Wes Anderson has one of the most instantly recognisable cinematic styles of any director working today — so much so that I could probably hold up two pastel-coloured pieces of card in front of you, hastily arrange some salt and pepper shakers to be symmetrical, and you’d know who I was talking about without anyone uttering a single word, like some weird kind of cinematographic charades.
His unmistakable aesthetic has inspired a legion of memes (”The colour grading on every Wes Anderson film is literally what having serotonin feels like”), countless lookbooks, Instagram pages devoted to real life settings that look like they’d be in his films (@accidentallywesanderson) and even bespoke train journeys (Belmond offered a themed train carriage experience in homage to the director in 2019).
Much of this obsession focuses on Anderson’s settings: painstakingly symmetrical, hyper-unrealistic and resplendent in Play-Doh colour tones. But you could also pluck a Wes Anderson character out of their carefully curated surroundings and plonk them into real life, and you would still be able to tell they came straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. The settings are one hell of a backdrop, but the costume design is a character of its own.
The latest actor to get the Wes Anderson muse treatment is the Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, as part of Anderson’s newest film Asteroid City, which follows the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a fictional American desert town.
In the trailer, released yesterday, Johansson manages to stand out against a ridiculously exhaustive cast of fellow actors. No, seriously, you could basically name anyone you’d expect to be in a Wes Anderson movie (Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, the whole gang), anyone you’d really want to see in a Wes Anderson movie (Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Sophia Lillis) and any award nominated or uber-hot actors right now (Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Maya Hawke) and that’s your cast. Oh, and there’s like 20 other people too.
Even against this stellar background, Scarlett is the most recognisable as the future face of Pinterest boards everywhere. She appears in the trailer in 50s garb, holding a martini glass and rocking a bright red lip, which still somehow manages to stand out in the brighest colour scheme ever seen by the human eye. Halloween costumes, Instagram moodboards and spur of the moment sunglasses purchases will be borne from this look — and she’s in good company, here are some of Wes Anderson’s other well dressed muses.
Margot Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums
Gwyneth Paltrow, 29, dressed as genius playwright Margot Tenenbaum feels a world apart from her current Goopy glory and courtcore minimalism, though it’s as uniform as Gwyneth’s current look: Margot is almost always clad in a giant fur coat, cradling a Birkin bag in the crook of her arm, her dead straight bob pinned back at the fringe with black kohl liner surrounding her eyes. This may just be one of the best and most recognisable fur coat looks in modern culture, forever immortalised in the hall of fame alongside Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, Sharon Stone in Casino and P Diddy thorought the whole of the 2000s.
In fact, Margot’s look is so good that her bus arrival scene is one of the few performances of her own that Gwyneth can stand to watch.
Suzy Bishop in Moonrise Kingdom
Little Suzy Bishop might have been just 12-years-old in Moonrise Kingdom but boy did she wear some fits for the ages. Played by actress Kara Hayward, Suzy is wise beyond her years, with a wardrobe to match. Her style is as meticulous as her handwriting, and she pulls off a beret better than any other pre-teen ever could. Her most memorable outfit are her pink dresses — the Wednesday-esque collared creation and caped wedding look, paired with a red beret — but you’ve gotta show respect to the raven costume, even if it was just a costume.
And if you noticed similarities between Suzy and her stylish predecessor, Margot Tenenbaum, you’re not entirely off the mark. “She does have some similarities to Margot Tenenbaum,” actress Kara Hayward told Rotten Tomatoes around the time of the film’s release, “They do have their own secrets. They’ve got the eye makeup.” That’s the key to being a Wes Anderson siren, really, bold eyes or a bold lip — and never both.
Peter L Whitman in The Darjeeling Limited
One of the few pieces of Wes Anderson costume design that wouldn’t earn you some weird looks if you walked around one of the outer boroughs wearing it: Adrien Brody’s impeccable tailoring in The Darjeeling Limited. Lanky Brody has a natural ability to pull off a suit, and even though it doesn’t necessarily make the best sense for treking across India, he wears it like it does, managing to look strangely at home even when his brothers don’t.
(Even if he did steal the belt from Francis).
Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic
Yes, the Willem Dafoe character shots of this look are a priceless relic but fellow Anderson fave Bill Murray is the true style icon of The Life Aquatic. It’s cemented in the scene where Murray’s character switches to a tuxedo and the hat very much stays *on*. It’s giving “did you knit your little cap?” Coolidge energy.
While Zissou’s scuba-inspired ‘fits are the backbone of his style, his accessories (hat included) are what make it — the custom Vostok Amphibia watch and Adidas trainers turn Wes Anderson fashion into fashun fashion.
Jack’s ex-girlfriend in Hotel Chevalier
Anderson’s magnificently marigold short film Hotel Chevalier might not be on the same level as The Grand Budapest Hotel (it’s 13 minutes long), but Natalie Portman in that buttercup yellow robe will stick in your mind for a lot longer than the duration of the film. After watching Hotel Chevalier, Googling “egg yolk bedsheets” will become your newest passtime and you’ll start keeping your hair up in a towel for slightly longer than is needed. Great, now I want a Bloody Mary.
