About The Movie
Florence Pugh and Harry Styles play the lead roles in Don’t worry Darling – Alice and Jack — a flawless and madly in love couple living in a utopic community in the California desert in the 1950s.
One thing that stands out immediately is how immaculately dressed everyone is. Women appear in joyful swing dresses in bright colors and fun prints, always on heels and with their hair and makeup perfectly done. Men in contrast, are mainly in tailored suits and bowling shirts appearing very serious and professional all the time.
Perfectly styled wardrobe of the show played leading roles in the unfolding of the story line and development of the characters.
Costume designer for this film, Arianne Phillips, has previously worked on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Walk the Line, and Girl Interrupted.
The film turned out to be a huge spectacle, receiving all kinds of reactions, from five-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival to a lot of critical reviews, calling the picture shallow, numerous rumours of the cast members falling out to the point of Harry Styles spitting on Chris Pine. Although film Director Olivia Wilde has denied most of the rumours, conversations around the ethics of the production and tensions within the cast still continue.
Despite all the controversy, there is one thing aboiut this film that cannot be denied by anyone – It has been visually stunning.
In the light of large-scale popularity of the film, Arianne Phillips has given multiple interviews and has highlighted the role of Olivia Wilde’s production style in the success of the film. Unfortunately majority of the film directors are still men,( MeToo helped increase awareness of gender inequality in Hollywood, but the number of women working in the sector is rising very slowly. And just 17% of directors and writers are female) and they don’t always have the same attention to the details of the looks. Olivia was very invested in the costume design for this film and has extended immense support, but at the same time has given a lot of freedom to the designers. Flexibitlity of Wilde has provided perfect ground for the creative process.
She has been discussing the characters in great details with the designers and other beauty artists of the team and developed them with the help of the whole team.
The outstanding 50s and 60s fashion of the movie will definitely inspire exploration of 1950s fashion aesthetics both for individuals and for fashion makers.
Easter Eggs
Another detail that has been revealed from many interviews was that there have been multiple hints planted through the film, also referred by cast as Easter eggs.
The aim was to have the viewer want to watch the movie again once the ending has been revealed. Costumes played a big role in that. Although the events were happening in the 50s, decorated by interior design and fashion from the same period, there was some unexplainable sense of modernity in the way the characters dressed and carried themselves that made you question if something was not right and whether the whole thing was staged. Everything just seems too perfect and unrelatable.
Inspirations
Inspiration was taken from many sources such as photography and arts of the period. There has also been inspiration from the style icons of tthe 50s and 60 and the cinema
For the scene where Alice is chasing the plane crash scene that she witnessed, the little black dress in the desert was specifically inspired by Federico Fellini’s movies from 1950s. Black dresses weren’t very common for that period, and by dressing Alice in black, director and costume designer were trying to show her difference from other women characters in Victory project. She was independent and rebellious.
There has been a lot of vintage items used in this film. Although most of the costumes were made new, many of them have been made of vintage fabrics, or supplemented with vintage accessories: Such as, Alice’s signature velvet hair ribbon.
Each female character was either inspired or had some elements of the major style icons of the times: Margaret’s short bangs were Bettie Page inspired ; Violet was totally influenced by Twiggy with her short hair and innocent beauty ; Bunny has beena mix of Bette Davis and Rita Hayworth with her pin curls, bright lips and sharp eyebrows. Her flame red hair color was achieved by mixing four different shades and ofcourse Alice inspired by Brigitte Bardot.
Bunny’s character as well as her wardrobe was in strong contrast with Alice’s. Bunny was also different from the rest of the characters, her looks were more sassy and daring. Her off shoulder crop tops, leopard bikini and glamorous Hollywood waves were all indications that she was having a lot of fun with her outfits, as well as with the lifestyle. Since Bunny was the only female character that new what was the Victory Project about and she was there voluntarily, she looked totally at ease with all what was going on. As per the costume designer, her looks have been inspired by the pinup girls from the 50s. Bunny also loved bright colors and prints, in contrast with Alice, whose color palette was more toned down and her looks slightly understated.
Harry Styles also stood out with his fashion in this film. He was a bit more polished and put together than the rest of the male characters in the film. Harry has already established himself as a fashion icon and it is no wonder that he was very invested in creating the right costumes for his character.
Alice of Florence Pugh was heavily inspired by Bridget Bardot, especially her hairstyles. Alice’s jewelry was vintage Bulgari.
Evolution
As the movie progressed the outfits of the characters also had their shift.
Every morning the wives of Victory Project were kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the house and when all of them were already dressed up for the day, we can see Alice wearing her husbands shirt on naked body which really stood out. It seems a very brave move from Alice, considering the overall conservativeness that was in the 50s. This look of hers also emphasizes her sexuality and free nature.
If we think about Alice’s looks and evolution of the character,as she starts to uncover the truth about the Project, her looks become less put together, her hair loose and messy and no signs of make up on. When she is trying to put herself back together, we can see that her looks instantly change and become as polished as at the start.
Symbols through outfits
There was an interesting story about the white dress in the final of the show. Apparently, directors and costume desgienrs often use white dress and blood combination. If you see somebody appearing in white dress, chances are, there is going to be some violence happening.Initailly the idea was to put Alice in a lemon yellow dress, but yellow and red wouldn’t look as good as with white. White also brings a bit of innosence to the character. In final scene it comes out that Alice has been forced into Victory project and being held captive against her will. So the white dress also symbolizes her purity in this whole story. We can see how empathetic she is, when as soon as she finds out what is going on, she immediately thinks about other women and children that have been focred into this as well. Alice has had several white outfits through the film.
Philipps has also admitted that colors have been used to give some subtle hints about the true side of the project. For example colors like cobalt blue and fuscia have been used , which was very uncommon for the 50s
Saturated and bright outfits and interior have also been giving the impression of the perfect world of Victory project that seemed a little too good to be true. There was just something fake about it.
Women were always looked made up and a little overdressed. When we get a glance to Alice’s life at home after her husband goes to work, she has been cleaning the house in style, with perfect A line dresses, fancy aprons, and her hair is done up in a beautiful bun and a headband with a cute bow.
Another outfit that was remarkable was the light pink cocktail dress. This scene also tells a lot about Jack. He is obviously different from other husbands, he is more attentive and compassionate towards his wife. In the scene where Jack brings out a Chrstian Dior inspired Strapeless pink blush dress for Alice to wear for a cabaret night, he looks very vulnerable and is really trying to make it all work for Alice. This dress is showing Alice’s innocense due to its color, but the overdefined shape of it gives a little Jean Paul Gaultier vibes, and brings out the strong side of Alice.
Along with costumes, makeup and hair played a big role in building characters. Makeup artist Heba Thorisdottir and hairstylist Jaime Leigh have done a spectacular work in brining together many small details that made each character so unique and bright.
The goal of the hair and makeup stylists was to create looks that were 50s and 60s inspired, but also modern and relevant. In the 50s, people recovered from post war depression and women gradually went back to being more feminine. The stereotypical housewives of 50s were conservative and uptight and the goal was to avoid that sense for the women of Victory Project.
Alice’s hairstyle was was very carefully curated. The use of black accessories—beautiful housework headband; ballet headband; and Alice’s signature black velvet bow is a trick that is used to pop the beautiful blond color. Her hair had a lot of movement as well, which was very empowering in the scenes were Alice was in action, like the desert scene or her final escape scene.
Jack’s cooking scene
Jack in the kitchen is a rare scene with casually dressed man. Jack seems like a dream husband from the first glance. The most touching scene is where Jack is rushing around in the kitchen trying to make a roast and mashed potatoes , as Alice is sleeping in her bed. The outfits in this scene are partcularly interesting. Alice’s hair and makeup is completely messed up, and this symbolizes her regression. She looks very different from her usual way when greeting Jack back from work – all dressed up with a glass of wine in hand and with a three course meal. Jack is also more soft and relaxed in this scene, dressed in a color block cardigan worn under white tank top , looking a little bit less polished and more relatable.
Although very romantic, it is also one of the most bizarre scenes, as Alice has allegedly passed out, as she was trying to enter the headquarters of Victory after the chase of the crashed plane. Alice asks Jack if he knows, what happened to her and how she got home, he doesn’t answer and quickly changes the topic without trying to understand what happened to her. Jack being such a wonderful husband, one suspects that he knows what has been happening to Alice, and simply avoids the conversation.
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