Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Triple Oscar-winning costume designer known for period dramas such as The King's Speech and the post-apocalyptic steampunk of Mad Max Fury Road.
On the island
Eight records
Aria from St Matthew PassionFavourite
It's from the St Matthew Passion, which is probably the piece of music I first took in and really listened to because both my parents were classical musicians and it was very badly paid in the 50s. So when they were both in something, I was often taken along to rehearsal. And I have this incredible memory of I think it must have been a rehearsal room in somewhere like the Royal College of Music because it's a big Victorian room. I'm sitting on a bentwood chair. My feet don't touch the ground. And they've rehearsed and I've heard it. And then they're putting their instruments away. And my mother's wrapping her viola in a scarf. And my father has a rather nice yellow duster which goes round his cello neck. And I just can see it as if it was yesterday. And the music's just crept into my soul at this point.
We had some really wonderful funny records like Planters and Swan and this fabulous Nilkart and we used to listen to them in the evenings with a cup of tea.
Disc number three is the flower song from Carmen, which I designed for Covent Garden at a ridiculously early age, doing a sort of rescue mission due to people not being available.
I remember sitting in the cinema for the Cast and Cruise screening and absolutely being blown away by the choice of this music which I had no idea was going to be on the film.
It's having my daughter with me, probably the most important person in my life.
This makes me laugh and has made me laugh from the minute I saw it.
I have actually sung along to the record at moments of my life and I just think it'd be brilliant.
It's the sort of music I go to when I need uplifting, I need some kind of spiritual moment which I find music is very good for.
In conversation
Presenter asks
11:19What do you remember about losing your mother when you were fourteen?
I'm funny about death. I don't know. I've always had an just an inevitability about it, so it's sad, but it's not anything that isn't in a funny way normal.
Presenter asks
14:12How did you get the gig designing sets and costumes for Carmen at the Royal Opera House at just twenty-one?
I'd been sent to the Welsh Theatre Company as an Arts Council trainee assistant designer, which was a fantastic scheme that ran then, and you would be put in a theatre. And that at that time was run by Michael Jelliott, who also ran Welsh National Opera. And he'd been asked to do Carmen at Covent Garden and had actually asked my head of department when I was at Central School of Art and Design, Ralph Coltai, to do the sets. And Ralph was very modern in his design style. He did really extremely beautiful sculptural sets. But the conductor, Sir George Schulte, who was coming back for his first sort of gig after he'd left the opera house and was coming back as a guest conductor, didn't want a modern interpretation. So suddenly, you know, Ralph decided it wasn't right for him, and they were left without a designer. And Michael turned to me, I'd done two incredibly small shows for him at the Welsh Theatre Company, which is an 80-seater and splot. Said, what did I think of Carmen? And I said, well, you know, of course I know a bit of it, but I've never really. So he said, well, listen to it and see what you come up with that one. Now, as I was an arts council trainee assistant, I thought, oh, well, that's just him, you know, asking me to do something. So I designed a set for Act One, which is the Piazza. And he took a look at it and he said, We're going on a plane tomorrow. Have you got a passport? I said, Yes, we're going to Frankfurt. We're going to see Sergeio Kascholti. I want you to show this to him to do Carmen. So I packed up the model and off we went to Frankfurt and Scholzey said, I'd just like to see what you'd do for Act Two. So I came back and designed Act Two and he liked it. So that's how I got the gig. And then happily in the house, this is a house in Putney. My friend David Fielding was living there. He'd just, we were at college together and he'd come back. So I got him involved. So we actually ended up doing it together. And then he sort of took on the props and then because I was suddenly then asked to do the costumes. How did that come about? So at first it was just the sets and then what happened? Well nobody wanted to do costumes for a 21 year old designer's sets. So it was like you will do it, you know. So how many are we talking? About 400.
The keepsakes
The book
Collected Works of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
I'm afraid it's going to be the complete works of Jane Austen, if I'm allowed, because I find her so re-readable and I needed something that I can re-read and re-read and re-read. And she's always got something terribly pertinent to say.
The luxury
I've thought about this deeply and from, you know, endless mosquito repellent, I think a cello. Because it's the instrument I did learn when I was younger and I would obviously need some music and I would have a real go at it and try and do it properly.
Presenter asks
21:26How did you go about imagining costumes for the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max Fury Road?
It's exactly the same as if you're doing Jane Austen or Modern or King's Speech. It's a story of these characters and what their backgrounds are and where they've come from. And in this, it happens in the post-apocalyptic world. They're surviving with very little. They're in a world without much water. And it's a whole different set of rules, rules of survival. And a lot of them are... only kept alive by the curious contraptions they wear like the mask on the Immorton Joe and the breathing thing on his back or Rictus Suractus with his breathing thing and his you know and that because like the war boys have nowhere to put anything pockets would be really handy so you know they would keep whatever they owned in pockets and that gave them a much sort of more solid look but a real teamwork thing actually well as it should be
Presenter asks
23:53What's your recollection of the headlines after you collected your BAFTA in an MS leather jacket?
Well, I didn't hear it because I was already backstage. And I love Stephen, and I love the fact he said that. Of course, I did. I had my shirt tiles hanging out. I mean. It it was just a I thought it was just an absolutely fine thing to say and um I didn't think it did me anything but good, really. But obviously this kind of hubbub around it, how long did it take to die down? And did that kind of creep into your real life at all? Were there people outside the house and things like that? Yeah, we did we had a bit of that. But what was interesting was actually understanding what film stars go through. Just having a moment of learning what it feels like to be recognised under the street and all that. Died down very quickly. It was all fine.
Presenter asks
28:28Was there much collaboration between yourself and Dior for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris?
I understood when I took on the job that Dior would be doing the Dior part. I hadn't really thought it through, to be honest, because obviously that is not how an Haute Couture house works. But anyway, I went to the archives and had the most wonderful time. They were so helpful, so wonderful. I saw what they had from the 50s, which curiously is not a lot, because in those days they didn't see the need to keep pieces. They made their collection, they sold it, they moved on. And then I realised, of course, as we were looking at them with our white gloves on, there was no way that we would be using these frocks that still existed. And so I remember sitting round the table at the end of the day and thanked them so much for a fabulous time and how much I'd learnt and how wonderful it was we were going to be working together and four faces looked at me in horror from the other side and went non and I thought oh interesting. So I said well I do know people who can recreate Dior, certainly for a film but it will be very expensive and that's what we did. John Bright and Jane Law made the most beautiful Dior recreations which are worn in the film, which was obviously a lot more than I quite understood when I took it on.
Presenter asks
30:38What do you mean by being terrified and how does that fuel your creativity?
Oh, I think there's always a a point when you think, I don't know what they should look like. I mean, you've seen it in your head when you read it, but the truth is that you actually haven't a clue. And you slowly work your way in and bite sized chunks. And I sort of love that. And then I love the moment when you stop being terrified because you've actually found it or your version of it and everyone seems happy. But yeah, I I am still like, I don't know what to do. I really don't know what this should look like. Which is happening. I've got a possible project for later this year. Very different again. I can't say what it is. But I already I'm happily terrified.
“I think the thing I'm looking for is when the actor turns and says, Now I know who I am.”
“I have this incredible memory of I think it must have been a rehearsal room in somewhere like the Royal College of Music because it's a big Victorian room. I'm sitting on a bentwood chair. My feet don't touch the ground. And they've rehearsed and I've heard it. And then they're putting their instruments away. And my mother's wrapping her viola in a scarf. And my father has a rather nice yellow duster which goes round his cello neck. And I just can see it as if it was yesterday. And the music's just crept into my soul at this point.”
“I'm funny about death. I don't know. I've always had an just an inevitability about it, so it's sad, but it's not anything that isn't in a funny way normal.”
“I think there's always a a point when you think, I don't know what they should look like. I mean, you've seen it in your head when you read it, but the truth is that you actually haven't a clue. And you slowly work your way in and bite sized chunks. And I sort of love that. And then I love the moment when you stop being terrified because you've actually found it or your version of it and everyone seems happy.”
“I would like Gloria Gona singing I Will Survive and I have actually sung along to the record at moments of my life and I just think it'd be brilliant. I will blast this out on this desert island and no one will hear me.”