Given that she’s just designed Mary & George, I thought it was time to look at the resume of British designer Annie Symons. She told the BBC, “I think it’s [costume design] been hardwired in me since I was tiny. I started making costumes for my dolls from watching BBC dramas. I remember watching Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R and being completely amazed. Then I started making clothes for school plays and working in the local theatre. I couldn’t quite believe that if you drew something it could then become three-dimensional and real.” She got her start in film working with Sandy Powell (on Caravaggio and Orlando), then started working as lead designer on the following:
Anchoress (1993)
“In the 14th century, a visionary girl is to become an Anchoress, a walled-in recluse, so that she can live in the Virgin’s house forever. Over time she awakens to her own sensuality and explores her own female, earth-based spirituality,” per IMDB. With Christopher Eccleston.
Pandaemonium (2000)
A really not-great film about the early lives of English poets Samuel Coleridge (Linus Roache) and William Wordsworth (John Hannah).
Doctor Zhivago (2002)
A TV adaptation of the Russian Revolution-set novel, starring Keira Knightley, Hans Matheson, and Sam Neill.
Sweeney Todd (2006)
A BBC TV adaptation about the 18th century “demon barber”; can’t tell if this one was a musical? Starring Ray Winstone, Essie Davis, and Tom Hardy.
Capturing Mary (2007)
“A young man ushers an older woman into a dark exploration of her past – back to the time when, as a young girl, she met a stranger who affected her life forever,” per IMDB. It looks like that past was the 1960s? With Maggie Smith, Ruth Wilson, and Gemma Arterton.
Crusoe (2008-09)
An American TV adaptation of the early-18th-century castaway novel, with Sam Neill and Sean Bean.
Glorious 39 (2009)
Family secrets are revealed as World War II begins. With Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, and Juno Temple and so many others!
The Crimson Petal & the White (2011)
Set in 1870s London, a prostitute (Romola Garai) becomes enmeshed in an upper middle class family. According to the Daily Telegraph,
“All period-costume cliches have been banned. The prostitutes wear bruised colours: purples, yellows, greens, blues. ‘Nothing jolly, pretty or decorative,’ Annie Symons, the costume designer, points out. She has flouted history by adding a ferret-fur stole here, a feather hair clip there. Sugar’s ‘arch whore’ dress is trimmed with fake human hair from Shepherd’s Bush market. ‘I just wanted to feed into the corporeality,’ Symons explains. ‘Make it quite animal and sexual.’ Her chief inspirations were Alexander McQueen, Max Ernst, A Clockwork Orange and Gangs of New York, not historical sources in museum archives” (Williams, Sally. “Sugar and Spice; Debauchery and Deception in Victorian London Forms the Background to a New Mini-Series Based on the Bestselling Book The Crimson Petal and the White”).
Great Expectations (2011)
Yet Another Adaptation of the Dickens classic, this one with Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham. Symons told The Telegraph,
“We’ve got about eight versions of her dress as it decays through the film” (Mud, dust and Dickens: Great Expectations at BBC One).
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV pt. 1, Henry IV pt. 2, Henry V (2012)
The recent spate of BBC Shakespeare adaptations. They were, of course, looking for “modern parallels”; Symons said of her inspiration:
“I looked at football hooligans, the way they move and wear colours. We thought about war as sport – which it definitively was in the age of chivalry. We decided they were football teams. I chose dark congealed bloods for England and beautiful blues, whites and golds for France” (On the small screen, this Bard has bite).
There’s also a nice interview with Symons on the BBC Blogs, where she talks about her background, the theatrical approach to this production, dealing with mud, and more:
“I’m interested in colours and concepts and literally the big picture and how it all fits together” (Henry IV and Henry V: Q&A with the costume designer).
Da Vinci’s Demons (2013)
A TV series about a young Leonardo da Vinci. I’m frankly shocked that Symons worked on this, given how crappy the costumes looked, but here’s some of her thoughts:
“It’s reinventing the Renaissance — it’s a bit of a designer’s dream. We are trying to give our own twist on it. It’s trying to make it quite contemporary and to make the clothes wearable” (Award-winning annie’s life of costume drama. South Wales Evening Post. Oct 10 2012).
Actress Lara Pulver: “Our costume designer, Annie Symons, says her aim is to make women tune in to Da Vinci’s Demons and say, ‘I want to dress like that.’ Clarice has been compared to a Renaissance version of Jackie Kennedy, and that’s reflected in her beautiful garb [right]. Annie’s not averse to ripping off the arm of one of Clarice’s dresses to give it that unique look!” (ON SET WITH…lara pulver. Daily Mail. Apr 20 2013).
“The [directive] was to contemporize it and make people look sexy. I looked at many sources, some of whom were contemporary fashion designers, and tried to make a synthesis of shapes that remained loyal to the period, but also flattered and redefined history” (Renaissance Fashion: Q&A with Da Vinci’s Demons Costume Designer Annie Symons).
“I rarely do straight narrative period, although I don’t eschew it because it has a discipline and can open up ways of thinking in itself. I always like to find the rules — whatever they are — and then bend them to fit the narrative. It’s a puzzle, an unholy synthesis. And the joy is when it works with the narrative and you have reinvented the past and arrived at a visual metaphor for the script… Of course, Symons — who is a trained artist — looked at Renaissance paintings but mostly for the rich vibrant colors she used. To engage a young audience, Symons drew inspiration from modern designers” (‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ Designer Annie Symons Turns the Original Renaissance Man Into a Rock Star).
Dracula (2013-14)
A very modernized TV adaptation of the vampire story, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
“In re-imagining the look of pop culture’s most enduring undead, Symons referenced fashion plates and magazines from several eras in shaping her vision. Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, and Yves Saint Laurent are among her biggest inspirations. ‘When you look at the 1890s, which is when the story is set, the shapes are extreme. They border on the grotesque,’ Symons explains of the difficulty in filming more authentic costumes. ‘So I looked at the essence of those shapes and their closest fit and it seemed to be the 1940s. I played around with scale and silhouettes, and somewhere between the two got Dracula’) (New TV dramas dress up with haute historical looks).
Actress Katie McGrath (Lucy Westenra): “Annie Symons, our costume designer, is unbelievable. She’s got these great ideas where one person is going to be Alexander McQueen and one person is going to be Gucci and I’m going to be Christian Lacroix, which is completely crazy” (“Q&A: 60 SECONDS WITH THE STAR OF DRACULA.” Herald. Glasgow [UK], 2014).
“Taking inspiration from and classic Renaissance dress, she [Symons] used caged-bird and feather motifs with one of Laura’s costumes festooned with two-thousand chicken feathers. [Actress Laura Haddock:] ‘I loved working with Annie. Because Da Vinci was so ahead of his time she wanted the fashion to be really forward-thinking and metaphorical. In one scene I had really thick leather caging wrapped around my waist so I could physically experience how suffocated Lucrezia felt'” (Meet the star of your new TV obsession).
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014)
“During WWII, the London bombings force two schoolteachers to evacuate a group of children to the coastal village of Crythin Gifford. When the refugees take shelter at Eel Marsh House, one teacher, Eve Parkins, soon realizes they are not alone,” per Wikipedia.
Knifeman (2014)
A TV movie that, per IMDB, is “Set in 18th century London, Knifeman will focus on the untold story of a charming, arrogant, decorum-breaking genius who challenges societal norms to transform his visions into cutting-edge discoveries.” With Tom Hollander.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Yet Another modernized adaptation of the King Arthur legend.
“In this situation, Gemma Jackson and Annie Symons, who are responsible for the buildings and costumes of ‘King Arthur’, decided to simply make everything bigger and more colorful than we know it… And they put their kings, queens and peasant actors in robes that would make the real Middle Ages green with envy. The make-up artists did the rest to adapt the faces of the story to our ideas of a knightly world influenced by Tolkien and Burne-Jones. Anyone wondering where they’ve seen the elfin faces and hair of the Maidens of Camelot need only go to the Nazarene section of the local art museum. Or get the Blu-ray of ‘Lord of the Rings” off the shelf'” (bad Google translate of Vor Camelot hilft euch kein Pixelgott).
The Terror (2018)
The TV series that takes a supernatural approach to the lost Arctic expedition of the 1840s. With Ciarán Hinds, Tobias Menzies, and Jared Harris.
The Dark Tower (2020)
A TV movie that seems to be a scifi Western?
Benediction (2021)
Based on a true story about World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon.
My Policeman (2022)
Trystan’s summary: “The story opens in the 1990s-ish and flashes back to 1957, when a new teacher, Marion (Emma Corrin), meets a young policeman, Tom (Harry Styles). They begin a tentative romance, into which steps a museum curator Patrick (David Dawson). Soon enough, Tom asks Marion to marry him, but what she doesn’t know, and won’t know until many years later, is that Tom and Patrick had already been carrying on a romantic and sexual relationship. The two men continue this despite Tom’s marriage, and, of course, things go badly.”
“To make sure the outfits were period-appropriate, Symons consulted old Pathe newsreels, as well as her family photos and those of Michael Grandage, the film’s director” (Dressing Harry Styles: How ‘My Policeman’ Costume Designer Annie Symons Created Swimsuits and Bobby Outfits for the Star).
“I wanted to reflect a sort of innocent joy, I suppose, in the colors, but also remind the audience — which is what you do with costume: you signify things about character and period — that we’re really still in a different period” (How ‘My Policeman’ costume designer Annie Symons created that perfectly tailored police uniform for Harry Styles).
Mary & George (2024)
The Julianne Moore-starring, early 17th century-set Starz TV series about the affair between James VI / I and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
“Costumier Annie Symons and her team would literally construct Moore’s fur-lined gowns and embroidered bodices around her body” (‘Fingers crossed’: For Julianne Moore, the old fear remains).
Which of Annie Symons’ designs are your favorite?
