Oscar winner Jenny Beavan: “Costume design is not about fashion, it’s about storytelling”

With an Oscar for Best Costume Design for ‘Mad Max, Road Rage’, Jenny Beavan is a role model in costume design. Her next project is ‘Cruella’, starring Emma Thomson and Emma Stone, a job for which, like all her others, the Englishwoman is faithful to the same maxim: “designing costumes is not about fashion, it’s about telling stories, and doing it as a team”.

“To be honest, fashion has never been my thing, I tell stories, I talk about characters”, said the acclaimed costume designer Jenny Beavan (London, 1950). During a virtual meeting, the British designer talked about the ins and outs of her profession, on the occasion of the presentation of the film ‘Cruella’ (Disney), a reinterpretation of the famous Disney villain that will navigate between crime, comedy and adventure.

An Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Costume Design for “Mad Max, Road Rage” and the Academy Award in 1986 for “A Room with a View” are just some of the awards that mark the career of the Englishwoman, a role model in costume design who began her career in the 1970s London, making costumes for small theatre plays.

“The key to making a successful costume is to remember that there is always a story”

More than fifty years later, her next project is “Cruella”, a reinterpretation of Disney’s evil villain in which fashion is a main character: “it reflects her passion for fashion, which will attract the attention of the character of Baroness von Hellman, who is a great designer”. A challenge for the costume designer, who has created a total of 277 outfits for the main cast. “The key to making the right wardrobe is to remember that there is always a story and a reason for acting behind each character, film wardrobe is not about fashion but about the personalities behind them”, says the British designer, pointing out that this is a project in which she has had “a huge team”, which she describes as highly qualified.

Teamwork is absolutely one of the most important bases of her work as a costume designer, which requires “coordination and work with directors, stylists, make-up and hairdressing directors and also actors and actresses”, as in the case of Emma Stone, who plays Cruella on screen and with whom Bauvan confirms that she has “a friendly relationship and “many hours of working together”.

“Emma is very involved during the styling process, and we have had a great time together finding her colours, shades like brown and gold, which she looks wonderful in. She also has a great figure to bring all the clothes to life,” she says of Stone, who has 47 wardrobe changes to Emma Thompson’s 33.

Emma Thompson will play Baroness Von Hellman, a prestigious designer for whose character Bauvan has created thirty-three outfits, including meticulous adaptations of Marie Antoinette-inspired styles from patterns and fabrics: “I really enjoyed the process of buying and choosing the fabrics,” she says of one of the first phases of her work.

“Once I have the fabrics, I lock myself in the studio and start to test, to see what happens and what the colours are telling me”, she explains about the creative process, in which the answers “come by themselves” after reading and rereading the scripts, which is the way to “find the essence of the story”, something that comes to the creator in a clear and organic way.

“If you want to make your own designs, be a fashion designer, not a costume designer”

She finds inspiration in the everyday people who walk the streets. “I absolutely consider myself an observer,” says Bauvan, who uses this inspiration to construct the costume identities in all her films: “The interesting thing is that they are not models on the screen, they are people in situations that make them the way they are and show themselves the way they do,” she says.

After fifty years in the industry, she has returned to her native London, where she also began her career, to make this latest film which brings back memories of starting out. “It’s funny because as you get older you suppress memories, but coming to London and remembering key places where you lived or worked is very special”.

With regard to starting out in this industry, she has clear advice: “I would recommend that anyone who wants to start in this world goes a school where they can acquire technical knowledge such as pattern making, colour techniques, costume history, or 3D printing, which are the basis of the profession”, she explains with respect to the technical aspects. “If you want to make your own designs, be a fashion designer, not a costume designer, because this profession is about creating with a great team”, says Bauvan, for whom, after five decades in the sector, the key to success is clear: “to be extraordinary, you have to surround yourself with extraordinary people”.