In Poor Things, Holly Waddington’s Costume Designs Signal Sexual Liberation
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film Poor Things — based on the book by Alasdair Gray — audiences are expecting a certain level of comedy with a dark twist. The plot alone speaks for itself: a young, Victorian woman, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), kills herself and a scientist (Willem Dafoe as Dr. Godwin Baxter) brings her back to life with a catch: Dr. Baxter replaces her brain with that of an infant.
Bella’s mind evolves in the film but in the body of a grown woman. Laughter and adventure ensue, as well as her own sexual liberation. So it should come as no surprise that the costumes would follow suit: Holly Waddington brought her distinct touches of fantasy and experience which added a dynamic element to the visual storytelling of Poor Things, especially as Bella’s brain develops.
Her designs — bold silhouettes and rich textures stand out in scenes made up of remarkable set design — have caught the eyes of cultural institutions on both sides of the Atlantic: recently, FIDM Museum in Los Angeles exhibited her costumes in their galleries, and currently at the Barbican in London, visitors have a chance to see a curated selection in real life. I recently chatted with Waddington via Zoom to hear about how she pulled off an irresistible, tactile wardrobe and what it was like working with Emma Stone.
How much input did Yorgos Lanthimos contribute to the costume process? How much creative freedom did you have?
Holly Waddingham: I had loads of creative freedom. I think Yorgos is somebody who allows a lot of freedom to his collaborators. At the same time, he’s present to guide the process. It’s something like, you give lots of ideas and thoughts and images and drawings and he kind of works through it and guides the process. He’s very present in the process but not demonstrative.
Did you sketch your own drawings and designs?
I do all my own drawings and draw up my own costume designs. There’s a lot of inspiration that feeds them. So I looked a lot at 19th Century dress: I looked at a lot of paintings, fashion plates from the period. I also looked at 20th Century fashion. Painting references: John Singer Sergeant, German expressionism. I looked at lots of images of seashells. sci-fi fashion like 1960s space age fashion designers like Andre Courrèges and Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin. Lots of stuff pinned up on boards and me assimilating this information through a process of trying to create something that’s both historical, not too historical, sci-fi not too sci fi and a bit modern.
How was this costume design experience compared to the other projects you’ve worked on?
I think other projects have required me to be more precise about describing a period or a place. Other things I’ve worked on - like a film about Abraham Lincoln, I wasn’t the lead designer but I was the assistant designer - it has the tell the story of Abraham Lincoln so you’re going to look at pictures and be precise in your choices to try and recreate a world almost as it was in a photograph. That’s how a lot of film costumes are because we’re often trying to transport the audience into a particular time and place. Working with Yorgos is much more about working for an opera or theatre piece. He’s not so concerned with describing an exact time and place. For a project like this, it was like creating a world.
Could you describe the one costume that reveals the most about Bella and her character development?
There’s a costume that she wears when she goes off to Lisbon with Duncan (played by Mark Ruffalo), she is no longer dressed by a maid so she has to put the clothes together herself. Mrs. Prim [the maid played by Vicki Pepperdine] has dressed her to go off to Lisbon in a blue travelling costume with a jacket and a skirt and little ruffly bodice which is like a proper, complete look. When she gets to Lisbon, they have a siesta: they go off to the bedroom and they basically spend the afternoon having sex and then when she goes off on her own — he’s sleeping — she comes out into Lisbon on her own. She doesn’t put the skirt back on. She’s wearing shorts, knickers basically, and then this big blue jacket. It’s a key look in the film.
How did the colour palette evolve with Bella’s costumes?
It’s more about me putting in her colours that work for what’s going on in the scene. In the beginning of the film it’s black and white. The film is shot in black and white and it’s not about colour, it’s more about the texture. The textures at the beginning of the film are all childlike. She wears seersucker and quilting. Then she steps out into Lisbon and it’s this glorious technicolour: The colours there are joyful and light, and happy. We see her in a series of yellows and the yellows get more complex as she evolves and less kind of soft — they become a bit more acerbic. They’re very strident with this black hair she has. The yellows become a bit more striking.
The colours become a bit more subdued at the end of the film. She decides to become a medical student and becomes less of a beacon. Everything’s more internalised; I wanted her to be more inconspicuous.
Bella’s wardrobe feels tactile: the ruffles, the condom coat, the voluminous power sleeves and shoulders. What attracted you to these silhouettes? How much did Bella’s sexuality come into play?
At its core, it’s about this reanimated woman. It’s about her evolution. Sex is a huge part of it because she discovers her sexuality without having had the years of being in the world that could add the layers of shame or guilt or all the things that most people acquire before they start having sex or their feelings towards sex. There’s this absolute freedom to her.
In all of my choices, I wanted to bring about a sense of the organic and bodily. Everything I designed for her, I was thinking of skin folds and textures — for the clothes to feel sensual and curvaceous and bodily or of the body. In the brothel, I used a lot of skin tones. A celebration of the body in the ruffles. Often the cuts of these blouses: they have a lot of pleats in the centre front and then they have these big folded areas to me that felt very vagina-like, like Georgia O’Keefe paintings. Very sexual and bodily.
What was important for you to communicate about Bella Baxter through the costumes?
Everything I’m doing is about trying to tell the story. It’s more about how I’m trying to tell the story of this woman: This child in a woman’s body evolving and experiencing the world. There’s an inherent sense of freedom and liberation in the costumes. That was important because Bella is unashamed. She’s a very free person and liberated. I hope that comes through in the choices I made in the way that the clothes are put together and in the fabrics I chose.
Finally, could you describe how Emma Stone as Bella influenced the costumes? How much of a role did she play in contributing to your vision of costumes for her?
Emma Stone brings a lot to the costumes. She’s a creative, bold person. As long as the idea works for her, she will embody it fully. I knew I could ask quite a lot of her with what I was asking her to wear because she’s so creative — not at all vain and or concerned with ‘Emma Stone’ and how she appears to the world.
Words: Sabrina Cooper