Costuming Gatsby

Costuming The Great Gatsby was no easy feat. Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin created 1700 daytime and evening costumes (that computes to 500 a day) for the cast that ranged from spectator shoes and Princeton style straw hats to tuxedos and flapper frocks. Martin collaborated with designer Miuccia Prada who reinterpreted forty classics. while the venerable menswear institution Brooks Brothers (around in writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's day) were a natural to work with CM on more than 500 men's Ivy League ensembles. Tiffany and Co. also got in on the act, designing a Jazz Age Glamour collection complete with a 200,000 Savoy diamond headpiece to a 50,000 Daisy white diamond brooch.

If you haven't overdosed on Gatsby-mania just yet, be sure to see the film when it opens this Friday, May 10th. And if you live in Los Angeles, check out Martin's costume exhibit at the Century Guild. And also check out my piece on the costumes in The Hollywood Reporter here.

Leo DiCaprio as the mysterious Jay Gatsby

DiCaprio with Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Joel Edgerton as husband Tom Buchanan

Catherine Martin at Gatsby exhibit

Daisy's wedding gown

A Miu Miu flapper dress from designer Miuccia Prada

One of Prada's 40 sketches for the film. Shown above is sketch of flapper dress for Daisy

Alpine sweater from Brooks Brothers worn by Tobey Maguire and available for $148

Boater from Brooks Brothers

Ring of Pave diamonds and center diamond of 5.25 carats
 from Tiffany & Co.'s Great Gatsby Collection

Tiffany bangle with fan motif. 

Photo Credits: Warner Brothers, Brooks Brothers, Fashionista, Tiffany and Co., Hollywood Reporter

Designing the World of Gatsby

The life of the elusive, enigmatic fictional millionaire Jay Gatsby is portrayed once again (maybe fourth time is the charm) on the silver screen May 10th.  This time around filmmaker Baz Lurhmann tackles F. Scott Fitzgerald's beloved twenties novel of life in the Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties set against an opulent Art Deco and hip hop music backdrop -- and all in 3-D.

Collaborating with costume designer/production designer and wife Catherine Martin, the film is set in the tony old and new moneyed worlds of Long Island Sound's fictional East and West Egg via the duo's homeland of Sydney. The Academy Award winning designer took her cues from the Garbo films of the twenties and the work of interior designer Syrie Maugham as inspiration for the film's designs. And since noveau riche was the order of the day, opulence translated into lots of gilt and gold for the Gatsby mansion that represented the majority of the 43 sets constructed in fourteen days. For more on the Gatsby sets, read my article in the Hollywood Reporter here.

Besides designing the sets and costumes (next post), Martin has her own home line aptly called Catherine Martin Home. Several of her rug designs in collaboration with Designer Rugs  (the Art Deco line is out June 6th) and moderne style fabrics with Mokum are seen in the film.

Grand foyer of Gatsby's mansion 

Gatsby's balcony

Gatsby's grand stairway

Costume and production designer Catherine "CM" Martin

Catherine Martin for Mokum - Great Gatsby inspired Art Deco interior

Black Pearl Rug

Garden Party Rug

Night Bird Rug

Catherine Martin's Mokum Moderne Rivoli collection of fabrics as used in Gatsby - available at Holly Hunt in USA

Many design companies have jumped on the Gatsby bandwagon with Deco infused designs on everything from faucets to light fixtures. A few of my personal favorites are below:

Harlow ceiling fixture by Corbett Lighting. Available as a pendant or single/double wall sconce
in sleek stainless steel with crystal accents. Love this!

Nothing says Art Deco like French design legend Jean-Michel Frank.
Shown above is the burnished wood screen Grand Paravent, Vers circa 1925. 

With its modern lines, Graff's Fontaine lavatory faucet
would have fit in nicely at the Gatsby manse.

Photo Credits:  Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers, Catherine Martin Home, Designer Rugs, Mokum, Graff, Corbett Lighting

On the Set: The Great Gatsby

I posted back in March on the Warner Brothers remake of The Great Gatsby that is currently filming in Sydney, Australia. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, the film stars Carey Mulligan as Daisy, Tobey Maguire as Nick and Leo DiCaprio in the title role of F. Scott Fitzgerald's popular novel. Here are a precious few shots from the set and you can already see the incredible period costumes designed by Catherine Martin (and wife of Luhrmann). DiCaprio makes a dashing Gatsby (as did Robert Redford in the seventies film version) and Mulligan is a perfect Daisy. This marks the Lurhmann and Martin team's second collaboration with DiCaprio as they filmed Romeo + Juliet in 1996.

Mulligan and DiCaprio

Leo Dicaprio and Tobey Maguire 

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan

Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson

Sydney becomes Long Island in the twenties

Martin is also the film's production designer. A two time Academy Award winner (Moulin Rouge) and Tony Award winner for the set design of Broadway's La Boehme, "CM" has her own line of rugs, paints and wallpapers. Many of the sparrow and vine designs are inspired by her native Australia as well as Asian designs and traditional lace. I interviewed CM on the set of the film Australia several years ago and she is a dynamo --  it's no easy feat doing double duty with costume and production design. The mother of two was also getting ready to launch the Catherine Martin line as a natural extension of her film work. The line is distributed in Australia with Designer Rugs and Porter's Paints. (You can read more of the article on my website under Articles/Four Seasons magazine).

Martin and Luhrmann

Feathers Area Rug for Designer Rugs

Martin's Paint Line with Porter's Original Paints in Australia

Sparrow Wallpaper

The film will be distributed in 3D and premieres Christmas day of 2012. Needless to say, I can't wait.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo Images: New York Magazine, Warner Brothers, Catherine Martin, The Daily Mail

Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design

One of my favorite  books is the lavishly illustrated and comprehensive behind the scenes look at a century of costume design in the cinema. (It also happens to be the sister to my book on a century of Hollywood art direction which is in the works at Harper Collins).

Written by Deborah Nadoolman Landis,  former President of the Costume Designers Guild, Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design (Collins Design, 2007) offers many never before seen sketches and photographs from films of all genres. Landis, an Academy Award nominee, worked on diverse films such as Animal House and The Blues Brothers (she married the film's director John),  Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Michael Jackson Thriller video. She is perhaps one of the most knowledgeable on the subject of costume and film in Hollywood.

Like a great set, costumes set the mood, define the character, provide inspiration and have been known to start many a fashion trend. Landis notes that "more than a few acting careers have been launched on the basis of an unforgettable costume" and many have left an indelible impression. Who can forget Givenchy's take on the little black dress and pearls for Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Or  Faye Dunaway's entrance in

Theadora Van Runkle's  micro-mini suit for the sixties film Thomas Crown Affair?

And famed designer Edith Head took her cues from director Alfred Hitchcock, who wanted Grace Kelley to look like "dresden china" in the films Rear Window and a "fairy tale princess" for  It Takes A Thief.

Often the costumes become a character of sorts, taking front and center stage. Academy Award winning designer Catherine Martin and Angus Straithie's elaborate costumes for the musical Moulin Rouge! became an integral part in establishing the character Sabine. The Australian designer used actual Swarovski crystals for Nicole Kidman's stunning  corset which became quite taxing for the dance numbers. 

Perhaps the most extensive designs are those found in the genre known as  "costume dramas" a.k.a. period films. Heavily researched, authentically reproduced and labor intensive, the costumes for Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette had to reflect the decadence and frivolity of the period. Academy Award winning costume designer Milena Canonero purposely created a fresh young look with pinks and turquoise as opposed to the jewel tones used in most period films. (Canonero designed another one of my favorites -- Out of Africa).  If you haven't seen the film, it's great eye candy.

Photograph credits: Courtesy of Collins Design