R.I.P. EIKO ISHIOKA
Production/Costume Designer on Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985); Closet Land (1991); Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992); The Cell (2000); Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai (2002-present); The Fall (2006); Theresa: The Body of Christ (2007); Immortals (2011); Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2011) and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror (2012).
Harry: You look taller in your photographs.
Sherlock Holmes: Take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend.
The Belstaff ‘Milford’ Coat is made from pure Irish wool tweed bonded with a sophisticated, ultra-light microporous film, to make it waterproof without altering the natural qualities of comfort and breathability.
BAFTA winning costume designer Ray Holman was responsible for the costume design in the pilot episode of Sherlock, setting the tone for Sherlock’s look and choosing what is arguably the most popular wardrobe piece of the series.
Three identical coats were purchased for the series. This is common practice in case one is damaged or lost during filming, and of course one to be worn by a stunt double. The costume department later added the red buttonhole detail on each of the coats.
Belstaff originally discontinued the coat, but after the success of Sherlock and the amount of enquiries they had regarding it, they re-launched it again in August 2010. Sadly, the coat is again currently unavailable to buy.
“The coat was actually a couple of years old. What happened is that another chap did the pilot and he found that coat. When I took the project on, I inherited all those original costumes from the pilot. It was the only thing I kept. It was such a lovely coat - a classic. We had three of them because we obviously do stunts and need doubles. It is a lovely coat - really perfect for Benedict. He loved it, I loved it and everyone else seemed to.”
- Sarah Arthur, Sherlock Costume Designer (via)
![Drive costume designer Erin Benach on Driver’s sunglasses: “I almost cried my eyes out the day he put those on. I absolutely hate them. [laughs] I think he showed up on the day wearing them - I wanted him to wear these other sunglasses and I nearly cried.” (via GQ Film)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lux0r1mNX81qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach on Driver’s sunglasses: “I almost cried my eyes out the day he put those on. I absolutely hate them. [laughs] I think he showed up on the day wearing them - I wanted him to wear these other sunglasses and I nearly cried.” (via GQ Film)
![Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “The henley is quite an interesting piece. It was an awesome challenge. We probably tried on every henley that has ever been made by anybody anywhere, from Japan to Europe to the Americas. I seriously think we had 300! We liked elements of each one but we didn’t like the label on the collar or, the collar was too thin… In the end we wound up finding some deadstock Thirties army/navy henleys. My assistant found the first one, and the person we got them from said, ‘Oh yeah, I have 15 of them.’ I said, ‘What? You have 15 deadstock Thirties white henleys?’ [laughs] Interestingly, the T-shirt originated from soldiers wanting to wear a layer underneath their wool, just to take off their fighting jackets, their combat jackets, and then still have something on.” (via GQ Film)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lux0oipno71qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “The henley is quite an interesting piece. It was an awesome challenge. We probably tried on every henley that has ever been made by anybody anywhere, from Japan to Europe to the Americas. I seriously think we had 300! We liked elements of each one but we didn’t like the label on the collar or, the collar was too thin… In the end we wound up finding some deadstock Thirties army/navy henleys. My assistant found the first one, and the person we got them from said, ‘Oh yeah, I have 15 of them.’ I said, ‘What? You have 15 deadstock Thirties white henleys?’ [laughs] Interestingly, the T-shirt originated from soldiers wanting to wear a layer underneath their wool, just to take off their fighting jackets, their combat jackets, and then still have something on.” (via GQ Film)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “The boots are by Stacy Adams - I think you can buy them for $60. They are these really unfashionable, non-expensive boots, but they’ve got this great, low-profile shape to them. They don’t have a big heel, they’re not chunky, and what we did to them - and why they don’t look anything like what you would go and buy - is we really broke them in. We took special acetones and dyes and sandblasters to break them in so that they started to peel.” (via GQ Film)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “A specialty glove-maker in LA made the gloves for us. We made only a couple of styles, because I always knew what we wanted. I was very inspired by Steve McQueen. He was a driver and a very sexy, iconic male, and I’d seen him wear similar gloves with the holes in the knuckles in a lot of the photographs I’d come across in research. We wound up dying them that caramel colour, tying it in with the shoes - and the cuff of his jacket is dark brown, so we were working in those colour zones.” (via GQ Film)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “I’m always facing the jacket question in films. There’s something about men and style and how the jacket is such a piece that they love, because it’s easy and they can wear it with everything. Ryan was really inspired by these Korean souvenir jackets from the Fifties. We got to this idea of a white quilted satin jacket with a scorpion on the back. The scorpion came a little later - that was inspired by this Kenneth Anger video “Scorpio”. We built the jacket from scratch. We used a tailor in Los Angeles: Richard Lim of High Society. He was really wonderful - he was able to work with the satin, and used real wool for the cuffs and the collar. We had maybe ten different styles tested: we had a baseball cut for the shoulders, then we had a regular sleeve cut. We tried so many styles to nail the one that fitted and looked the best. Then there was the whole issue of the colour. A white satin jacket set the alarm bells off for the director of photography. It’s a really hard thing to light, because it can blow out every scene. So we went through many iterations of the tone to get the actual colour we used, which is almost more like silver. At one point we just thought, ‘Let’s go back and make it olive green or red’ - but in the end we all fought for saving the white jacket because we loved so much.” (via GQ Film)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “I read the script and I knew we needed something iconic - something that people would never tire of watching throughout the film. Driver wasn’t going to be changing his clothing very much - it’s not one of those movies. The character is really more of a superhero than he is a person - although we wanted people to think he’s a real person so that they would feel attached to him.” (via GQ Film)
Drive costume designer Erin Benach: “Ryan is amazing. With most actors, maybe I’ll have a phone conversation beforehand, or often they’ll just walk into the fitting room - but Ryan is different. Each project varies: everything from him walking into my wardrobe and emptying a garbage bag full of ideas on the floor to us having a long, thoughtful conversation at the J Paul Getty Museum in LA about an old German allegory of Sir Percival and the Red Knight. He is very involved, very interested - it’s so awesome. He believes in the wardrobe being as much a part of who the character is as anything else. So he’s integral in that whole process.” (via GQ Film)
Because I’ve seen a lot of costume drama, (okay, ALL the costume dramas) I’ve had this experience once or twice and thought I was just about crazy. Turns out, there there is a limited wardrobe for our favorite fictional characters, and they’re all called out by Recycled Movie Costumes.
The entire site gives you the uncanny feeling that Marianne Dashwood has raided Elizabeth Bennett’s closet.
