‘Saltburn’ - Interview with Costume Designer Sophie Canale
Emerald Fennell took a bold swing to followup her Oscar winning film, Promising Young Woman, with Saltburn. Fennell crafted a perverted fairytale of manic infatuation and greed starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, and Alison Oliver. The gothic narrative follows two college students at Oxford as a mystery unravels one summer. Offscreen was lucky enough to speak to the Costume Designer, Sophie Canale, about her work on the film.
Jillian Chilingerian: Hi, I love this film, I've seen it twice, I kind of want to go again because now all my friends are seeing it. I got to talk to all of your fellow craftsmates last month, so I'm very excited to talk to you. This film takes place in the early 2000s and I'm a strong believer that the early 2000s is considered a period piece. I am fascinated by your approach to tackling this, we're like watch it and remember how we dressed back then. This style is having a resurgence right now. What was the process of recreating this moment of time, and your inspiration behind that?
Sophie Canale: Very much when I first spoke to Emerald, it was like, this is a period drama, this is a costume period, drama, you know, this isn't a contemporary piece, you can't go to the street and buy it. So initially, I was like, 100% that's my, my viewpoint on it. In the same way, I would any period drama, it's about research, and it's about finding out the details about exactly what age groups and characters social diversity were wearing during this, you know, this period and I used Facebook very much as a research tool, because it was so new as a platform at this time that everyone was putting every single photograph up, there was like no holds barred, there was no kind of shame in putting every photograph of a night out. So, and especially with the group of characters that I was developing, the university students, you know, the Oliver the Felix the Farleigh, and then Venetia, Facebook was just such a key tool for me. Editorials were really important, looking at Tatler, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, looking at images and who was in the crowd, who was going to social events, and the social status and the class within where Felix and the family would sit. So looking at Prince Harry and Prince William were of the same age range as Felix and in that period, so that was a great opportunity to look at polo matches, look at nights out in Mayfair that the paparazzi have taken, and really kind of take items of their clothing, the baggy shirts, the bootcut jeans, the loafers and be able to purchase and style these for Felix. It's a very British film and I wanted to make sure that that came across on the screen.
Jillian Chilingerian: Specifically Farleigh in comparison to Oliver, is very much apart of this group but also has his own outsider identity.
Sophie Canale: We're very much tribal in who we are as people and who we are within our friendship groups. That's how we are visually as well, we all choose to wear what we do every morning, but within a school group or college group or university group, you know, these people want to all look the same, no one wants to stick out necessarily, they want to be part of the same tribe. They've got money, they want the best shoes, the best handbags, so that was really nice to be able to bring those elements in, apart from, you know, our character, Farleigh who distinctively has a 70s vibe to him. There's a vintage feel using contemporary pieces, but as a period he's our most rebellious character. He doesn't necessarily want to sit in with the crowd. He's very on his own. He's on his own path. You know, he likes to break the rules. So it was nice to be able to have a character like Farleigh to be able to kind of break those rules with.
Jillian Chilingerian: How our characters are wearing their clothes really speaks to their journeys specifically, Oliver when he arrives in Saltburn and he's in a flannel shirt, it's nerdy, and then by the end, when we learn all these things about him, he was wearing the suit. He always feels out of place, even though in the end, he gets what he's always longing for. So I want to discuss the fit of his clothes where they never masquerade him.
Sophie Canale: With Oliver, the first time we see him in his blazer, he's bought that. He's pressed his shirt, he's bought the tie, he's bought the scarf, everything's fresh out of the packet. He's perceived that's what everyone's going to be like, they're all going to be upper class, and this is how I need to dress and it's my first day at school and I want to fit in. Then he arrives and it's just like, whoa, everyone's in their pajamas and UGG boots and Juicy Couture. We then see him in his grays and greens with his shirt buttoned up, and the chinos, the leather belt that's sparkling and brand new. I didn't want him to stick out at all, so using those colors set him back in the background, and dulled him. Then as we move on, he slowly becomes part of the gang and then the polo shirts, hoodies, and jeans rather than the chinos but there's always awkwardness about it. There's no Ralph Lauren, there's no Tommy Hilfiger, they're very much plain and that's a representation that he doesn't have the money to buy what they have. With costumes, I would break everything down, so everything's washed, which would make everything softer. All of Felix's clothes were made softer and a little bit more worn. For Oliver, I didn't break anything down. I didn't take any of the colors to a degree because I wanted it to always look like he'd just purchased everything there was a slight awkwardness to it.
Jillian Chilingerian: I like that you mentioned color because I'm always fascinated in films when you can tell that the color palettes are really informed whether we're outside and it's a landscape and obviously here Saltburn, the residence, is such a major character as a location. When we get there there is a tonal shift, but specifically with the Midsummer's Night party. Shooting that and having the clothes contrast to how the light is. I love the Valentino dress and Oliver's little look and then Felix's no effort, with the wings. How was that matching color palettes to these different locations or mood shifts?
Sophie Canale: It's always such a big conversation with Emerald and Linus about what colors for setting the mood for each scene for Oliver. It was a big discussion of how do you see this and so that was a really nice collaboration to work with them both. Knowing that the Midsummer Night's Dream was going to be set overnight, fabric choices and sourcing dresses and items, were really poignant to make sure that during night shoots, we were able to capture so much from the clothing, and with the Valentino dress was really important, but also, the whiteness of Felix's vest and also having the shimmering gold sprayed onto his wings as well just to kind of highlight them and give some definition. We've got a jewelry dress for Venetia, so that's just amazing to be able to capture the light. That was an amazing piece to be able to design, and having the underdress black gave the opportunity for the silver jewelry to enrich, then adding tiny silver and gems which would symbolize dewdrops onto the cobweb was able to capture the light as well. So it was taking all these different elements to be able to heighten everything for a night shoot. Oliver's suit was very much taking inspiration from British folklore costumes with acorns and the oak leaf. Emerald and I very much wanted it to be a color that would stand out at night. So there were many camera tests to make sure it wasn't too white but worked on the screen. That was the balance between the white and the threads used in the embroidery.
Jillian Chilingerian: That shot of the back of the dress with all this shimmering.
Sophie Canale: There's a tiny little spider that hangs down her back and just sits there. That was a really enjoyable collaboration with Fiona Bharti who's a costume prop, jeweler, and maker.
Jillian Chilingerian: I want to talk about Carey Mulligan because she's so iconic in this. We mostly know her from period pieces and so between this and Promising Young Woman, just seeing her be so colorful and play around as Pamela, she's so talented.
Sophie Canale: The character reads off the page and is so much fun. Visually we started looking at characters that were British fashion icons, people like Isabella Blow and Daphne Guinness. They had such a distinctive look. Also using fashion archive pieces of the time and the monochrome look. We've got some beautiful Christopher Kane pieces and nice textures, but I felt like I didn't need to overplay the color with Pamela. I think her character was enough, and actually bringing in quite a monochrome color palette with her actually kind of gave her quite a lot of structure. We had such great fittings, there was lots of laughter a lot of the elements, a lot of the costumes, very structured and quite restrictive as well. There's the Alexander McQueen dress, we've got such a tall collar. It was interesting to see how she stood and how her development of Pamela started. More is more basically with Pamela and Butler at Wilson Jewelry as well which is a fun British brand that you can play with. Why have two necklaces when you can have 11? With the Chanel costume, she's got as many bangles up her arms. The costume standby, who was looking after was like, Sophie, I'm not sure I've ever had so much jewelry on an actress and both Carey and I were like, more and more. It was just brilliant.
Jillian Chilingerian: I love that. I also love the reference to the "Dump Him" t-shirt. With the costumes, it's almost like a visual history of pop culture of the time. It translates well when it's such a perfect archive of people.
Sophie Canale: Well, that's what I love doing. I love the costume and, I love fashion and period fashion. And so I'm pleased that you feel that way. Thank you.
Jillian Chilingerian: I was dying to have this conversation because I just love how everyone looks in this film. Even though I don't know if it's good or bad, since it is the early 2000s.
Sophie Canale: Yeah, I will not be buying a useless belt though, I have no need for that.
You can read our review of Saltburn, here.