2016 Oscar Nominees: Costume Design, An Overview (Part I)
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Last week, the nominees for the 88th Academy Awards were announced. After months of predictions and speculation, the names were pronounced, with The Revenant and Mad Max:Fury Road leading. This year's Costume Design category is a mix of genres and eras, with some of today's best costume designers nominated. Even though the Academy is usually more inclined to nominate period pieces, with their magnificent dresses and accessories, this year we find novelties, like Mad Max's post-apocalyptic style.
Sandy Powell, Carol, Cinderella
The great Sandy Powell (winner of three Academy Awards for Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator and The Young Victoria) is not nominated once but twice this year for two very different movies starring Cate Blanchett.
On the one hand we have Carol, a romantic drama about the impossible love between two women (Blanchett and Rooney Mara) in the 50s. The elegant wardrobe of the movie is a vital way of defining the characters: the rich and classy Carol (Blanchett) and the young and humble Therese (Mara). Powell states that, despite the film been set up in 1952, the clothes the characters wear are more of the 40s, as it was the beginning of the decade and silhouettes like the New Look didn't popularize until the mid-50s.
On the other hand, Powell's second nominated work is Cinderella. The live action Disney flick adapts the animated feature spirit of magic and love with fairytale-like dresses and over-the-top outfits. Probably the most impressive piece of the film is Cinderella's (Lily James) ball gown, who took 20 people and 4000 hours of work to be created, and the legendary glass slipper, but the Stepmother's (played again by the wonderful Cate Blanchett) outfits are also to be recognized. Glamorous, extravagant and inspired by 40s on-screen divas like Marlene Dietrich, the designs Blanchett wears throughout the movie work as a perfect opposite of the ones her Carol character. As a Disney production, of course, merchandise was part of the deal, so Powell admits she thought about how her design's for the silver screen would later look in other mediums, like dolls.
Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
Spanish designer Paco Delgado has already been nominated for an Academy Award in 2013 for another Tom Hooper film, Les Misérables and has a multi-awarded record in his homeland, with two Goya Awards.
Based on the life of transgender pioneer Lily Rabe (Eddie Redmayne) and her wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), the movie takes place in the 20s, a decade Delgado admits to be extremely liberating for women in terms of clothing. This theme of liberation is also central to the film, with Rabe transition been the inspiration for Delgado. He states it was both difficult and vital to be able to capture the protagonist imprisonment inside her initial men's clothes, and her later liberation. Rabe and Wegener were also famous danish artists, and specially Gerda's paintings served as a source of inspiration for Delgado's designs.
On the next post we'll learn a little bit more about the other two candidates, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant. But until that moment, what do you think of these nominees? Which one is your favorite to take home the golden statuette? Leave your opinions on the comments!
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