With “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” “The Northman,” and now a grand remake of “Nosferatu,” style auteur Robert Eggers has directed 4 bold, interval options within the final decade — all of which costume designer Linda Muir dressed to perfection.
“When he determined to come back to Canada for places for ‘The Witch,’ I interviewed with him in Toronto,” Muir tells IndieWire of assembly Eggers. “Robert and our manufacturing designer Craig Lathrop traveled to the north of Toronto doing places for the exteriors. I stayed in Toronto, working with most of the cutters, seamstresses, and breakdown artists that I usually work with. Robert and I communicated lengthy distance for a lot of that prep interval, which was distinctive and strange.”
Born from that first collaboration is their continued inventive alliance, one which brings the gothic hues of the legendary “Nosferatu” again from the useless with chew and culminates into the yr’s scariest and most meticulously crafted old-school horror film. A reimagining of F.W. Munau’s 1922 traditional, Eggers’ defiantly female and cheekily erotic model tells the story of the haunted Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and the petrifying bloodsucker Depend Orlok (Invoice Skarsgård), who’s vampirically obsessed together with her. Additionally within the combine are Ellen’s bold husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), the couple’s rich pals Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin), in addition to Willem Dafoe’s professor tasked with curing Ellen of her “spells.”
“With every manufacturing, Robert begins to place collectively his personal huge array of photographs they usually find yourself in a look-book, which he then passes on to Craig and myself,” Muir explains. “And so I had that unbelievable quantity of very detailed analysis. After we lastly went into manufacturing in Prague, I had already designed Ellen, Anna, Thomas, and had began Orlok the earlier yr. Every little thing poured out after that.”
Under is our dialog (condensed and edited for readability) on the movie’s feminist themes, interval particulars, character-defining moments, and a legendary vampire who had one very particular outfit.
IndieWire: This can be a transitional period, post-Regency, pre-Victorian. How did you replicate that in-betweenness in your costumes?
Linda Muir: The very first thing to determine was what makes 1838 Germany completely different from France, England, or North America. After which selecting clothes based mostly on scenes, the work that they’re going to must do. For instance, Anna Harding has a really rich household. Her fashions are as much as the minute. Ellen has just a few attire which might be present, however she additionally has issues which might be few years previous to 1838. She doesn’t have as many outfits. And she or he has outfits which might be [versatile]. The costume that she wears when Thomas offers her that lovely, big bouquet of lilacs has detachable sleeves. So after we see her with the lilacs, she’s sporting the long-sleeves model. The intention was to point out a younger girl who doesn’t have countless means and is attempting to be sensible and look fabulous. She nonetheless has a sure diploma of social necessities.
As for the period, it’s positively post-regency, however much more particular than that. In the beginning of the 1830s, we’ve got very massive gigot sleeves. The bonnets are tipped ahead, and the hemlines of the attire are shorter—you see extra ankle and extra slipper. After we transfer into 1836-37, when you look contained in the attire from the interval, it’s not like they took the sleeve off and recut it to a unique form. They might fold it and pleat it and sew it down and it’s all in there. So it’s truly fairly ugly on the within, stunning on the skin. I’d think about they wouldn’t need to eliminate the material — the fashion may fairly simply change but once more, and also you’d need to have the ability to accommodate that as material was very costly.
For menswear, we predate standardized tailoring methods on this period. You may need a tailor that does your frock coats a technique, and your pal may need not-quite-as-good a tailor who does frock coats. And also you may need a frock coat that has a a lot fuller skirt that may take extra material, in order that you would need to be a person of means to have that form of fashion element, like the way in which one ties a cravat. I discovered a very fabulous little pamphlet from both 1836 or 1838, and every of the methods of tying a cravat had an awesome identify.
Understanding we might by no means be capable of afford and even discover the form of lush, unbelievable, costly materials [of the era], we needed to begin to discover methods to approximate that. We constructed the mockups and did a primary becoming to get a way of what labored. From that, we did a second mockup and fittings and refined them much more.
You’re taking part in with the notion of feminine oppression and liberation in costumes. And your use of corsets in that regard is attention-grabbing, like in that scene between Ellen and her physician who ties her in a corset.
One of many traits of Robert’s writing that basically drew me to him is that he’s a feminist. And he doesn’t clobber you over the pinnacle. He merely presents the information: A viewer solely wants to look at the scenes to comprehend the gender politics and such. And so the corset was positively a very fascinating notion — males and male docs would really feel a lady must be contained by tightening her corset, having her put on that in mattress.
After I was researching how these big interval sleeves have been supported, I discovered that there have been stunning little feather pillows that tie onto the arm. And the corded petticoats and all of the foundational items that give us the lady’s form of 1838. After which I discovered this curious corset. I feel it’s known as a fan-tie corset, and principally, the lady sporting it may well self-tighten the corset as a result of the ties prolong across the entrance. It appeared like a very unbelievable alternative, understanding that we had repeated scenes [with the corset]. And that scene specifically, when the docs have been attempting to drive her down within the mattress and tighten the corset much more. If we used a corset that tightened up the again, then her face would’ve been down within the mattress. And we wouldn’t have had the chance to look at Lily’s trance.
Costumes additionally come to symbolize a way of liberation, particularly when the movie leans into eroticism.
Conversations round these [themes and scenes] begin early as a result of I attempt to flag issues that I feel could be doubtlessly problematic in capturing. For instance, when Ellen and Orlok come collectively in the long run, she’s sporting an advanced multi-layered wedding ceremony outfit and all the foundational items. And Orlok is sporting plenty of clothes. After we see them come collectively, that silhouette of the bride and the groom is essential. And so I’m going by means of the script with all the different components of prep and deal with these issues.
And it’s not a lot that she’s liberated. However her true nature [takes over] in the long run. She liberates herself by ripping herself open, ripping her striped costume open. She liberates herself by sporting the identical garment over and time and again when she’s staying at Harding’s residence. So she’s liberated herself in that she doesn’t really feel the necessity to costume up fully every day. After which she liberates herself fully in the long run. And her thoughts is mirrored within the alternative of colours, patterns, and the boldness, as an illustration, of the stripe costume in comparison with the fragile and demure flowers on the very starting; the stark and bleak black of the morning outfit, in opposition to, say, the pale lilac night costume that she wears in the beginning, or the white wedding ceremony costume that she wears. In order that was part of the pondering, the transition of colours.
How did you collaborate with Lily-Rose Depp by means of these layers of particulars? She is actually terrific.
She was implausible. She at all times wished to know what can be correct and work inside these restrictions, believing that it could inform her portrayal of a lady at that interval. I actually admire that because it’s not at all times the case. Actors don’t at all times embrace these sorts of difficulties so willingly. As an illustration, when she and Hutter are making love on the sofa, she would ask, “How would this occur with the issues that I’m and he’s sporting?” And so I’d discuss her by means of it. We don’t see it, however when each of the actors have that data of their minds, [that makes it work]. The scene the place Lily-Rose is out of the wheelchair, down within the mud and convulsing and communing with Orlok and grinding her palms into the mud, these moments with the costuming have to be plotted [alongside Lily-Rose]. Like, [how will we have] separation between her and the sand [when she is] on the shore? Therefore, we used a inexperienced scarf.
I’m so glad you talked about that inexperienced scarf; what a stunning shade of inexperienced that’s.
Simply to offer you a sign of how a lot work we did on this movie: You’ll assume, “How tough may it’s to discover a scarf that may approximate a scarf from 1838?” Nicely, it’s fairly tough! That was two shawls sewn collectively, and we created the perimeter that’s all the way in which round it. There are only a few issues within the movie that haven’t been both made particularly for that picture or that second or altered. I had a pal at one of many screenings and he or she went, “Oh my God, the kids’s nightcaps!” And I mentioned, “Yeah, too cozy, two components!” You’re taking it aside, and you’ve got two nightcaps.
You’ve talked about earlier that you simply couldn’t have discovered or afforded a few of the particular materials of the period. What have been a few of the knowledgeable compromises that you simply needed to make for supplies?
Buttons, as an illustration, on Orlok’s mente, the very massive overcoat that he wears. We regarded and regarded and couldn’t discover something that even remotely evoked the form of wealth I used to be seeing in images of museum items. And we ended up making all the buttons that you simply see — very positive gold thread, and they’re embroidered. They’re all drawn up into that form, and weighted in order that they’ve a heft and luxe look to them. As for the materials, his mente is silk-cotton-chenille. And the tunic that he wears beneath is silk velvet with gold lace overlay. However then we took it down a lot, we simply pressured these materials to offer the impression of a corpse of 300 years. The floor of all of these textiles had a lot work carried out to vary the way in which that it learn on digicam — you already know, considerably lining it with fur, which gave it an enormous heft. I additionally tried to seek out textiles that had gold threads in them with the intention to replicate the sunshine, as a result of I knew Jarin [Blaschke, cinematographer] was utilizing very low mild ranges.
Do you will have an overarching precept about costuming? I bear in mind Ann Roth as soon as instructed me she usually want to see one thing just a bit off or misplaced when costuming a personality. I feel it needed to do with authenticity. Do you will have any particulars like that?
I don’t have a strict notion. However, as an illustration, if clothes are purported to look handmade, work out what you possibly can [get away with] machine-stitching. And the way a lot of every of these clothes wants to truly be handmade to ensure that them to fall within the appropriate method, so an viewers that’s used to dressing in 2024 can go, “I don’t appear like that once I look within the mirror. My clothes doesn’t appear like that when it’s over the again of a chair.” Usually, I don’t need to make every character appear like a style plate. I attempt to have every character learn as an individual.
Any explicit costumes you’re most happy with?
It’s like selecting your favourite youngster. I really like all of them. There have been positively costumes that have been way more difficult. Orlok’s costuming fo,r occasion: He has one costume. It’s meant to evoke a lot. He was meant to appear like a Transylvanian rely from about 1580. It was as much as me to seek out out what the clothes that comprise that outfit are, what they’d be made out of, what kinds of textiles, equipment, and so forth.
I feel had I not had Robert main that journey of discovery, I in all probability would’ve been way more freaked out in regards to the notion of designing such an iconic character. So I’m actually happy with Orlok — it’s a profitable factor to the movie for positive. It was actually beautiful being on set, being continually transported and feeling like, “Wow, it does really feel like I’ve been shot again in time!”