by I really don’t know how to describe the poor. In the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos (who received Oscar nominations for The Favorite and The Lobster), Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, a woman in Victorian London whose body has been brought back to life and implanted with the brain of a fetus… and in some ways, that’s the most tame and believable aspect of the movie.
Bella embarks on a strange and erotic journey around the world that takes her from Portugal to Egypt and beyond. It’s part steampunk romance, part twisted black comedy, and part coming-of-age fantasy, and something you definitely don’t want to watch with your parents in the room. But if you love movies, you’ll love every minute of this intense, emotional and fun game.
And of course, the clothes! We spoke to Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington to find out more about how she came up with the film’s unique look and what it was like collaborating with Emma Stone on this once-in-a-lifetime character.
Poor Things is unlike almost anything that came before. How would you describe the costumes in this film?
I think it’s a subtle change from the late 19th century. Yorgos freed me up to reference different time periods, so there are some nods to different fashion moments. The little white boots Bella wears are from 1960s space age André Courrèges. There was also some Schiaparelli stuff from the 1930s. It was a very vivid palette and I feel like I was able to transpose the richness of the late 19th century with a certain freshness.
The clothes are sometimes quite unusual. There’s a scene in Lisbon where, after a nap, we see Bella venturing through the city alone, dressed in some sort of blazer, some silk panties, and little else.
When I was thinking about how I would approach Bella, I looked at my own children. I spend a lot of time with children in my life, and when they’re very young, they quickly start to fall apart: they end up without things and have this kind of innate willingness to be naked. I liked the idea of Mrs. Prim getting Bella ready in the mornings in a lady’s skirt and bra, but by 10 a.m., the skirt was gone.
Then it goes into that dynamic of Bella having a baby’s brain in a woman’s body.
For me, my worst nightmare would be walking down the street buttoned from the waist up but without anything from the waist down. It’s a nightmare for adults, but for this character in Lisbon after a nap, it felt good. There are certain moments where Bella dresses herself, and she’s like a five-year-old girl dressing herself from her mother’s wardrobe. It’s this discordance, but it’s fun.
This film also makes a serious case for bringing back the leg of lamb sleeve.
Bella wears them all the time, or is completely sleeveless. Yorgos had a very open mind to anything I could think of and I presented him with a lot of ideas and options from the late 19th century, and he kept moving towards these huge sleeves. Both he and Emma pressured him in meetings. I love them and what they do to the body. It drives this sense of otherness: these highly textured fabrics that look like creatures.
Maybe this movie will spark a trend in leg of lamb sleeves?
I hope so! It is definitely worth wearing big sleeves. They are very empowering. As long as sleeves have been big for women (Elizabethan period, 1940s, 1980s), women have generally been in a good place. I am very glad I chose them. Say we had opted for a fitted sleeve from the 1880s; that would have put all the focus on the skirts and pants, and would have felt totally different.
Bella’s clothes also look quite light and delicate.
All of their fabrics are quite dreamy. There is an ease to them. But the sleeves kept tearing. It was pretty bad!
Why did they continue destroying?
It’s unusual when you do these period costumes, because usually your lead actor isn’t flailing around. [in a period piece]. These garments are not designed to raise your arm above your head; They are almost like an extension of the corset, holding the body in a particular way.
Bella has a very distinctive walk in this movie. Did you work with Emma to alter the costumes to make her performance easier or more visible on camera?
At first we started her off with longer panties, like 1930s panties. And on the first day of shooting, I realized that she needed very short baggy pants to show more of her body, to reveal everything she was doing with her body.
It sounds like Emma was pretty cooperative in working on this. Did she let you run free or did you have much involvement in her disguise?
She was both. She let me run free totally. But she’s also someone who needs to know conceptually that the idea works for her. Instead of spending a lot of time on a test to feel how things fit on the body, she was more interested in knowing the idea behind something and why. She is a very quick, witty and very intelligent woman, so our tests were more like conversations. It’s interesting because other actors really need to have tried something on, to have walked with it, to have felt it, so that was interesting… She’s a really explosive person: fast, quick and she just gets it all. She is incredibly brave and takes risks in everything she does.
What was the hardest look to get right?
Making the wedding dress was an absolute nightmare. The whole concept was that it had to be huge, but made of almost nothing. The sleeves were like a balloon. It was super lightweight, made of millinery net, organza, cotton and tulle, and was very complicated to make.
Was there anything your actors tried to steal from the set?
It’s a bit of a moot point, because we’re currently putting together the costume displays for an exhibit at FIDM in Los Angeles, and there are quite a few things missing! I’m pretty bad at giving people costumes; You’re not supposed to!
What did you learn about yourself in this project?
I’m really passionate about historical clothing and I really love putting it on my head a bit.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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