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All Of It with Alison Stewart
'Nosferatu' Costume Designer Linda Muir
00:12:47
Costume designer Linda Muir discusses her Oscar-nominated work to bring director Robert Eggers' vision to life in "Nosferatu."
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Linda Muir
Listener supported WNYC studios.
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Alison Stewart
You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. We continue our series the Big Picture. That's when we speak to the creatives who work behind the camera to make Oscar nominated films of the past year. Let's talk Nosferatu. Costume designer Linda Muir did extensive research into the German fashions of the age and into the history of Transylvania. The details of Linda's work help tell the story and every choice is important, from the design of corsets to the fabrication of a nightgown. Lynda has been working with director Robert Eggers since the Witch. Her work on Nosferatu earned her an Oscar nomination for best costume design, her first ever nomination. I began our conversation by asking Linda what the first step is when beginning a new Robert Eggers project.
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Linda Muir
Well, the first step is after reading the script, looking through the incredible lookbooks that Robert provides. Images, you know, and they have, they address atmosphere, they address locations, they address costuming, they can be portraits, they can be, you know, images that he's culled over the period where he was writing the script and he's used the as inspiration for writing the script. So they are kind of key. And then from that I start my own research process and sort of add to all of that.
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Alison Stewart
Where does the research process start for you?
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Linda Muir
For me, it starts with reading about the clothing of whatever period the film is set at. And so I have an extensive personal collection of books, but I also then start ordering books that are specifically for the period of the next film. And once I understand, you know, trying always to think of these as garments, as clothing as opposed to costuming, and then trying to sort of figure out if I have an accurate idea of what, you know, what garments meant, certain things at that period, I can start to sort of think about how would that apply to different characters? How can I bring out the character of Ellen, for instance, how can I bring out the character of Harding or Anna and how do they differ? And you know, so it's, you know, you compile it and you just keep building it and building it and layering it and layering it and then consulting with Robert always.
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Alison Stewart
So this film takes place in 1838. And you said in an interview in focus features that 1838 was a very specific year for men and women's clothing. What was unique about that year?
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Linda Muir
It's more importantly, very specific leading up to 1838 for women because, pardon me, earlier in the decade, the gigot sleeve and the women's bodices were really, really large. And they start to actually change. They start to become smaller. The forearm starts to change a little bit. And it really is sort of setting up what the silhouette for the 1840s and 1850s become. And so, in looking at actual garments from the period, it was really fascinating to me to look inside the sleeves and see, oh, they didn't take all that fabric out, you know, thinking that the fabric would have been an incredibly. You know, it would have been very dear to people to buy that fabric. And so not knowing what was coming up in designs later on, they would sort of economize and do these crazy little pleats and crazy little folds inside the sleeves. So it was getting my head around. And, you know, what would. For instance, Anna, a character who is very wealthy. Her husband is very wealthy. So she has everything. Her children have everything. And they're little tiny replications of, you know, like what she wears. And so she should be dressed right up to the minute. You know, so her wardrobe, she has a change for every script day and accessories, hair, ornaments, flowers, shoes, jewelry, all of that should be right up to the minute. And therefore, she sort of looks like a fashion plate, whereas Ellen, clothing is far less important to her. She really just wants to be in love with Hutter, and she really just wants to be rid of Orlok. And so, you know, she has fewer costume choices, clothing choices. She has left her home, packed a trunk, and she's now staying with the Hardings. So the script also tells us that she has access to fewer clothing. You know, the colors, what are the colors? Research tells us what are the colors of the day. And then from that, you try to choose what are the colors that that character would choose. What are the finishes in the fabrics? Are they velvet? Are they silk? Are they cotton? Are they linen?
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Alison Stewart
It's interesting because Ellen, who's the object of a vampire's desire, spends a lot of time in a white nightgown.
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Linda Muir
She certainly does.
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Alison Stewart
What was it made of?
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Linda Muir
Her nightgown was made of cotton. And there was a really fabulous manual that I discovered that was written by a lady and attributed to a lady, and it was called the Work Woman's Guide to. And then it goes on, basically to say, to make everything that you would need in a household. And so within that manual, I discovered the fact that a household would make. They would buy bulk fabric, cotton or linen, and then they would make six of nightgowns, six men's shirts, six babies bibs, six babies, whatever. And so we took that information and we sort of used it as a model or an idea for how we would approach certain garments for the film. So Ellen has the same silhouette nightgown, whereas Anna has two different silhouettes. Anna's nightgowns have far more fabric in them. Ellen's are a more restrained silhouette. But what we did to make Ellen's nightgown special for the film is that because of the circumstance that we see Ellen in her nightgown, first of all in bed, waking up in her room with Hutter. And that is the most diaphanous, lightest weight. See, you can see through it. You can see her skin beneath it. It reflects the beautiful makeup that Tracy did where she looks opalescent and she just looks dewy. And so then in another script instance, we see Ellen rushing out into the rain. So obviously we want to not reveal Lily Rose too much. We want Ellen to be present and in the forefront. So that has three layers. That's much thicker.
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Alison Stewart
Oh, interesting.
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Linda Muir
Yes. And then we see her as a somnambulist, and so she's walking out into the night. That's very different lighting. Jaron does beautiful moonlight. And so that required a slightly different version of the same nightgown as well. So we manipulate what is a true fact, but we use certain thoughts or techniques, you know, to kind of involve and evoke more.
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Alison Stewart
We've got a great text here that says Ellen goes crazy and rips her dress. Bodice. Can you talk about that costume decision? Was it planned? How does that affect the production if the bodice, if there's more than one take?
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Linda Muir
Yes. Well, I mean, ripping blood, mud, Robert loves it all. And, you know, so we actually. The Northman, Nicole Kidman, her character of Gudrun, rips open her dress. And that was really the first with Robert, the first instance of developing an idea of how to preset the dress and then stitch it up, which is. I mean, this is a theatrical technique as well. And so that the actress is not struggling in the moment to rip it. It's pre set. It was much more difficult in the case of the Northman because that was a very plain front wool dress. And so it was more difficult to obscure that with the case of Ellen. It is a Striped fabric. It is a chevron pattern, so the two slanted stripes come to the centre and there's a center front seam. So the actual cut of the bodice really did help facilitate that because it has an existing center front seam. We bound it. So we did a piped edge, which also helped in terms of Lily Rose being able to get her fingers into it and really tear it apart. We added a little, what was called a dickey, which is the lovely linen, actually, maybe it was cotton and lace, little piece that tucks inside, you know, so when she rips it open. We've already seen the corset a lot. We've already seen her underpinnings a lot. But then an audience can go, oh, that's interesting. You know, so that's like a little collar that they added on. So, yes, it was absolutely planned. We go through the whole process of thinking of how many multiples. So I planned to use that dress also in the scene where Lily Rose is getting down and dirty in the mud in the beach. So we had to do multiples for that. So we also had to do multiples for the ripping. So we combine. We used the same dress, which makes perfect sense because she is, you know, has a limited wardrobe, staying at her friend's place. And then we went through and thought, okay, so the bodice and the skirt are made separately, and then they're stitched together. So we made fewer skirts, more bodices. And then every time Lily Rose ripped it open. And I think we did about 30 takes of that seam. It was restitched in the moment. And then we had another one ready. So we would. And, you know, to be honest, Lily needed time to come down and to preset and to kind of prepare for the next, as did everybody else on set. So, you know, we were stitching away.
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Alison Stewart
I interviewed Lucy Siqueira for Nightmare Alley, right. And he said that one detail might not seem like a lot, like a little button might not seem like a lot to you, but it's 40ft high on the set. What is that detail for? You got about a minute and a half.
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Linda Muir
Ooh.
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Alison Stewart
Ooh.
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Linda Muir
That's such a good question. You know, I think that it may not be in the case of Nasratu, it may not be one detail. It might be all of the buttons and all of the different buttons. You know, Orlok's costume, I think probably because he wears one costume throughout the whole film and because he's obscured for so long, you know, perhaps it is, you know, the front of his dolmen you know, because that when we finally do see it reveals the wealth and the decay and the, you know, his past, his sort of 300 year old backstory.
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Alison Stewart
That was my conversation with Nosferatu costume designer Linda Muir. She is Oscar nominated for her work on the film. Coming up the next hour we'll talk with more Oscar nominees from the wicked production designer to the substance makeup artist. That's all coming up. Stay with us. If your small business has a problem, you could say just my luck. But you should say like a good.
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Linda Muir
Neighbor, state Farm is there and we'll.
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Alison Stewart
Help get you back in business. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
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