I don’t know if Wonka (2023) fully qualifies as a frock flick since no historical period is specified within the movie. But this is a prequel to the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) movie, both of which are vaguely set in the 1960s. That’d make this movie’s time period about 20 years earlier, so 1940s, and it fits our mandate. Also, I’m a Timothée Chalamet fan and wanted to watch and review this flick. My blog, my rules!
This is a deeply silly movie, a frothy confection that makes little sense. There are songs, though it’s not quite a musical, and the overall tone is of a children’s movie, but it’s somehow rated PG. And let’s never speak of Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa, it’s too incredibly weird (not his worst role, we’ve covered those already, just weird).
But because this is a movie about a candy maker and it’s set in Roald Dahl’s world, the costumes and production design are fantastic eye candy, pun intended. Costume designer Lindy Hemming told the Motion Picture Association about the work that went into this film:
“Everything on a principle character was made by us. It was all drawn beforehand, and a lot of the costumes were drawn before we knew who the actors were. Then, there was a lot of embroidery that happened. Breaking down, dying, and printing the fabrics that went into costumes like Wonka’s coat. It was either made by tailors, dressmakers, or knitted by knitters. Even the props … the rings and watches they wore were made by us. It was a big exercise in design and having the ability, thanks to the producers, to have a team that could do many different disciplines. So I have to sing praises to the technicians on the film: the knitters, embroiderers, hat makers, dyers, and fabric makers.”
Let’s start with Wonka’s outfit, which consists of a reddish coat, striped trousers, colorful waistcoat, battered top hat, and an an array of patterned scarves. Hemming described the coat in this interview:
“We opted for a pink cherry hue through meticulous dyeing, wanting a color that was not quite red but more of a pink cherry shade. I personally loved it. The requirement was not to make it look too period because then he would end up looking like Darcy or somebody. Timothée is so physical; there had to be enough weight to it so that it would fly. The fabric needed enough weight for movement but not too much to avoid it becoming fluffy.”
And she praised her team for finding material for Wonka’s scarves:
“They discovered some fantastic fabrics, but one of the best finds was a piece he wears often, adorned with stars and lightning bolts He wears it quite frequently, and it happens to be an old piece from Liberties of London, a renowned fabric shop. It was a fantastic find in Wembley, where they were selling off old pieces of various designer fabrics. This particular bolt of fabric, with its magic symbols, had ended up there. It became one of his primary scarves, adding a touch of enchantment to his look.”
Olivia Colman is great fun playing a baddie Mrs. Scrubbit, and her costumes make her look perfectly awful. According to The Telegraph, the costume designer’s research included newspaper articles about “eccentric characters” from the 1930s, and Mrs. Scrubbit fits the bill. In the MPA interview, Hemming said:
“Nearly everything she wears, about 99 percent, was made from scratch. We hand-knitted or hand-printed almost everything. Our printer worked on fabulous 1930s-style dress fabrics but in unconventional colors like lilacs and acid greens. After making everything, we washed and dipped the costumes to make them look aged … People often think of costume design as period costumes with bustles and silk, but my favorites are the hyper-real, ordinary people’s costumes like Olivia Colman’s. I truly loved her costumes.”
Wonka has a kid sidekick, Noodle (Calah Lane), who has her own complicated backstory, and her costumes are rather ragamuffin because of it. There’s a bunch of other characters, and they’re all dressed appropriate to their situations, but I had the best time looking at the crowd scenes.
The bad guys are color-coded in mustard yellow, navy blue, and hunter green.
Just look at all the hats on the townspeople!
Have you seen Wonka?
I haven’t seen this yet, but you reminded me I want to!
I took my son to see this and didn’t expect much. It was so much fun! And such great visuals. Thanks for doing a post about it. So interesting that they handmade lots of the costumes.