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Poor Things with Costume Designer, Holly Waddington - Mini Episode · The Art of Costume Podcast

• 0:00
  None. Hello and welcome to the Art of
• 0:35
  Costume Podcast. I am your host, Spencer
• 0:38
  Williams. What's going on?
• 0:40
  Costume nerds, thank you for joining me for another bonus
• 0:45
  episode. Actually, this is more like a
• 0:48
  mini episode, Mini bonus episode, Bonusy mini episode, as
• 0:56
  we have a special little treat to share with you all.
• 1:01
  I hope you're all aware of the new film coming out on December
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  8th, which I'm dying to see titled Poor Things, starring
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  Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe.
• 1:12
  Just to give you a quick summary, Poor Things is about a
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  young woman brought back to life by a unorthodox scientist who
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  runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the
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  continents. Free from the prejudices of her
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  times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for
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  equality and liberation. And that is poor things.
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  This film was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and costumes were
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  designed by 1 Holly Waddington. And I'm so excited to share for
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  you all that I went by the ASU Fitton Museum for a quick peek
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  of the new exhibit celebrating the costumes of poor things
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  designed by Holly Waddington. And you all have to go and check
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  out this exhibition. The Poor Things costume exhibit
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  is open at the ASU Fitim Museum from December 1st to December
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  15th from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and you have to check it out.
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  There's so many great costumes throughout the exhibit.
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  And just to give you a little sneak peek, when I was at the
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  museum I actually got to sit down for a quick impromptu
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  conversation with Holly Waddington about the film, her
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  work in design, the costumes for Bella Baxter played by Emma
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  Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, and some of the Victorian
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  silhouettes and references that you see throughout this film.
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  Also, she gives a quick little sneak peek into what you might
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  see inside this exhibit. Now I just have to be
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  transparent. There was a little bit of an
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  audio issue and that was totally my bad.
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  However, Holly was just so lovely and I really enjoyed my
• 2:48
  time talking with her about the costumes within this exhibit and
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  the film. So I hope you all make it over
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  to the ASU Fit In Museum from December 1st to December 15th,
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  and make sure you see poor things in theaters starting
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  December 8th. Enjoy.
• 3:29
  Hello costume nerds. I'm Spencer Williams and I'm
• 3:32
  here at the ASU Bidam Museum for the Poor Things costume
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  exhibition. And I am here with costume
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  designer Holly Waddington. Hey Holly, it's so nice to
• 3:41
  finally meet you. Great to meet.
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  You so Holly, I'm so excited to talk about these costumes.
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  Poor Things is a story about imagination, coming of age,
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  awakening, which leads me to the vibrant use of colours,
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  textiles, materials. So how did all those elements
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  play a role in the film for things?
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  I mean you know all, all of all of the elements, the the, the
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  fabric choices, the shape choices, it's all, it's all sort
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  of part of of of the costumers island.
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  Yeah, I mean everything, everything is really considered,
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  I suppose is what is is, is how I feel, you know, from the
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  colors through to the the the choice of fabrics to the shapes,
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  to how dressed and and maybe not dressed costumes are.
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  You know, specifically like the colors.
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  I work very closely with your girls and production designers
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  Shona and James on the color palettes and we, we did a lot of
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  work on the color in the house scene at the beginning, at the
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  beginning. But that then became black and
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  white, you know. Then when she goes to Elizabeth
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  and it explodes into like glorious Technicolor.
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  The textures, you know, were very important to the film and
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  and again worked really closely with Shona and James on on the
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  textures. For me, they were about creating
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  a sense of the organic and the bodily.
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  And you know, she's a reanimated woman, so there's this sense of
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  like air and breath being in. The costumes in the sleeves and
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  like lungs. I was we were you know my team
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  worked very hard to to find textures that felt really
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  organic and unruly sort of things to do with you know the
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  textures that we have in the body on natural forms, shells,
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  sequences, you know not, not organised.
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  You know not. Just just sort of liberated and
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  and organic and we were sort of trying to transpose the
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  Victorian decoration of which there was, you know, a lot.
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  The Victorians really sort of densely decorated their clothes
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  and with the textures that were very particular to this film.
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  And so we made lots of all textures if we couldn't find
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  them, right? That's really interesting.
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  So while there were certainly some Victorian silhouettes and
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  references, I really feel like you and your team though,
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  imagined the world in your own vision alongside Bella as well.
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  So I was going to ask you, how did you change things up from
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  the typical Victorian silhouette that we all know?
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  So I think the first thing to say is that we completely got
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  one of the corset from Bella, which was you know, which is
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  quite a thing for Victorian dress because really what what
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  creates those the shapes of of of of all those all the periods
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  really that had a corset is the corset that's the thing that
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  gives it the the form and the structure and the and the and
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  the particular posture that you get from wearing a corset, so.
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  In taking that away, I think there's that, that is how they
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  kind of that sort of initially sort of breaks the the look
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  anyway because without that it is basically the shapes are like
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  skirts and tops. So it suddenly feels, I mean to
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  me it suddenly feels more like like 70s clothes, you know,
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  because the 70s reference the Victorian period and but they
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  didn't bother with the corsets and the hair was very free.
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  So for me it has a 70s quality to it, you know also.
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  Those sleeves are often in in Victorian dress, often quite
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  heavy fabrics, and I was really trying to work with this idea of
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  lightness for Bella and and a flowiness too just.
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  A sort of lightness and a kind of.
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  It just felt appropriate to to her character that that her
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  clothes would have. This would not be sort of
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  weighed down. Madam Swiney's bodice is is like
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  a piece of upholstery. It's thick and heavy.
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  It's like a sofa and I wanted them to have a kind of.
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  Likeness to the like the wedding dress.
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  I wanted it to feel like they're almost like, right.
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  I was so excited. It's so beautiful and I'm so
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  excited for everyone to see this film.
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  Emma Stone plays an integral role in this film as Bella
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  Baxter. So tell me about your
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  collaboration with Emma and bringing this character to life
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  through the costumes. Yeah.
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  So thank you so. I had I I had an initial fitting
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  with Emma Stone in Athens. You know quite early on I went
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  with some suitcases just full of lots of different shapes,
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  Victorian things things from other periods lots of ideas.
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  And I have and I did a sort of afternoon in a in a hotel in in
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  Athens with her basically dressing up and and so we were
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  able together to really kind of map out how.
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  How you know, I I I had a lot of thoughts that I grew up to that
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  fitting and through that fitting was really how we found the
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  skeleton of the of the costume plot and how we would put it all
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  together. She, you know she was very
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  playful very funny you know uninhibited, creative.
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  You know, it was it was dressed like dressing up and lots of
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  photographs and some that I could do a series of drawings.
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  And really plot how how I really start to kind of build to put
• 9:11
  this jigsaw puzzle together, right?
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  Much like her character, Bella is just very playful and playing
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  with different colours and whatnot.
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  Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe play characters Duncan and
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  Doctor Baxter. So tell me about your
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  inspirations behind some of their costumes.
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  Duncan is inspired by the satirical drawings or ends.
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  Cartoons that were were very prevalent in in the late 19th
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  century. You get these pictures of really
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  pompous men with their chest or skips and you know, looking
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  ridiculous, but you know, very pompous, upper class English
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  establishment men. So I was working with that
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  really more than more than anything.
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  And and the and the sort of physicality of those men because
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  often they have these really pumped out chests.
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  They have these S bends in their back, they often have quite
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  curvaceous bodies, which I thought was interesting.
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  You know, I was extending Bella backs his shoulders and trying
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  to kind of give the men almost the more feminine, well, Duncan,
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  a more feminine physique. So we played around loads of
• 10:21
  ideas of body padding. We had, we did.
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  We had a whole long journey around building him.
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  Almost like Kim Kardashian Bum spending, you know bum rounding
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  out and. Building the same.
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  He had a corset, he had chess pad.
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  We played around with lots of ideas and in the end it was just
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  very strong. When we did the camera test, it
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  was a little bit too panto and we had to calm it all down and
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  you know, simmer it down, but but that was the sort of key
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  thing that I was, I was working with for him.
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  And had some really joyful fittings with Hot Ruffalo again,
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  you know, lovely, hilarious, generous, and I wish I was
• 11:00
  there. Sounds fun.
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  And William Defoe, you know, his character Baxter is, is based
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  on, you know, he's a man of the future, he's a visionary.
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  He's, I really love this character.
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  I I really particularly loved him in the book, where he's
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  really described very, very extensively.
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  But you know, I wanted to quit this into his Utah in in the
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  House he wears a series of boiler suits, you know, which
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  are not typical of of of men. I don't think men are really
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  going around and tailored boiler suits, but I I like this idea
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  that he would have his own, his own fashion that he would wear
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  at home only because he's very conspicuously disfigured.
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  I wanted him outside of the home to always be in a three piece
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  suit, to be very conventionally dressed.
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  But when he was in his home to have a series of luxurious
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  boiler suits that got his utilitarian pockets.
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  And I was referencing Vorchenko. He's a Russian constructivist
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  who wore these cool wool boiler suits, kind of like early
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  plastic trains on. Oh wow, fascinating.
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  So, Holly, we are in a exhibition full of costumes
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  created by you and your team, which is so exciting for people
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  who are coming to the exhibition.
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  What can they expect to find within the Poor Things costume
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  exhibit? Well, we've got a really, we've
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  got a selection of things that were in the film that all the
• 12:31
  pieces that were worn by the by the actors.
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  There's only one thing that we've reproduced film because
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  because because we we we were doing another display in London
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  we had to make two. But everything apart from that
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  is is is is worn by the cast. I I hope that that the visitors
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  will sort of. I I hope that there are some,
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  you know, some nice surprises there, because often on film,
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  you know, you get a sense of the costumes, but you don't
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  necessarily see all the details. So you know, maybe that maybe
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  some of the trimmings or choices that we made in the details will
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  be will be interesting and there's lots of great
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  photography and beautiful film stills and the soundtrack, so.
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  I think it's. I think it's worth coming on to.
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  Definitely. And just for myself.
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  I was walking around. I was on sleeve watch, just
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  checking out all the sleeves I could.
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  I could live in here. It's beautiful.
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  Holly, thank you so much for joining me.
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  I'm so happy for you. The exhibition is beautiful.
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  And for all those at home, the poor Things costume exhibit is
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  open at the ASU Fena Museum starting December 1st through
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  December 15th. And I hope all of you would come
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  and check out Holly's brilliant work.
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  Thank you, Holly. Thank you.
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  Thank you very much. The Art of Costume podcast is
• 13:56
  hosted and produced by Elizabeth Joy Glass and Spencer Williams.
• 14:01
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• 14:05
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• 14:14
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• 14:19
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• 14:24
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• 14:28
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