Since Disney’s live-action reboot streak started a decade ago, the studio has landed a string of nominations in this category, including Maleficent (Anna B. Sheppard), Cinderella (Sandy Powell), Beauty and the Beast (Jacqueline Durran), Mary Poppins Returns (Powell again) and Mulan (Bina Daigeler). Two-time winner Jenny Beavan extends the streak with the 101 Dalmatians spinoff Cruella, where she faces some stiff (and starched) competition from West Side Story, Nightmare Alley, Dune and Cyrano in her quest to be the first of the Disney reboots to win a costume Oscar. She also shares an advantage with a recent winner in this category, Phantom Thread (Mark Bridges): Both were set inside fashion houses, a place where things tend to get sewed up.
CRUELLA, Jenny Beavan
For her 11th nomination (she won for A Room With a View and Mad Max: Fury Road), Beavan created an exaggerated vision of cosmopolitan London—not her natural milieu. “Fashion in any form is not really my thing, so I was very much out of my comfort zone,” she said. “But the script was intriguing and I am a storyteller, so I just had to adjust my thinking to include 1970’s fashion, which I remember.” Audiences might also remember the 2016 Oscars, where, like a kindred spirit of the Cruella she would later costume, Beavan wore a badass leather jacket to accept her award for Fury Road.
CYRANO, Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
Parrini is the only repeat nominee in this category from last year, when he was cited for his work on Pinocchio. For the Sicily-shot Cyrano, director Joe Wright’s longtime collaborator Durran (she won for Wright’s Anna Karenina) was restricted by COVID from traveling, so she advised on the costumes for Roxanne (Haley Bennett) from London, while Parrini toiled on the rest of the outfits in Italy. “Bringing modernity to a historical language is very important for understanding the costumes,” Parrini said. Inspirations were found in early 18th century paintings and also in the work of contemporary designers like Alexander McQueen. Parrini added, “It is important for me that the costume is understood even by an audience that knows nothing of the past.”
DUNE, Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
It’s the only nominee set in the future, but designers West and Morgan found inspiration in the past. “You have to start somewhere,” said West. Morgan added, “It was so big and it was so much work, so we leap-frogged a lot.” Flowing scarves were based on ancient Jordanian nomads, silk dresses came from Goya paintings and Timothée Chalamet’s dapper look had Medieval roots. (Or “Mod-eval,” as the designers called it.) But the team also put together a visionary outfit for the ages: the Stillsuit, made from more than 100 bespoke pattern pieces, a full-body water distillery which proves that costume design can save your life.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY, Luis Sequeira
Sequeira, a nominee four years ago for The Shape of Water, oversaw a staggering 242 costume changes during the making of this Guillermo del Toro film noir. The movie’s first half, set in the world of a 1930s carnival, required period-specific clothes for both the carnies and the patrons, but Sequeira had even more fun with the latter half, set among the old money elite in Buffalo, New York. “The color palette was a lot more staid and luxurious,” he said. “Especially in regards to Lilith (Cate Blanchett), we played with flat tones and sheen. Even in the fitting, the costume was fine-tuned to fit the psychology of her character.”
WEST SIDE STORY, Paul Tazewell
Six different Steven Spielberg films have been nominated here, from The Color Purple to Lincoln, though it’s the rare technical Oscar that a Spielberg film has never won. That fate could change with veteran Broadway designer Tazewell (a Tony Award winner for Hamilton), who poured his three decades of theater experience into the big-screen musical, utilizing a clash of reds and blues for the embattled Sharks and Jets, and crafting the yellow dress that shines like the sun for Best Supporting Actress nominee Ariana DeBose’s “America” number.
Steve’s Perspective
Period dramas with lavish costumes have won about half the time in recent years, but fantasy and futuristic sci-fi have also taken home statues—in other words, just about every nominee can claim precedent. Dune has scale on its side, but most of the precursor awards in this category have gone to Cruella, a movie that is all about fashion design.
