Role of Fashion In The Movie
The movie was based on 1937 murder mystery by Agatha Christie, which revolves around a series of murders on board an Egyptian steamer known as The Karnak direct by Kenneth Branagh.
Costume designer of this film, Paco Delgado is a Spanish-born designer with two Oscar nominations under his belt. He was the man behind the costumes in movies such as “Les Misérables” and “The Danish Girl”.
Fashion was very important part of this story, there was an intention to show the development of the film’s characters through their clothes.
A major source of inspiration for the looks have been The Vogue archives from that period when the magazine ran dedicated issues on cruise fashions each year.
The film has 14 main characters, each of whom had about 10 – 12 looks for the film. These characters have the ’30s jet set lifestyle. Going on a holiday cruise down the Nile meant wearing new outfit for breakfast, lunch, and an evening dinner or ball
Fashion was really happening in 30s, compared to conservative 40s influenced by tragedies of war and economic downfall.
The fabrics and drapes have been curated to reflect the vibes of 30s. Despite being very realistic to the fashion of the times, the costumes had a contemporary approach to them.
There was a total of 150 looks in the film, which required thorough planning to make sure they all look harmoniously as characters appear together on the screen.
There were some hidden messages delivered via the costumes linked to the story plot. One of them is the color palette:
the film begins with the entire cast in a light palette that gradually darkens as Christie’s mystery becomes more and more intense. By the close of the movie everyone is dressed in black/ navy
Linnet Doyle
When costume designer Paco Delgado was creating Gal Gadot’s look as the heiress Linnet Ridgeway Doyle he played with the concept of wealth touched by vulnerability.
She is a wealthy and attractive woman who on the surface has everything. She’s powerful, but she’s also insecure. The guests of her wedding celebrations seem friendly on first sight, but she doesn’t truly trust anyone. She feels like everyone is looking into taking advantage of her money. There is also the envy and rivalry along with greed, that can be sensed in different scenes.
Paco Delgado showed a fair amount of fragility through her costumes. He incorporated soft, pale colors like cream, powder and peach and flowing silks into Linnet’s wardrobe.
Pastel colors weren’t the only fashion clue that was featuring Linnet Doyle. While the other characters are dressed in suitable sightseeing attire such as linen and sun hats, Delgado puts Linnet in a flowing off-white silk dress that features her as completely flawless and nearly perfect.
Hair stylist Wakana Yoshihara has chosen hairstyles reflecting vintage glamour and put her ahead of time. The hairstyles also showed her as young and fashionable woman, trendsetter of her times. The hairstyle trends moved towards the longer side at the beginning of the 40s and Gal Gadot’s character was wearing the longest hair of all characters.
Along with her vulnerability, Linnet is also a very wealthy and glamorous woman, and she is the big winner of the movie. Her status is reflected at the first scene of the movie where she wears silver dress that is absolutely dazzling. She looks and feels like a Hollywood star, and thinks the world revolves around her. The costumes have expressed depth and complexity of her character very well. She was surrounded with glamour levels unattainable for ordinary people, which shows the gap between her and her rival Jacqui.
Although Linnet Doyle was in the center of attention the movie had many other characters that had carefully curated looks that complimented their characters:
Jacqueline is a character full of passion in this movie. She is fire. She is the woman who was crazy in love, very reckless and been cheated on. The character has very strong emotional charge and this is shown through colors of her clothes, like red, gold and maroon.
Her iconic appearance was This figure walking up the stairs in a dark almost blood red dress with incredible gold leaves when she makes appearance on the “Karnak”
Needless to say, Hercule Poirot with three-piece suits pulled off the male costumes of the period in style and added to the elegance of the cast tremendously.
Sophie was another fashion star of the film, very feminine and intriguing woman who stole the heart of the Belgian detective ,dressed in delicious in shades of chocolate, salmon pink, lavender.
Tiffany Diamond
The stolen diamond has been a determining point of the story being one of the possible motives of the murder. The famous piece of jewelry has been the star of the movie on its own.
In Agatha Christie’s book, a strand of pearls is stolen. Branagh upped the game, subbing in Tiffany’s famous 128.54-carat yellow diamond. The diamond has been famously worn by Audrey Hepburn to promote Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and been seen in live in few exclusive occasions, like worn by Lady Gaga for Oscars in 2021.
The diamond is typically held in a locked display cabinet at the brand’s Fifth Avenue flagship. The stone remains one of the world’s largest yellow diamonds more than 100 years after being discovered at South Africa’s Kimberley mine.
The real diamond hasn’t been used in the film due to security risks. Tiffany has re-created the world-famous stone as Linnet Doyle’s wedding gift from her husband Simon.
Tiffany has been working closely with Gal Gadot for several years and has been designing jewelry for her movie characters too, such as Wonder Woman.
For Death on the Nile, the iconic brand has been providing jewelry for the other characters too. Delgado has given credit to Branagh for helping to secure Tiffany’s participation. With the brand’s connection with Gal Gadot the union has proved itself very successfully adding up to the glamour of the movie’s fashion.
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