Costume designer Arianne Phillips is 0-3 for Oscar wins to nominations. But her nod this year for James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown” may be the film that turns her luck around.
Phillips’ talents have made her Tom Ford’s go-to designer (“A Single Man” and “Nocturnal Animals”), as well as Mangold’s, having collaborated with him on “Girl, Interrupted,” “Identity,” “Walk the Line” and “3:10 to Yuma.” She’s styled Courtney Love, Madonna and Lenny Kravitz to name a few, and her resume includes print, fashion and editorial work.
She was well on her way as a costume designer when she started working closely with Madonna, but was told, “You need to either be a stylist or a costume designer; you need to do rock and roll or fashion,” she says. “I chose to keep going,” Phillips says, by not picking one over the other. What she did do, however, was move forward — controlling her narrative, crossing back and forth in different ways, and carving out her career. “I didn’t want to be limited by one thing,” she says.
Phillips has taken everything she has learned from her 35-year career and is paying it forward, sharing her knowledge with those who are following in her path and thriving on being able to “lift and inspire my crew and impart esthetic direction.” As for herself, she laughs, “I’m a work-in-progress.”
Here she highlights her five favorite moments from her career.
‘Girl Interrupted’ Lisa’s shearling coat
“Jim Mangold directs Oscar performances, whether it’s Angelina Jolie or Reese Wither- spoon or Joaquin Phoenix. He’s a brilliant filmmaker. My first Oscar nomination was for ‘’Walk the Line.’ I think you look at anybody’s resume, including my own, there’s some stinkers on all of our resumes, [but] Jim really has a beautiful body of work, and he makes great films.
“He is such a collaborator in that he is open and curious about the process across this department. He gave me a lot of space to help illustrate and develop these characters.
“I would do these fittings with the actors. We have our private meetings so we can speak freely about what works and doesn’t. Back then, we were looking at Polaroids because we didn’t have digital cameras, and I would make mood boards.
“Angelina Jolie had an idea that she wanted her character, Lisa, to be mono-chromatic and devoid of color. This shearling coat she wears encapsulates so many things about this character. It was indicative of the time, and Lisa had this sense of wildness about her. It gave her character irrelevance, and also it set us in the time and the place and this world that she had outside the institution and reveals a little bit of her character in that this coat was of a moment in time.”
‘Walk the Line’ – June Carter Cash’s pink dress
“This was my third movie with Jim, but he let me know ahead of time that he was going to make this. Johnny Cash was still alive, but June had passed away. I had gone to a vintage fair at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and I found a dress made from organza. It reminded me of images I had seen of June Carter when she was very young and something perky about it.
“I bought that dress out of my pocket because I thought, ‘This is going to be my lucky charm, and I hope that the movie gets made.’ A year and a half later, we made that movie and I held on to that dress.
“I wasn’t wild about the dress itself. It was also too big for Reese, so we took it apart and redesigned it. We added the ruching on the bust and the ruffles around the neckline.
“It’s the first time we meet Reese as June in the film. The dress was at the Johnny Cash Museum for a few years, and I donated it to the Academy Museum. It’s in their archive.”
‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ – Manson girls
“I had so much fun costuming the Manson girls. Quentin Tarantino’s and Victoria Thomas’ casting was stellar — to work with Mikey Madison, Margaret Qualley, Sydney Sweeney and Harley Quinn Smith.
“I had a purposeful concept that I wanted them to wear denim, and I wanted a lot of cut-offs. Demin traditionally was only worn recreationally after school or if you were horseback riding. You couldn’t really wear jeans to work or church.
“So, when you think of Woodstock and the Summer of Love, you think of barefoot people in jeans, and denim is a break from the tradition of dressing.
“Sydney Sweeney has all the patches and a lot of embroidery. Margaret Qualley was wearing overalls that had been cut off, and Mikey has patches on her jeans, so it gave me an opportunity to express these different personalities.”
‘W.E.’ – The velvet dress
“It was such a gift that Madonna gave me asking me to design this movie. This blue velvet with the silver lamé was something I designed, inspired by an image I saw of the Duchess of Windsor wearing. We didn’t know who designed it, so I created this dress that felt like something Elsa Schiaparelli would have done. The trim is cut-out leather that’s laid over a lamé waistcoat. The dress underneath is a blue velvet.
“The fascinator was made by milliner designer Stephen Jones, who’s just a genius. He made a few very special hats for Andrea Riseborough for the film.
“The belt around the waist is black patent leather. I knew the room was going to be low-lit, and the thing about velvet is that it absorbs light and I didn’t want her to disappear, so it was important to have a reflective value in the dress.
“The jewelry was made by Alexis Bittar, and for this, she wore costume jewelry. The shoes are vintage ones that we refurbished. They were blue velvet and had metallic detail around the center of the foot.”
‘A Complete Unknown’- Sylvie’s dress
“I struggled with this costume for a long time, and I’m so pleased [now]. I knew this was an emotional scene. I wanted to support Elle Fanning’s work in that scene and design a costume for her that would speak to and underscore the work. I also wanted her in a dress because I had kept her in pants. She was a strong young woman and an activist. She was so influential to Bob [Dylan] and his music, and she’s the only character in our movie who didn’t want anything from Bob.
“I knew she would be running through the crowd on her way to the ferry. I wanted to have movement, and I wanted it to feel effortless for Elle. I didn’t want her to feel constrained or constricted. I wanted her to have freedom in that costume.
“Marimekko, a Finnish design house, had this beautiful fabric. At the very bottom of the dress, there’s a field of wheat and sky, so we got the fabric. The shape of the dress came very quickly to me, with an open neck and arms. It’s a summer dress and cotton linen mix with a wrinkly texture that feels very lived in.”
