It is not rare to see fashion borrowing from the big screen and, in the history of fashion and film, there have been some costume designers who became constant inspirations for fashion collections.
Yet costumes are obviously also inspired by fashion and this is the case for the designs seen in some of the films that yesterday evening won three different categories at the 23rd annual Costume Designers Guild Awards (the awards were handed out with a virtual ceremony on Twitter).
Legendary Oscar and Tony-winner Ann Roth won the category Excellence in Period Film with the costumes for George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Roth also won best costumes for this film at last Sunday’s BAFTA Awards).
A journey through the recording sessions of the “Mother of the Blues”, real-life singer Ma Rainey (Oscar-winner Viola Davis) and her band members (the late Chadwick Boseman stars in the role of cornet player Levee), the story takes place in Chicago in the late ’20s.
Visually speaking the film is full of inspiring textures with sets that betray the influence of photographer Richard Samuel Roberts and the woodcuts of painters Jacob Lawrence and Aaron Douglas. The sets make the luscious jewel toned costumes donned by Ma Rainey and her girlfriend Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige) genuinely shine.
Roth created for Ma Rainey a bold and lavish showbiz wardrobe with red or blue gowns often embelished with sequins or long fringes that move as the singer performs. Even in summer, Ma Rainey wears a mink fur stole that gives her status and puts her under the spotlight, turning heads in Chicago.
In the film Roth pretends the clothes were made by a woman in Mississippi, but at times the costumes from a distance call to mind velvet designs with hand-printed metallic pigment motifs à la Madame Gallenga or Mariano Fortuny.
But close ups of one gold and chocolate velvet brocade dress reveal a fabric reminiscent of luxurious textiles such as soprarizzo velvet.
Excellence in Contemporary Film went to “Promising Young Woman”, written and directed by Emerald Fennell, with costumes by Nancy Steiner (who, in her acceptance speech, took the opportunity to ask the industry to pay costume designers what they are worth, “So much of what you see onscreen is our work,” she stated. “It influences culture, fashion and results in additional profits for the studio (…) it’s time for pay equity now”).
The costume designer used in this case a contemporary wardrobe for the main character, Cassie, with some pieces (the Rose Loren dress and the baseball shirt with a child playing with a baby deer and a rainbow in the background), from Coco Fennell‘s (the sister of the director) collections (check also the brand’s Instagram page for further images from this film).
But these innocent, romantic and at times childish pastel tones hide a very dark character: Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is indeed seeking revenge for the death of her best friend Nina, a rape victim.
Cassie is on a mission to punish men and, while she dresses to appeal her targets at night with bodycon designs, high heels and undone buttons, her daily uniform is almost angelic, with pink fluffy sweaters and shirts with prints of delicate flowers.
This wardrobe that you can easily find in stores or online is actually a coverup, a pastel world that hides a thirst for revenge and that serves the character to camouflage herself.
At the same time the clothes she wears reveal that Cassie is not a silly girl, but a cleverly brilliant mind who knows how to use clothes at their best – after all who would ever suspect a young blonde smiling woman with a deer baseball top and pastel manicure? 
Last but not least, the Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television went to Shay Cunliffe for the episode “Parce Domine” in TV series “Westworld” (First Episode, Third Series; a series that has provided fashion designers with many inspirations), but maybe the award should have gone to Hussein Chalayan.
The episode features indeed Dolores who, with a swift gesture of her hand, changes her look, radically transforming a black short dress into a floor-length gold gown. So there’s two dresses in one, with the gold dress rolled up inside the black dress and held together with snaps.
Yet the dress that marvelled the series fans was nothing more than a reinvention of the transformative designs in Hussein Chalayan’s A/W 2013 collection, entitled “Rise”.
As you may remember from a previous post, Chalayan’s designs could be transformed with just one gesture and in that case the trick was possible by simply tugging a flap around the neckline.
The draped fabric folded around the neck area would then release forming an over-layer and an entirely new look. In that case dresses changed their colours from black to beige or dark burgundy to black, but also the surfaces changed with a short dress in a peeling black fabric with multi-coloured nuances that turned into a floor-length gown in a smooth soft fabric.
The effect achieved in “Westworld” was exactly the same, so maybe in this case the costume designer should have maybe given credit to Chalayan.