Costume Designer Charlotte Walter: the Frock Flicks Guide

For a costume designer whose name I didn’t initially recognize, I’m shocked at just how many frock flicks Charlotte Walter has designed for AND that we’ve reviewed! Unfortunately there’s not a lot of biographical information available for this British designer, who won a BAFTA award for her work on Birdsong and was nominated for This is England ’86. So let’s just get straight to her work, which includes the currently-in-production Pride and Prejudice:

 

Demob (1993)

“A comedy drama … [about] two soldiers looking to continue their cabaret act after the end of the war” (IMDB).

 

Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes (season 2, 2001)

Walter designed four episodes of this detective TV series.

 

I Capture the Castle (2003)

A feature film adaptation of a FABULOUS novel, about two sisters in 1930s England, one of which is an intelligent budding writer. They live with their quirky family in a dilapidated castle, but plot thickens when two American brothers arrive to take possession of the local landowner’s mansion.

 

Cambridge Spies (2003)

A TV miniseries about university students who are recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in 1930s England.

 

Tristram Shandy (2005)

A modern director attempts to film an adaptation of an “essentially unadaptable” 18th-century novel.

 

Lassie (2005)

Lassie’s (the famous canine character) family is financially desperate and have to sell her, but Lassie goes to find them … (I can never watch this, I would sob).

 

Affinity (2008)

An adaptation of a Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith) novel, set in a late 19th-century prison, where an upper-class woman becomes involved with a psychic medium.

 

Easy Virtue (2008)

A cute adaptation of a 1920s Noel Coward comedy play.

 

The Turn of the Screw (2009)

An adaptation of the Henry James ghost novel, but reset in the 1910s.

 

The Road to Coronation Street (2010)

A TV movie about the development of the pivotal British soap opera, which started in 1960.

 

Birdsong (2012)

A couple falls in love, but when he enlists in World War II, crap happens.

“Walter applied such volumes of fake gore to the outfits that, ‘I had so much blood under my fingernails I looked like a mass murderer’… Walter also located an original, officer-style greatcoat from Burberry, and was granted access to its archives – a process eased by the fact that [Eddie] Redmayne has modelled for the brand. Advised by military experts, Walter and her small team also created their own regimental insignia, to avoid any criticism from First World War experts and to be sensitive to veterans’ groups” (Putting on a brave front: Behind the scenes of the BBC’s epic adaptation of ‘Birdsong’).

“We couldn’t find enough uniforms in London – and so decided to make them in Poland. Charlotte Walter the costume designer tracked down a company using looms that made exactly the same cloth the original uniforms, and under the watchful eye of the curator of costumes at the Imperial War Museum, Martin Boswell” (Birdsong: Interview with the director).

 

The Scapegoat (2012)

“Set in 1952, as England prepares for the coronation, this movie tells the story of two very different men who have one thing in common — a face” (IMDB).

 

Churchill’s Secret (2016)

Winston Churchill’s stroke and recovery in 1953.

 

Their Finest (2016)

British filmmakers create a propaganda film during World War II/the Blitz.

“I have a collection of 40s knitting patterns I’ve collected for years. If I see one on sale I’ll always buy it. I’ve always loved knitwear — my grandmothers were amazing knitters (probably because of the war). They taught me how to knit when I was very young, probably about 8, and since then I’ve always been fascinated by knitwear… In the UK, we have something called the Women’s Institute. It was started during the First World War to encourage women to get involved in the war effort: growing, preserving food, knitting, sewing, etc. These ladies have been knitting for years and years… I’d buy wool and give it, along with a specific 40s pattern, to my knitters. In my hometown of Worcestershire, many elderly women are still members of this organization — they’re incredibly skillful with their hands!” (How ‘Their Finest’ Costume Designer Charlotte Walter Brought 1940s Britain to Life).

 

Breathe (2017)

Based on a true story of a British man who was paralyzed from the neck down by polio (see why vaccines are a good thing??) in the late 1950s.

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

“In the aftermath of World War II, a writer forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war” (IMDB).

“Costume designer Charlotte Walter‘s attention to detail included having items hand knitted from original 1940s patterns created by members of her local Women’s Institute group, original Land Girl jeans for Lily to wear on Dawsey’s farm and the stunning yellow silk gown in which she swishes down the steps at a ball at the London Embassy” (Lily’s love island: James’s latest film is an uplifting love story in Nazi-occupied Guernsey – and her performance was inspired by her grandmother’s own traumatic past).

 

Red Joan (2018)

It’s revealed that a contemporary woman spied for the Soviets in 1940s Britain, and the film goes back and forth between her as an elderly and young woman.

 

Misbehaviour (2020)

A group of British feminists plot to disrupt the 1970 Miss World beauty contest.

“What I loved about Charlotte’s work is that she always thinks about how real it should be. How can we make this most authentic and the most real it could possibly be while maintaining the wit and humour and fun and the sort of vivid nature of those clothes. So she really was going for authenticity and I think that’s what’s so lovely about her work. They feel like clothes, they don’t feel like costumes. And then when it came to the actual event, the actual Miss World, she copied the actual costumes that the girls wore and had them made. She actually went for real realism during that time” (Keeping it real:Philippa Lowthorpe on Charlotte Walter’s costumes and Greg Kinnear’s Bob Hope in Misbehaviour).

 

Blithe Spirit (2020)

Another Noel Coward comedy play adaptation, this one from the 1930s and involving a ghost.

 

Belfast (2021)

A dramatized take on Kenneth Branagh’s childhood in 1969 Northern Ireland.

“I wanted to use as many original clothes as possible… The fabric of the original clothes was very particular. It was a time when manmade fibers were just starting to be popular. Because they were not natural, they had a sort of three-dimensional feel to them. They were quite harsh in a way… We would use the same skirt twice and give her two different blouses, to make it interchangeable, like a real wardrobe… They would get ideas from reading a magazine or going to the cinema. They wanted to dress slightly like the people they saw in films, but obviously within their boundaries of what they could afford” (Particular Fabrics: Belfast Costume Designer Charlotte Walter).

“Because of what was going on, there are a lot of photographs from that period I could find online. Belfast was remarkably well photographed in the late 60s. There are amazing photographs of everyday life, as well as soldiers in the streets. I remember some remarkable shots of kids in jumpers, shorts, and shoes with holes in them talking to uniformed soldiers” (Caitríona Balfe and Judi Dench Wear Their Hearts in Belfast).

 

Wicked Little Letters (2023)

Based on a true story, in which a 1920 British woman becomes the target of hate mail. It’s a dark comedy!

 

Pride and Prejudice (upcoming)

Do We Need Another Adaptation of the Jane Austen Classic Please Discuss.

 

Which are your favorite of Charlotte Walter’s many historical design works?