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Costume Designers Guild Nominations Include ‘Dune,’ ‘House of Gucci,’ ‘Cruella,’ ‘West Side Story’

Bill Desowitz
·5 min read
IndieWire The Craft Top of the Line
IndieWire The Craft Top of the Line

Sci-fi/fantasy “Dune” and period pieces “Cruella,” “Cyrano,” “House of Gucci,” “Nightmare Alley,” and “West Side Story” were nominated Wednesday for the 24th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards (to be held live March 9 at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica).

Other sci-fi/fantasy nominees included “The Green Knight,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and DC’s “The Suicide Squad.” Contemporary nods went to “Coming 2 America,” “Don’t Look Up,” “In the Heights,” “No Time to Die,” and “Zola.”

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Left out were the biopics “Being the Ricardos,” “Respect,” “Spencer,” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” as were “Belfast,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Passing,” “The French Dispatch,” “The Harder They Fall,” “The Power of the Dog,” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”

In terms of the Oscar race, “Dune,” “House of Gucci,” “Cruella,” “West Side Story,” and “Nightmare Alley” look to be the favorites, with “Coming 2 America” (“Black Panther” Oscar winner Ruth Carter) and “Cyrano” (co-designed by “Little Women” and “Anna Karenina” Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran) also in contention.

However, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” has the edge, given the imagination and scope of the wardrobes from Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan. They went more “modern-medieval” than traditional futuristic, referencing nomadic tribes of the desert, Greek mythology, and Goya paintings. However, the complex gray stillsuit of the Fremen from the desert planet, Arrakis, was the innovative centerpiece, allowing them to survive as a result of the sophisticated fluid recycling system. It had to look functional yet stylish, and was form-fitting and otherworldly. The gauze cloaks and capes acted as camouflage and the robes gave an aura of romance.

“Dune” - Credit: Warner Bros.
“Dune” - Credit: Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

With Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” Oscar winner Janty Yates (“Gladiator”) recreated the iconic period of the ’80s and ’90s, wrapping it around Lady Gaga’s flamboyant Patrizia Reggiani. Yates scoured Reggiani’s archive (she was fond of Dior and Yves Saint Laurent) and found plenty to play with, including a pink evening dress that was transformed into red satin for her first meeting with Adam Driver’s Maurizio, and a much more attractive wedding dress covered in lace.

Meanwhile, two-time Oscar winner Jenny Beavan (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “A Room With a View”) delivered a recycled fabric motif for dressing Emma Stone’s subversive fashion designer in Disney’s “Cruella.” Beavan tapped her own youthful memories of ’70s London fashion in finding an arc for Cruella, who morphs from a rebellious child to a fashion sensation. She used ’70s, military, and fantastical inspirations. But the standout is the red dress: a deconstruction of a prestigious vintage evening gown designed by Emma Thompson’s evil baroness. The ultimate goal was to make sure that you could believe that Cruella could eventually resemble Glenn Close in the ’90s live-action reworking.

“Cruella” - Credit: Laurie Sparham/Disney
“Cruella” - Credit: Laurie Sparham/Disney

Laurie Sparham/Disney

For Steven Spielberg’s reworking of “West Side Story” (Fox) in the late ’50s, Tony Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell (“Hamilton”) helped define the differences between the rival Jets and Sharks gangs through their wardrobes. The Irish Jets wore the popular denim jackets and jeans to look cool like Brando and Dean, while the Puerto Rican Sharks were nicer dressed with floral patterns. The Puerto Rican women were very stylish and colorful. Of course, the clothes were customized to be looser because of the dancing. But the aesthetic overall adhered to greater naturalism.

Oscar nominee Luis Sequeira (“The Shape of Water”) created a wide range of wardrobes for Guillermo del Toro’s noirish “Nightmare Alley” (Searchlight) remake, but the primary focus was outfitting ruthless grifter Bradley Cooper, who journeys from the carny underworld to high society glam at the start of the 1940s. In the beginning, his tweedy old clothes don’t fit properly, but as he ascends high society as a successful mentalist, his tailored wardrobe becomes more stylish and sexy. The trick was finding cohesion for this chameleon.

Below is the full list of nominations for the 24th CDGA:

Excellence in Sci-Fi / Fantasy Film
“Dune” – Jacqueline West & Robert Morgan
“The Green Knight” – Malgosia Turzanska
“The Matrix Resurrections” – Lindsay Pugh
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” – Kym Barrett
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” – Sanja M. Hays
“The Suicide Squad” – Judianna Makovsky

Excellence in Contemporary Film
“Coming 2 America” – Ruth E. Carter
“Don’t Look Up”– Susan Matheson
“In The Heights” – Mitchell Travers
“No Time to Die” – Suttirat Anne Larlarb
“Zola” – Derica Cole Washington

Excellence in Period Film
“Cruella” – Jenny Beavan
“Cyrano” – Massimo Cantini Parrini & Jacqueline Durran
“House of Gucci” – Janty Yates
“Nightmare Alley” – Luis Sequeira
“West Side Story” – Paul Tazewell

Excellence in Sci-Fi / Fantasy Television
“The Book of Boba Fett”: Chapter 1 – Shawna Trpcic
“The Handmaid’s Tale”: Nightshade – Debra Hanson
“Loki”: Journey into Mystery – Christine Wada
“What We Do in the Shadows”: Gail – Laura Montgomery
“The Witcher”: Family – Lucinda Wright

Excellence in Contemporary Television
“Emily in Paris”: French Revolution – Patricia Field & Marylin Fitoussi
“Euphoria”: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob – Heidi Bivens
“Hacks”: Pilot – Kathleen Felix-Hager
“Mare of Easttown”: Miss Ladyhawk Herself – Meghan Kasperlik
“Squid Game”: VIPS – Cho Sang-kyung

Excellence in Period Television
“The Great”: Seven Days – Sharon Long
“Halston”: Becoming Halston – Jeriana San Juan
“The Underground Railroad”: Chapter 8: Indiana Autumn – Caroline Eselin-Schaefer
“WandaVision”: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience – Mayes C. Rubeo
“What We Do in the Shadows”: The Wellness Centre – Laura Montgomery

Excellence in Variety, Reality-Competition, Live Television
“Annie Live! – Emilio Sosa”
“Dancing with the Stars”: Semi-Finals – Daniela Gschwendtner & Steven Norman Lee
“The Late Late Show with James Corden”: Crosswalk Cinderella – Lauren Shapiro
“The Masked Singer”: 2 Night Season Premiere, Part 2: Back to School – Marina Toybina & Gabrielle Letamendi
“Saturday Night Live”: Rami Malek / Young Thug – Tom Broecker & Eric Justian

Excellence in Short Form Design
“The Bold Type: “Cruella” (Commercial) – Mandi Line
Cadillac: Edgar Scissorhands ft. Timothée Chalamet, “Hands Free” (Commercial) – Melissa DesRosiers
Ed Sheeran: “Shivers” (Music Video) – Ami Goodheart
Snoop Dogg’s Triller: Fight Club “We’re Bringing Boxing Back” (Commercial) – Dawn Ritz
Swarovski: “Welcome to Wonderlab” (Commercial) – B. Åkerlund

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