As a designer and fan of Gothic fashion, one of my all time
heroines is Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood. She is the creative force behind some of my
favorite Tim Burton film looks like Sweeney Todd , The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and
Alice in Wonderland (among many others!).
Her most impressive work yet is the epic Snow White &
the Huntsman film out today. In the movie,
the gorgeous costumes have dramatic silhouettes. The intricate details are constructed with
everything from papier mache, beetle wings, shredded chiffon to bird
skulls.
If you are looking to wear some looks inspired by the film,
Colleen designed a
small collection with HSN loosely based on the peasant Snow
White styles.
I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Ms. Atwood before
the movie premiere, and she tells all about her design process and the deal with Tim Burton's stripes:
Mariana Leung: OK. You’ve done some of the most
iconic pieces in films, between Memoirs of a Geisha, Silence of the Lambs, and
many of the Tim Burton movies. What finally got you inspired to actually do a
clothing line?
Colleen Atwood: Well the people from HSN came to the set
and they were doing a collaboration with- so what is a kind of media kind of
style thing, and they asked me if I wanted to do something, and I was- I’d
never really been approached so directly by somebody to do it, so I was like
“Sure, why not, give it a try” And you know, it’s been fun.
ML: For some of your period pieces like
Chicago or Sweeney Todd, it’s not directly period. Do you reference vintage pieces or do you
just kind of sketch from scratch, or do you reference designers of that period?
CA: I think all of the above. I mean when you’re designing a film like
Chicago or Geisha or whatever film you’re doing, you look at thousands of
images and you look at, you know, you take your ideas from all those and kind
of mix it up and make it your own. So it
can come from old cinema, it can come from paintings, and you know, in
pre-photography periods it can come from photographs and, you know, like for
Chicago I used some matinee photographs and a lot of Brassai’s photographs from Paris. So you just use different influences
to kind of get a texture and then you kind of spin out from there with your own
work.
ML: Is there one movie you’re particularly
proud of creatively, artistically?
CA: Well, I think that one of the great
things about doing costumes for film is that you’re always changing. And so I
think that the whole body of work is more interesting than any one part of it.
So, for me, you know, I’ve been incredibly lucky with the directors I’ve worked
with so I’ve gotten to do some amazing work. But, you know, at the same time
it’s like there’s not just one thing that’s like I feel more proud of than
another. It’s sort of like a family of work, you know?
ML: Was there any film that was
particularly challenging more so than others, technically or the functions the
costumes had to provide?
CA: Well, Snow White and the Huntsman was a
pretty huge film, it was a lot of clothes, a lot of action clothes too. I mean
over 2000 costumes were manufactured. You know, creating a world, just like
making up a whole world, was one kind of challenge. Alice in Wonderland was another kind of
challenge where you’re just like taking another iconic thing and figuring out
how to make that into, you know, an experience.
Memoirs of a Geisha was a huge intimidating challenge, like entering
that world, not part of it, not knowing very much about it, trying to honor it
without insulting it. You know, there are so many levels of every job; they all
have their own special challenges.
ML: As far as your own personal style, do
you have fashion designers that you’re inspired by, or personally enjoy
wearing?
CA: Well, I love clothes. So, so many of
the fashion designers- I mean, I’ve always admired and would love to wear some
of them more than I can afford to, but, you know, I love Azzedine Alaia and Alexander McQueen whom I think was a genius.
I think, you know, over the years I’ve admired , you know, Yohji Yamamoto, you know, I’ve elements, pieces of all those
people that I’ve kept for years and years and years, and, you know, that I still
really treasure. So, you know, I think there are all different kinds of
designers for different things.
ML: Those are very tailored and
constructed designers you mentioned, also like with Yamamoto and McQueen,
they’re kind of like darker edge and you work on someone like kind of darker
looks, especially for the evil queen hair with like the bird skulls and the
beetles and feathers. Are you inspired by darker kind of edgier inspirations,
or is it really for the film?
CA: It was really for the film. My personal
clothing- I mean I lived in new York for a long time, so I’m a big fan of
black, of course, I have to go “OK, you can’t buy one more black jacket right
now,” so now I’ve switched to navy blue. But now I’m like “OK, I gotta stop
with the navy blue.” So, you know, I go through phases and stuff that I do
think I like I guess what you’re saying, I do like the idea of clothing as
sculpture in a kind of way that works from an architectural point of view which
probably has something to do, you know, with the people I gravitate to. Or
other people do different things sometimes, and, you know, I’m like- I really
like it. But I do appreciate a beautiful
cut jacket, that’s just like, you know, really fine and goes together really
well.
ML: Do you ever work on pieces for
yourself? Or do you just not have the time?
CA: You know, I’m always thinking “Oh yeah,
I’m gonna make that.” But I barely have time to alter my own clothes, much less
make them.
ML: I totally understand. One question one
of my readers from my gothic blog asked about Tim Burton’s stripes. We noticed that there are a lot of stripes in
a lot of the costuming you’ve done over the years in Tim Burton films. I didn’t know if that was a Tim Burton thing
or if it was you who just happened to like stripes.
CA: I think- well, Tim likes stripes,
sure. But so do I, so it’s kind of our
thing that, you know, that does go in there as an element and it’s very, you
know, I mean Tim comes from animation, it’s a very kind of graphic thing, a stripe,
and it can, you know, it can be a wobbly, a hand-painted stripe, or it can be a
really thin stripe, and I think that there’s always kind of a texture that it
can give something whether it’s in corduroy or whether it’s actually applied to
something that I really like. So I think we both like it.
ML: Did you come from a fine arts
background?
CA: I studied painting in school; I wanted
to be a painter. So, you know, but I never really did.
ML: Your design process, do you start from
sketches first, or do you like really like working with the fabrics or
materials?
CA: I start with a combination. I mean
sometimes I will see a piece of fabric and I go “Oh, I can make that dress I’ve
always thought of.” or I see like an image of it. But- and then sometimes I come
up with a design and go “Oh, I need fabric.” So I think it goes back and forth.
I think that, as a designer, you’re kind of always looking, you know, for an
idea. So it comes from all different
kinds of places.
ML: OK, one last question. Do you have some
favorite pieces in your own closet that you absolutely love, whether it’s
sentiment or just pure design?
CA: I do have things that I’ve kept for a
long time. I have a couple dresses that were my grandmothers that were very
beautiful 50’s dresses. You know, a few things of my own, a couple of jackets
that I’ve kept forever, and – but I’m a very big believer in not accumulating
too much stuff, because at work I’m so surrounded by it that a lot of times I
get, you know, I keep it fresh. I move it around so I’m not a big collector of
anything per say, like some people are.
ML: Thank you so much. It has been an honor to speak to you about
your work!
