Arianne’s Oscar-Nominated Costumes

Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, Julia Rubin at Syleite had a great chat with the fantastic Arianne Phillips about her work on W.E.‘s Oscar-nominated costumes.

Here are a few excerpts – make sure to read the entire interview at Styleite.com.

How did you begin to conceptualize the costumes?

You always start with the script, and I do what’s called the script breakdown. It’s where you divide the script up according to how many characters are in it, what kind of scenes there are, what the descriptions are like. From there you figure out what is needed, what you need to achieve script-wise. It’s like a practical breakdown. And then the research and the meetings start with the director, in this case Madonna. We talk about her impressions and her ideas, and what the tone and the look of the film is. You have philosophical discussions maybe about who these characters were.

There’s all kinds of research that went into this because even though it’s two intertwining stories, one of the stories is actually biographical, based on real people and real events. We rooted it in what really happened with the Duke and Duchess and used that as a foundation. Madonna shared with me all kinds of books — she had a huge big box of books — that her and Alex Keshishian used when they were writing the script. She sent it to me, and I was able to pour over everything. The first thing I did was make a visual lookbook for me and for her to discuss the tone and the look of the story. And then I went on a journey of discovery from speaking to people who knew the Duke and Duchess to watching all kinds of film clips that are available online or from the UCLA archives. We have a lot of film footage from the BBC.

And then I went to various museums from the Metropolitan Musem in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Musée de la Mode, which is the fashion museum at the Louvre in Paris. I was looking at clothes that were owned by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that were part of the museum collections, and things from fashion designers like Madame Vionnet, who Wallis Simpson was a client of. I wanted to see what those dresses looked like. Being specific about that world was very, very important to me.

Madonna told us the recreated pieces [of jewelry] had to be destroyed. Why is that?

Basically just like a Picasso, the Cartier jewelry owned by the Duke and Duchess has extreme value. Most of it is privately owned. Cartier does own some of it, but most of it’s privately owned. So as not to devalue the original jewelry, like a great piece of art, it’s not wise to have duplications or recreations floating around out there. Part of the deal from the get-go was that they would recreate these pieces for us, hold on to them until the film was released, and then they would destroy them.

At one point I inquired if it was possible to give Madonna the cross bracelet because it was such an important part of the film and something she would really love. Unfortunately they weren’t even allowed to do that. They couldn’t. So Cartier graciously created a bracelet unique to Madonna based on the cross bracelet, but it’s not like anyone else’s in the world.

You’ve worked with Madonna for many years. How is working on a film with her different than acting as her stylist?

The biggest diference is she doesn’t have to suffer in high heels, but she’s really been directing me for 14 years.
Whether it’s a tour or an album cover, an editorial shoot for a magazine or a video, Madonna is the captain of her own ship. All the ideas start with her and her music. She invites people to collaborate with her, and help interpret and create visuals to accompany the ideas.

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited these last 14 years. It’s been an incredible ride. It was a no-brainer for me. I’ve been encouraging her — one of the many people who’s been asking her when is she going to direct. She was probably sick of hearing it, so she finally just did it. It was incredible for me. It was great to have her on my side of the camera, and also to be able to work with someone I have 14 years of fluency with creatively is a real joy. To work with a director who understands the power of costumes? No one knows better than her. She wears the costumes. She wears jewelry. She’s worn haute couture.

How would you compare working on W.E. to working on other films like Walk the Line and A Single Man?

Every film is completely different from the other. Every story you’re telling demands a different journey of research. This film was shot in London and Paris and the south of France and New York. The locations are very different, everything’s different. The actors are different, the directors are different. The thing that A Single Man and W.E. had in common was that they both had directors that understand clothes: Tom Ford and Madonna. That was great. The films, all three of them, are very different. That’s great — I don’t like repeating myself. I love the ability to come to work and do something new every day. That’s the beauty of working in film and being a filmmaker.

Arianne is also a nominee in the “Excellence in Period Film” category for her work on “W.E.” at this year’s Costume Designers Guild Awards that will be presented tonight, February 21 at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, hosted by “Glee” actress Jane Lynch.