THE OSCAR COSTUME DESIGN CONTENDERS

The nominations for the  Best Costume Design Oscar have been announced, along with the other nominees, by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. There are five nominees, although I have included six here, my five favorites and one not on my list but that was nominated. All display excellent costume design work, and the competition will be stiff. . It is good to remember that the costume designer members of the Academy's Art Directors Branch make the nominations, but it's the entire Academy membership that will vote for the "winner."

Keira Knightley stars in Anna Karenina, directed by Joe Wright with costume design by Jacqueline Durran. Historical films are always favored to win the costume Oscar, and this year the contenders are all historical epics, fairy tales, or fantasies. Anna Karenina provides the historical sweep, the Russian Imperial court, and the beauty of Keira Knightley to offer a troika of favorable chances to win the Oscar. Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran has been nominated twice before, for Pride & Prejudice and for Atonement, both films starring Keira Knightley. The third nomination may be the charm.

The period for Anna Karenina, Russia in the 1870s, provides the setting for rich and extravagant costumes. Ms. Durran's research discovered that the Russians of means, and all those of the Imperial court, were obsessed with the dress and manners of France and its former court of Napoleon III. Thus Durran mixed historically accurate dresses and skirts with bodices inspired by the 1950s French couture of Christian Dior, Lanvin, and Balenciaga.

Ballrooms and parties always make for lavish costume settings. The combination of men in court and military costume and women in colorful  ballgowns is irresistible eye candy. For this ballroom scene a costume twist was created - all the women wear essentially the same gown but in different shades of fading pastels. The point was to emphasize the decay of Russian nobility and the conformity of the women and their contrast to Anna Karenina.

The scene above and below shows Keira Knightley dressing, displaying the corseting, hoop skirt boning, and bustle padding that formed the foundation of women's fashionable dress of the period.

The fur-trimmed coat shown below is beautifully embroidered. This photo also shows the wonderful hats that Keira as Anna wears in the movie. These are accented with feathers that strike rakish poses, as do the hats themselves. The use of veils also added interest to the close-ups of Keira Knightly.

Joanna Johnston designed the costumes for Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg. Ms. Johnston has designed three previous films for Spielberg, with Lincoln being the most ambitious costume movie. Her designs are excellent and do a perfect job of delineating character within this brief time-period near the end of Abraham Lincoln's life and presidency. 

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln is shown above with Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln with Gloria Reuben in the background. Mrs. Lincoln's costumes befit the president's wife and are beautifully designed and made, down to the two sets of crinoline petticoats and a hoop. The normally thin Sally Field had to be made to appear heavier and more rounded, while the characteristically tall and thin Lincoln had to appear like a real person and not a caricature. 

Day-Lewis is shown above as Lincoln beside Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays his son Robert Lincoln. Lincoln wears a shawl, not only was this historically accurate, but this costume piece re-enforces his simple humanity. The personage of William Seward was played by David Strathairn (not shown). He was a more dapper character, and in one scene wears a Chinese silk robe.

While the costuming of Lincoln has great sweep and outstanding execution, it is at a disadvantage in competing with the beauty of Anna Karenina in the Oscar race. It also appropriately reflects the dark clothing prevalent during the Civil War when much of the country was in mourning.


Another popular contender for Best Costume Design is Les Miserables, the movie musical  based on the musical play adaptation of the great novel by Victor Hugo. This historical epic takes place in France from 1815 until 1832. The story begins with protagonist Jean Valjean being released from prison where he served 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. This is a story of misery and redemption, and the costumes and settings portray the heights and depths of the social strata, as well as the changing fortunes of the characters themselves.

Tom Hooper directed Les Miserables and Paco Delgado designed the costumes. From the beginning Hooper wanted the costumes to be accurate to the time period of the story. Delgado emphasized the disparity in the social classes through their dress. He used vintage fabrics for several of his costumes. Early in the film Jackman as Valjean wears the humble wooden clogs (sabots) of the peasantry.

Amanda Seyfried as Cosette and Eddie Redmayne as Marius are pictured above, in one of the more cheery scenes in the movie.

The beautiful Anne Hathaway plays the tragic Fantine, mother of Cosette. There are no fashionable  images for Ms. Hathaway in this movie, here she will start from low society and move to abject and degrading poverty.

The turmoil of the characters is magnified by the revolutionary street rebellion of 1832. Above the characters have joined the street barricades, dressed in civilian clothes but ready for battle.

Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean is shown above, with Marius and Cosette. He too runs the gamut of social standing, though he becomes prosperous after a miserable start. But he is always looking over his shoulder for the relentless Inspector Javert (Russel Crowe) who pursues him. His costume at left befits a French gentleman, complete with beaver-skin top-hat. 



The hobbit world of J.R.R Tolkien returns in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This movie, like the others in the earlier trilogy, was directed by Peter Jackson, with costume design by Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor and Bob Buck. Ms. Maskrey has previously designed costumes for Sweeney Todd, Batman Begins, Troy, Star Wars Episodes I and II, and The Last of the Mohicans, among others. Richard Taylor was the creative director that designed the prosthetics and weaponry.

Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit who was reluctantly set forth on a great adventure by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, played again by Ian McKellen. As in the other films in the trilogy, a new old world had to be created through sets, make-up, and costume. And not only did the costumes have to convey character, but they had to delineate the different folk of Middle Earth: hobbits and dwarfs, sorcerers and goblins, and even Elven Queens.

Gandalf is shown above with Radagast, played by Sylvester McCoy. For Radagast's costume, custom made fabrics were used that looked like tree bark. His hat was made to look like moss was growing out of it, and the layers of fabrics added richness and earthiness to his costume. This was costume designer Maskrey's favorite costume.

The costume for Bilbo basically depicted an English country hobbit out on a walk. The Dwarves, meanwhile were rugged characters that liked their food and drink. But they were also warriors. 

A big challenge to Ann Maskrey was to design the costumes for thirteen dwarves but to make each one look  individual. On top of this was that the dwarves occupied different social strata and thus their costumes needed different embellishments.

The dwarves' leader was Thorin Oakenshield, shown below as played by Richard Armitage. The English heart-throb Armitage had to make a big transformation into this warrior character, assisted greatly by his costume and the sword and ax fighting techniques he learned for the role.

The Hobbit was not selected as a nominee. It probably was subject to the same dynamics as the first trilogy - that is that voters may want to wait until the final movie in the new trilogy is out before showering it with awards. The other nominee was Mirror Mirror, another Snow White movie from early in the year. It starred Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, and Nathan Lane. The costumes were designed by Eiko Ishioka, who unfortunately died January 21, 2012 at age 73 in Japan. 

The costumes were designed in a style combining elements of the fanciful with the traditional historical look.. Lily Collins as Snow White is shown at right above, and below.

Julia Roberts makes a wicked Queen. Nathan Lane as Brighton is shown in the background.

Snow White, emphasized in a white swan costume, is shown with the Prince below.

The set scene below is beautifully composed, looking like chess pieces being played by the Queen. While the costumes were unique in their own way, I found the costumes for Snow White and the Huntsman to be more creative and riveting.

Snow White and the Huntsman, was the other Snow White film of the year and Best Costume nominee, designed by Coleen Atwood. The movie was directed by Rupert Sanders and starred Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth. This movie and Mirror Mirror have a couple of weaknesses in the Oscar race - they came out early in 2012 and neither were big hits. But Coleen Atwood is a very well respected costume designer with three previous costume design Oscars, and she did an amazing job with the costumes for Snow White and the Huntsman..

Kristen Stewart plays Snow White in this reworking of the classic fairy tale. She has few costume changes, but the costume shown above was designed for action scenes.As designer Atwood stated, "she is a bad-ass Snow White."  She wears a suede tunic over her dress with leather leggings and boots. As she goes through the forest her dress shortens from wear. 

Chris Hemsworth shown above plays the huntsman. He becomes Snow White's protector and ally in their battle with the evil Queen and her forces of darkness.

The beautiful Charlize Theron plays the evil queen Ravenna. Her costumes were designed to emphasize her hard exterior and internal rotting, with a sub-theme of birds-of-prey. Atwood's costumes for her are amazing creations.

Queen Ravenna's wedding dress is white, only its "Letty Lynton" shoulders are made from replicated bird skeleton bones.

Ravenna's costume above emphasizes her obsidian-hard exterior, with a collar made from crow feathers. For one brief scene Ravenna wears a cape made of coq-feathers.

This amazing Ravenna costume was decorated with the turquoise-colored shells of beetles. Ms. Atwood had found the shell collection on eBay.  The photo below shows another Ravenna costume decorated with bones and scales. One of Ravenna's notable collars was made from 150 brass replicas of stag beetles.

As we have seen, the Best Costume contenders are an excellent lot. The nominations have been announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, with the awards to be made February 24, 2013. They are all stunning achievements in costume design art. With its panache and beauty, Anna Karenina will likely take home the costume design prize.

NOTE: Many of these costumes can be seen at the FIDM Museum and Galleries in downtown Los Angeles as part of their annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition. Some 100 costumes from 2012 movies, including all the Oscar nominees Anna Karenina, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, and several others, will be on display. The exhibition runs from February 12 through April 27. See www.fidmmuseum.org for more information.