Milena Canonero: The Frock Flicks Guide

Milena Canonero — if you recognize the name, it’s probably for her costume design work on Marie Antoinette (2006) or The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). But did you know this incredibly talented Italian-born designer, who got her start working with Stanley Kubrick, is also the genius behind such films as Barry Lyndon (1975), Out of Africa (1985), and The Affair of the Necklace (2001)? Canonero has designed a number of really quite fabulous period films, and I thought it was time to give her work a shout-out!

Let’s take a look at all of Canonero’s films, with some quotes by (or occasionally about) the designer and her work:

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Awards: won the Academy Award (co-designer with Ulla-Britt Söderlund) for Best Costume Design.

“Stanley prepared the look of Barry Lyndon through selections of painters of the time. I did not go for an academic look, nor the realistic look that could have come by looking at Hogarth’s work, so well rendered in [Tony Richardson’s 1963 costume drama] Tom Jones. Stanley [wanted] a romantic and elegant view of the period. So we went for other inspirational painters” (Pavel Barter, “An Awfully Big Adventure: Kubrick’s masterful Barry Lyndon was a dramatic experience in more ways than one,” Sunday Times, 03 May 2009).

Chariots of Fire (1981)

Awards: won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

“Part of our contribution is to give the actors — whether principals or crowds of 500 extras — a feeling of authenticity, down to the last detail” (When the Mood Strikes).

The Cotton Club (1984)

“It wasn’t the most difficult film I’ve worked on, but it was the most crazy. We had this extensive panoramic draft of a script, and one-liners gave an indication of lots of possible scenes that could be developed…. In some films, especially in America, you may have some very good actor or actress who decides to do period films, but they keep their own look… It just upsets the whole thing. You might as well go home and give up… We tried to give [director] Francis [Ford Coppola] the right look, for the crowd as well as for the principals, so if he felt like pointing the camera in any direction, he could” (Lorna Koski, “Canonero on The Cotton Club,” WWD, 20 Nov 1984).

Out of Africa (1985)

Awards: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

“Once I’ve done my research, I go into what each character should wear. For a period movie where period clothes exist, you try to combine real things with things you design and make. The real thing, you can never make it as good as that’ (Milena Canonero: Fashion On and Off the Big Screen).’

Tucker: The Man & His Dream (1988)

Awards: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Dick Tracy (1990)

Awards: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

“Left to her own devices, Oscar-winning Canonero, a stickler for period accuracy, would have styled Madonna’s hair like Jean Harlow’s. ‘I would have preferred the hair less curly with finger waves instead, and have it coming over the eyes… But Warren thought that was too sophisticated” (Kathleen Boyes, “The Scene: Milena Does Madonna,” WWD, 4 June 1990).

The Bachelor (1990)

Titus (1999)

Awards: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

“[Director] Julie [Taymor] wanted to make a movie where there were no specific, direct references to a period, but to create a world unto itself… There are longago, faraway references like Roman and Etruscan, and also fairly recent references, like the wartime 1930s and 40s. That gives a symbolic relevance to the violence and revenge, makes it more eternal. Also, her vision is very witty, and we tried to get that across with the look of the movie” (John Calhoun, “Taymor Tackles Titus,” Entertainment Design, March 2000).

The Affair of the Necklace (2001)

Awards: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Canonero wanted the costumes to be “elegant and simple, rather than historical-hysterical… [Jeanne’s transformation is] subtle-it’s not that she’s in rags and then in silk. And we’re not all of a sudden going to put her in a white wig with a bird in her hair…The cut and the silhouette has to be 100% accurate; I never compromise on that” (John Calhoun, “Versailles Vivant: Milena Canonero Dresses Up an Elegant ‘Necklace,'” Entertainment Design, Jan 2002).

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Awards: nominated for Period Film, Costume Designers Guild; won the Academy Award.

“Sofia [Coppola] didn’t want the film to have the expected look of the period. This is not a classic vision of Marie Antoinette, but Sofia’s personal vision of her. The film is a very modern look at her inner experience and therefore, the costumes had to respect that kind of language. We took the essence of how things were and stylized them. It’s more of a fashion statement. At times, it was very rock and roll” (Brian Russak, “Fit for a Queen,” Footwear News, 9 Oct 2006).

I Vicerè (2007)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Awards: won for Period Film, Costume Designers Guild; won the Academy Award.

“[Canonero] collaborated with the fashion house of Prada on many of the costumes and although her hotel staff uniforms depicted the 1930s period, Canonero traded the look of the typical colors of the hospitality industry-various shades of grey … to the more vivid shades of purple and mauve” (Get to Know Costume Designer of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel,’ Milena Canonero).

Which film features your favorite of Canonero’s designs?