Fashion and film have always had a mutually beneficial relationship, but 2023 was a year for the ages. Acting royalty Dame Maggie Smith appeared in a Loewe advert, Margot Robbie all but turned into Barbie on the red carpet, Timothée Chalamet wore deliciously glossy custom lavender Prada to launch the jolly Wonka film and Jacob Elordi not only brought 90s eyebrow piercings back in Saltburn but also wore 90 different outfits to play Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. In a competitive field, here’s our pick of some of most insouciant, meta and voluminous outfits seen on the big screen this year.
The leather jacket in Return to Seoul
Park Ji-min’s onscreen debut in the Davy Chou-directed Return to Seoul is remarkable. The painter and sculptor, now actor, fully commits – there is a scene of her dancing alone in a bar that is utterly compelling. From a fashion perspective, however, the true star is her 80s-style funnel-necked black leather jacket, which marks the film’s second chapter and hums with meaning and expectation. It’s been compared to the style from Blade Runner, although in high fashion terms it’s reminiscent of the work of Nicolas Ghesquière, womenswear designer at Louis Vuitton. The look forms part of a narrative jolt. Chou had originally seen this outfit being a miniskirt, but Park wanted something stronger, and sourced the jacket herself.
Everything in Passages
You might just find the best clothes of 2023 in this pacy, sexy, 90-minute menage a trois romp set in Paris. Franz Rogowski in a sheer dragon motif crop top with leopard trousers, Adèle Exarchopoulos in a retro leather jacket and miniskirt, or Ben Whishaw in a sensible navy cable sweater. What makes the clothes in this Ira Sachs film so good is that they feel so completely true to what the characters would wear, and much of the film’s sexiness is tied up in how believable the outfits feel. Costume designer Khadija Zeggaï says Sachs gave her “carte blanche”. “Right from the start, Tomas (Rogowski) came across as a lost bear, with a lot of charm. I had found this fur jacket – I wanted to dress him in women’s clothes too,” she says. The final scenes showing Rogowski cycling in his furry jacket, dress shirt and bow tie are sublime.
Greta Lee’s minimal slouch in Past Lives
The outfits in Past Lives might not have the sexiness of Passages, but they similarly embrace the idea of real-life clothes truly worn by the characters. Greta Lee’s wardrobe has an ordinariness that she makes beguiling. The most obvious example is the pair of fluid slacks and striped shirt (worn loosely, cuffs undone) that she wears to reunite with her childhood sweetheart who she hasn’t seen in 12 years. This outfit is somehow both completely non-distracting and also a total look.
The suits in Rustin
In this Netflix biopic, Colman Domingo plays Bayard Rustin, who is surrounded by men, including Martin Luther King Jr (Aml Ameen), wearing sharp suits. Though Rustin wears suits – a beige three-button two-piece is noteworthy – he tends to favour the jacket off, shirt collar buttons open, tie loosened look. It underscores his drive for action and also has echoes of Barack Obama (whose production company gets a producer credit) during his presidency.
Tilda Swinton in double Fendi in The Eternal Daughter
Asked what her standout moment in Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter was, costume designer Grace Snell recounts a glorious tale of two printed Fendi dresses. Both appeared in Hogg’s previous work with Snell, The Souvenir: during a birthday meal, the film’s central character, Julie, (played by Honor Swinton Byrne) was wearing one, and her onscreen mother, Rosalind (played by her real-life mother, Tilda Swinton), was wearing the other. These exact two dresses reappear in The Eternal Daughter – set years later with Swinton now playing both women – again at a birthday meal.
“I made a phone call to Tilda before she travelled to Wales for filming to pack the dresses just in case,” recalls Snell. “They turned out to be a very important moment in the film.” Swinton also wears other pieces from The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II. “I do a lot of prep for Joanna’s films but we only commit to looks the day before each film day, allowing the film to dress itself in a way,” says Snell.
Emma Stone’s sleeves in Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos’s film Poor Things starring Emma Stone looks like a gloriously avant garde fashion shoot. This is hardly surprising given costume designer Holly Waddington told Vogue that she was inspired by everything from Moncler puffer jackets and 60s Courrèges to bustle cages and latex, and Lanthimos reportedly wanted it to be all about “the sleeve”. Stone’s sleeves truly are a triumph. They are huge, they are puffed, and they bounce across the screen like an underwater creature from Planet Earth III.
Cailee Spaeny’s coat in Priscilla
In Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, the film’s namesake, played by Cailee Spaeny, has approximately 120 custom outfits to enjoy. This fantastic belted coat with its metallic ball buttons is “one of the few vintage pieces we found and rented from a costume house in Toronto,” says costume designer Stacey Battat.
“It’s a great love story, and they shared an intimacy that I felt was really important to convey in the costumes.” To reimagine Priscilla’s wedding dress Battat worked with Chanel, and with Valentino for Elvis’s tuxedo. Battat says her favourite Priscilla look is a dress in pale blue with bows that she wears when Elvis takes her on a shopping trip, during which he advises her to opt for “black hair and more eye makeup”.
