Babylon, the antithesis of The Great Gatsby
“I don't want this to look like another 1920s movie,” the writer-director told costume designer Mary Zophres, with whom he previously collaborated on the Oscar-winning La La Land. Despite the obstacles this presented, she accepted the challenge. Chazelle's edict is simple to understand but difficult to execute: no flapper dresses or cloche hats, feathered headbands, or crystal turbans. Avoiding any trendy platitudes, Zophres dove into the most extensive investigation of her career, beginning in January 2020.
Due to circumstances that need not be repeated, she had more time than she thought to carry it out. Production was pushed back to spring 2021, giving Zophres plenty of leeway to choose fabrics, source international suppliers, and sketch some of the 7,000 costumes featuring medieval warriors, movie stars, and even elephant tamers who, at one point in the film, they are subjected to the effects of feces, vomit and other unpleasant consequences of the wild revelry of the time. Every designer's dream, right?
The 'Zophres' method for the perfect period wardrobe
In her search for it, she contacted different design institutes, museums, and movie costume houses in the hope of acquiring some vintage jewel from the 'roaring 20s' that did not fall into historical clichés. However, her plan gave first stumbles when she saw that the clothes that are preserved from that time precisely reflect the glamorous reality of flapper girls that Chazelle rejects, but she likes a lot by other Hollywood directors.
Luckily, all was not lost, explains the designer in an interview with BoxOfficePro: "All the old clothes that ordinary people used no longer exist because they would be 100 years old. And if you find something original, it will disintegrate when you put it on. But the process was very useful to see how things were made then, what fabrics they were using, sewing, tailoring...".
There was no room for error in this mission, which is why Zophres was chosen by Chazelle to carry out the job. She defines herself as a perfectionist, with a keen eye for detail. For example, to capture the crinkled feel of raincoats seen in the Singin' in the Rain sequence, we used shower curtain liners that Zophres found at a 99 Cents Only store.
"We sent anyone who lived near one of those in the entire county of Los Angeles to buy 400 or 500" -confessed the artist- "And each costume hides a story like that." In her modus operandi, each character, from the main one to her more than 200 extras, has a personal story that defines how she will dress in each scene of the film.
Do we really know how people dressed in decades past?
The question may seem arrogant because there are plenty of graphic records to give us an idea about the customs of ancient times, but it would not be the first time that a movie gives us a wrong image of how people dressed daily. A common phenomenon in film wardrobe is to use the trends of the moment, that is, the most attractive or preferred by the famous of the time so that there is no doubt about where the plot is set: if we think of the decade of the 70, sequined dresses, fringed jackets, stratospheric platforms or Afro-style hairstyles will come to mind.
This is exactly what Chazelle ordered to avoid: "We look to the 1920s for inspiration, but you can't identify the looks as 1920s. We've seen a lot of Hollywood movies that have been based on a particular style from this decade, but there's this. another world that hasn't really been explored" explained the designer.
A subversive Margot Robbie, the most transgressive face of the 20s
The director gave him a list of books and movies about early Hollywood and early silent movies, but they also used photographs of old film sets in the Paramount Pictures archives, real-life portraits of working-class families, and letters describing in the first person the parties of the cinematographic elite. The result is an X-ray of a city of stars sunk in decadence, far from the ostentatious empire we know now.
Zophres boasts bibliographical backing for each of her wardrobe choices, anachronistic as they may seem based on stereotypes perpetuated in the film: "Our research shows just how revealing the 1920s were, with skimpy shorts, cropped tops, and hemmed high, a big change from the previous decade.
It is the first impression that Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) gives us as soon as she enters the scene in a wraparound red minidress with a deep neckline. The designer worked hand in hand with the actress to create a past for this carefree young woman, ex-dancer, and aspiring movie star who comes from the east coast of the United States to succeed in the new talkies.
"Nellie goes to the party to be discovered and wraps this scarf around her body, tucks it into her shorts, and drops it on her hip. I thought it was something she could have improvised, made herself..." Zophres explains her fiery leading lady's initial look, shown off during a musical sequence, and required the team's technical knowledge to give the actress a little more coverage. Malleable bones were added within the garment, so that Robbie could dance without difficulty, with the fabric snug against her body.
How to avoid stereotypes without falling into other stereotypes
Li Jun Li plays Lady Fay Zhu, a character indirectly based on the actress of Chinese descent Anna May Wong, the first Asian female lead in Hollywood movies. Wong's career was sadly marked by stereotypical roles which, rather than inspiring other young Asian women, served to reinforce public perceptions of this marginalized breed of 'seductive women' (the oiran or geisha in Japan, for example), so Chazelle suggested that Lady Fay Zhu was actually a homage to the garçconne archetype, an androgynous figure in conflict with the male gaze. From her wardrobe, a green three-piece suit with a satin lapel and a tall hat that immediately reminds us of Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo stands out.
In only one scene, the actress does wear a traditional Chinese costume, a pink silk cheongsam dress with a flower print, to dance the tango with Margot Robbie, who, to the surprise of the viewer, wears a typical denim worker's jumpsuit. construction, and mining, among other trades related to labor. In this decade, denim had not spread much beyond the closets of the proletariat as it was considered a resistant fabric for intense manual labor, not at all appropriate for an aspiring actress.
This twist in the styles of both presents a dichotomy between the feminine and the masculine, a theme in vogue at this time when women were beginning to wear pants or other clothing originally designed for men's wear.
