how that affects the designers has always been a very cool concept. I thought the comment about product placement was very interesting. I had never previously thought about how product placement, especially with costumes, can disrupt what the original designer intended. I’m curious as to how these conversations develop when designers fight for what they intend is needed for their design.
I thought this was a really interesting article to read. I feel like I see a lot of articles that are about costume design for historical movies where the designer has to do crazy amounts of research in order to be historically accurate, or sci-fi/fantasy movies, where the design team has to create an entirely new world and culture of clothing that has to fit the movie but also feel realistic, but I don’t see a ton about contemporary costume design. It makes a lot of sense that contemporary costume design is a lot more challenging than it might initially seem. While a lot of the clothes that fit into a contemporary world might be easier to acquire at a store, one thing that I imagine might make contemporary costume design more challenging that the article didn’t really discuss is that the average audience might be a lot more inclined to critique contemporary design since they are a lot more familiar with contemporary clothes than historical.
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