They’re the work of British costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux, who is no stranger to meticulously-crafted period pieces, having previously won an Emmy for The Lost Prince and dressed Carey Mulligan in ’60s shifts for An Education and Saoirse Ronan in ’50s tea dresses for Brooklyn. Following Last Night in Soho’s release in theaters, she speaks to us about her favorite looks, working with designer Phoebe English to create a fictional student fashion show, and her ’60s muses, from Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton to Brigitte Bardot.
It’s brilliant when a director does that, because you really get to know what they want from their film. I watched [the 1965 Julie Christie film] Darling, [the 1960 cult classic] Beat Girl, all of these documentaries, and then films from the ’70s that I’d never seen before because ray ban bleu I don’t really watch horror movies. I’m too frightened [laughs]. So, initially, I was asked to read the script, had an interview with Edgar—we discovered that we both lived in Soho and could walk to work—and started doing the research. Edgar really likes detail and he puts little clues [into his films]. I was looking for things that would reflect back onto each other.
There are so many memorable looks in the film, from the newspaper dress Thomasin McKenzie’s character Eloise wears to the peach-colored dress Anya Taylor-Joy’s character Sandie dances in. Can you talk us through them?
I had a maker who made all the bespoke costumes. We started off with the newspaper dress. It was all about the silhouette, and rather than going for something more dramatic, like a fishtail look, we went for something more open that allowed her to move. ray ban aviator And the peach dress had to inspire [Eloise]. Most of the dresses from that period were just straight shifts, but I wanted something chiffon-y that moved beautifully. I also wondered where she’d have gotten a dress that’s so glamorous. She’s not a woman of means. Most people [at that time] made their own clothes with paper patterns, so I used those as references. Then there was a red dress which needed to be shorter to say that we were going from 1965 towards 1968. The pattern for it was a Nina Ricci pattern. We tried to make it look a bit more couture.