black swan costume designs

I understand some of you haven't seen it so don't threat I'm not going to start reeling off all the dets. Obviously I was really interested in the costume which was created by the Rodarte sisters. As you know there a fashion house not exactly costume designers. But anyway I have one major problem: THERE WASN'T ENOUGH.Heres an interview with the two

In many ways, Black Swan was a dream project for Rodarte. For starters, they’re movie buffs. “Our first relationship to clothing didn’t come from what our mom was wearing,” says Laura Mulleavy, speaking for the pair, “It came from film.” Famously, Mrs. Mulleavy, whose maiden name is Rodarte, let her daughters play hooky so that she could give them another kind of education. “We watched The Philadephia Story, The Thin Man films, and anything with Cary Grant. She just thought it would be fun for us,” Laura recalls. As they got older, the girls expanded their love for old Hollywood films to foreign and horror flicks. Early Rodarte collections demonstrate these contrasting influences—one season they sent romantic, ethereal gowns down the runway, and the next, they slashed the gowns to pieces and soaked them in red-dye for a decidedly bloody effect. When asked to name her favorite film costumes, Laura cites Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, and Hellraiser, in one breath.

So when the sisters heard about “this secret script around Hollywood, a ballet horror film,” they were instantly intrigued. Serendipitously, their close friend Natalie Portman was cast as the film’s lead (Nina Sayers) and recommended Rodarte to the director. The Mulleavys soon discovered that they had instant chemistry with Aronofsky, who is known for an exacting aesthetic and meticulous perfectionism equal to their own. After discussing the director’s basic needs, the sisters hunkered down to design the costumes for the “Swan Lake” performance at the film’s climax. “It was our job to step into Darren’s head and take the audience to that extreme moment where you feel as though ballet is the most beautiful thing in the world,” says Laura, “Because if you didn’t believe that it was truly beautiful, how could you believe Nina would go through all that for this end product?”

The sisters began sketching in October, constructed more than 40 pieces (plus duplicates and sometimes triplicates) in November, and finished the costumes in early January—all while preparing for their Fall Winter 2010/2011 collection and an exhibition, “Quicktake: Rodarte,” at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in February. While working on Black Swan, a film that explores the relentless demands of the creative process—in it, even the toe shoes get smacked around—life began to imitate art for the designers. “I remember flying on red-eyes with giant boxes of tutus and thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this! I have a show!’” Laura recalls, “Sometimes a lapse in creativity, a moment to rest a little bit, works for you—and then sometimes it benefits you to be pushed. We never stopped thinking of ideas. We just didn’t have time.”

In the end, the intense pressure yielded inventive results. With the advice of choreographer (and now Portman fiance) Benjamin Millepied, the Mulleavys tweaked their designs to suit the dancers’ needs. For the characters Rothbart and the Black Swan’s metal headpieces, the designers worked with burnt copper. “It’s lightweight, so the dancer can support it, but it still has the power of metal. When you see it in real life, it looks really heavy,” says Laura of the deceptive crown.

There was also the tricky matter of designing a gown for the gala in the film that was cut low enough in front to satisfy a body-conscious ballerina—but high enough in back to cover Nina’s self-mutilated shoulder blades. “Because I design women’s wear, I know it’s difficult to make a beautiful back on a dress with a low-cut front. The question became, ‘How can you do that in a way that’s as delicate as possible?’” says Laura. The sisters’ clever solution is revealed when Nina’s overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey) helps her undress by detaching the gown’s shoulder-piece. Remarkably, its swooping neckline stays put.

Given the encrusted costumes, the bejeweled headpieces, and the white feather cape (which didn’t make it to film), it may be surprising that Laura’s favorite piece was the gray practice tutu. Handed down from prima ballerina to prima ballerina, a practice tutu is intended to mimic the heft and shape of the pricey costume that will be worn in performance. In “Swan Lake,” the ballerina wears a pancake tutu that juts out from the body to show off the dancer’s legs, which is particularly important during Odile’s 32 fouettes. To design Nina’s practice tutu, the Mulleavys riffed on the ruined skirts of Degas’ bronze ballerina by layering scores of tulle in graduated colors, starting at the leg in pale, pointe-shoe pink. and progressing to darker and darker shades of gray. Yes, even the undersides of these costumes are stunning.