Poor Things Costume Designer Explores a Libertine Odyssey

Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman created by a Dr. Frankenstein-esque scientist (Willem Dafoe) in an alternate Victorian era. She evolves from childish curiosity to sexual hedonism after fleeing with a debauched lawyer (Mark Ruffalo). Bella travels the world on a libertine odyssey to discover her true self. Stone reunites with director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) for a provocative dark fantasy that rivals for best film of the year.

Holly Waddington (The Great, Lady Macbeth) worked with Stone and Lanthimos to craft the film’s amazing costumes. She credits the acclaimed director for “setting” her “on a pathway.” Lanthimos’ “whole approach was to let me play a little bit before showing me anything.” It was his idea for Stone’s distinctive puffy shoulders, the “Leg of Mutton” style, in her first act dresses. Waddington didn’t want “to be slavish to the [Victorian] period,” but Lanthimos believed “we were missing the trick” and needed “to do the sleeves.”

Waddington met with Stone in Athens for a fitting “to work out what we were doing with the wardrobe.” Bella’s costumes change as she mentally matures. Waddington believes “she’s like a child” who “tends to lose their clothes quickly.” Bella is seen wearing Victorian “knickers” in public. Bella’s often “half-dressed” because she just “doesn’t know to put a skirt on.” Her sexual awakening is further explored in a Paris brothel. Waddington didn’t want to “deliver something that looked pornographic.” It was not “appropriate” for a “liberated character” to be in “corsets” and “exaggerated boots.” The brothel costumes were “breast revealing” with “soft, beautiful skin tones that were just very easy on the eye.” Read on for our complete interview with Holly Waddington, which you can also watch in the video above.

Leg of Mutton Sleeves

Poor Things

Release Date

December 8, 2023

Director

Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast

Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef

Rating

R

Runtime

2hr 21min

Genres

Romance, Sci-Fi

MovieWeb: You’ve previously worked with screenwriter Tony McNamara on The Great. Talk about the initial collaborative process between him and Yorgos Lanthimos on the costume design?

Holly Waddington: Yorgos had been working for quite a while with the production design team, Shona Heath and James Price, before I got involved. I think the whole approach was to let me play a little bit before showing me anything. That was good. He doesn’t necessarily give you a vision. He is very good at sort of setting you on a pathway to find something. It wasn’t at all prescriptive. That was so great about the job. We were allowed to come up with things.

MW: The puffy shoulders on Emma’s dresses and the silhouettes around her neck, where did that come from?

Holly Waddington: The book is set in the late 1800s. The script, Tony had a date, I think it was 1886. I went off on a mission. I didn’t need to be at all slavish to the period. I could have explored it in any way that I had wanted. That was kind of the theme of the job description. I did start with the late Victorian period. I was looking at all the different shapes of that decade. This brief period, when the shoulders do go massive, it’s called the Leg of Mutton sleeve. I had slightly avoided that, because I was just interested in an earlier period where the skirts were very interesting.

Depicting a Sexual Awakening Without Being Pornographic

MW: Bella goes through a sexual awakening. The costumes follow her through this liberation. She starts exploring herself with these miniskirts. Talk about that transition where the dresses become shorter.

Holly Waddington: They’re not miniskirts. They’re little knickers. I was thinking she’s like a child. She’s getting dressed by Mrs. Prim [Vicki Pepperdine]. I’ve observed with my own kids, they tend to lose their clothes quite quickly. They’re often in a state of half-dressed. They’re often not wearing their pants, or not wearing their skirts, things often get taken off. I was playing with that idea. It also just looked really good. I had this fitting with Emma Stone. We met up in Athens to work out what we were doing with the wardrobe. I wanted her input. I had six big suitcases full of shapes, ideas, and things to try on. We had a day of dressing up.

Holly Waddington: It just seemed to work for the character to have these little shorts, but it’s definitely a pair of knickers and not a miniskirt. She’s kind of getting herself dressed when she goes off to Lisbon. She has this blue traveling costume. But when she has the siesta with Duncan [Mark Ruffalo], and then comes out again in Lisbon, she doesn’t bother to put the skirt on. She just doesn’t know that you should put a skirt on. She just steps out into the streets in her knickers.

MW: Poor Things‘ second act has Bella in a brothel. There are revealing costumes like the bondage scene. Talk about designing those scenes with Emma where they’re not excessively pornographic.

Holly Waddington: What was on my mind was not to deliver something that looked pornographic or like sex stuff. I had lots of great images of Victorian brothels. These women looked incredible. They had really amazing corsets, long black stockings, and exaggerated boots. We didn’t bother with that course. We felt like it was not appropriate. It was sort of shackling for this very free, liberated character. I wanted to design something that didn’t have a corset in it for the brothel. So instead, everything was breast revealing. The shapes are all about revealing the breasts.

Holly Waddington: They were made out of this fabulous fabric. It had this kind of interesting texture. It was like skin. We made each of the women in bras with huge sleeves. The breasts were revealed. Then the whole bodies were revealed if the person wanted to be revealed. It was about celebrating their bodies. And also the color palette, I felt like it was really soft, beautiful, in different skin tones that were just very easy on the eye in this very beautiful space. The brothel itself was all peacock blues, purples, and quite heavy colors. I thought this would be quite a good thing to do.

Related: 10 Movies That Have Mesmerizing Costume Designs

Celebrating Bodies

MW: Let’s talk about the men. They’re Victorian and stuffy in dark suits. But Jerrod Carmichael struck me as different in a really deep blue suit. His look deviates from the other male characters.

Holly Waddington: You observed that really well. I actually pushed him into a different time period. That’s why he looks different. He’s not in Victorian dress. I pushed him and Martha, played by Hanna Schygulla, more like in the early ’30s, because they’re so progressive in their outlook and world view. I felt like it was a nice thing to give them a slightly different period. That blue jacket was a ’20s nautical double-breasted jacket that I’d found. It just worked on him. He’s kind of a clothes horse, you know? He looks great in everything.

Related: The 25 Best Period-Piece Movies of All Time, Ranked

MW: What was your best and worst day as costume designer of Poor Things?

Holly Waddington: Probably when Emma Stone’s sleeve fell off because she was throwing raspberries around. I realized that the clothes needed to have a gusset. It’s a kind of piece that goes under the arm. The costumes had to be made like ballet costumes. She’s moving everything in a way that people don’t tend to do. That was a terrible moment. It held up filming, which was not a good thing. It’s not a good look.

Holly Waddington: The best moment was the wedding dress. It was very tricky to make. I was trying to make this big structure that was also sort of defying gravity. It had to hold up like these big balloons, but it was almost made of nothing. I was slightly dreading it. I’d had a text in the middle of the night to say it was going a bit wrong. I was really, really worried. Then it all came together as things often do.

Poor Things will be released theatrically on December 8th from Searchlight Pictures.