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Nominated for four Golden Globes, Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020) has generated quite the buzz. In this dark comedy thriller, a young woman named “Cassie” (Carey Mulligan) seeks to avenge the rape of her childhood friend by making predatory men pay for their actions. Clothing plays a key role in Cassie’s game, as they lure those men into her trap. I recently had the privilege of talking to costume designer Nancy Steiner about the work that went into creating these iconic costumes.
Recently, the Hollywood Foreign Press released their nominations for this year’s upcoming Golden Globes ceremony. Women artists – especially women artists of color – are snubbed so regularly by these organizations that it’s become expected. And of course, I have my opinions on who was cheated this time around and who did not deserve the nominations they did get (Emily in Paris? Really?). But there did come one welcome surprise this year: Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020) and its four nominations, including for Best Drama Motion Picture and Best Director. Before the buzz around this dark-comedy thriller subsides, and since I’ve been writing so much lately about costume design, I thought I’d talk about its costumes, which play a key role in the film’s storytelling.
Apart from jewelers themselves, nobody is quite as familiar with jewelry, its uses, symbolism, and history as journalist and writer Melanie Grant. In her book, Coveted: Art and Innovation in High Jewelry (2020), she offers a comprehensive look at jewelry as an art. Her commentary, along with that of successful jewelers, fosters an appreciation for the craft and sparks a conversation on its role in society. Throughout her musings, Grant explores jewelry’s commercialist undercurrent, which quietly undermines its artistic integrity by discouraging freedom and innovation.
From October 30 to December 13, 2020, in conjunction with Netflix’s release of the limited series The Queen’s Gambit and the highly anticipated fourth season of The Crown, the Brooklyn Museum has debuted a virtual exhibition featuring select costumes from both shows. Incredibly exciting is the opportunity for exhibition goers not only to see and learn about costumes from The Crown’s fourth season but to hear from Emmy-award winning designer Amy Roberts herself, who also worked as principal designer for the third season.
There are times when a member of an older generation mentions something they consider obvious, only to see a glaze form across the face of a member of a younger generation’s. The reference has gone completely over her head. As a child, when I told my parents I hadn’t heard of something, their response would usually be, “So what are they teaching you in school?” This is not to condemn the education I received, but a genuine inquiry: why there are certain surprisingly specific gaps in my knowledge?
Set on the Uruguayan coast, Lucía Puenzo’s XXY (2007) tells the story of a 15-year-old intersex person, “Alex” (Inés Efron), who has been living as female and suppressing the development of masculine features with medication. At the start of the film, she has stopped taking this medication and begins to explore her sexual identity while trying to cope with the difficulties that come with living outside of the classifications that society assigns us.