Alexandra Byrne, Historical Fashion Extraordinaire
Academy Award-winning costume designer Alexander Byrne has masterfully brought Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma to life in its current film adaptation. Naturally, the original source material was a significant source of inspiration for Byrne’s aesthetic choices. Since the text delves deeply into the eponymous protagonist’s perspective, Byrne strove to visualize this by creating a lavish, engaging setting that makes audiences feel as though they are part of Emma’s world.
Byrne also took Emma’s wealth and self-indulgence into consideration, and therefore had the character constantly change outfits throughout the film. Byrne’s artistic vision for Emma was further shaped by her reading the script and collaborating with director Autumn de Wilde. Ideas for costumes initially came not from historical accuracy, but instead from analyzing the characters in the script and planning their respective attire. When Byrne eventually did her research on the era of fashion in which the story takes place, she learned that fabric was more delicate and light and she delighted in the freedom to create a diverse array of costumes by bejeweling and embroidering the fabric.
Aiding her in this precision was de Wilde, who pleasantly surprised Byrne by sharing her flair for historical fashion. De Wilde provided Byrne with detailed reference images of pre-1900s garments and insisted upon the film being as colorful as it was to remain accurate to the time period. Byrne has designed costumes for films across various genres, but her most outstanding work is that which she has created for period films. Earlier in her career she designed costumes for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, for which she has won an Oscar. Queen Elizabeth I was renowned for her beauty and extravagant gowns, and as such Byrne created a memorable, albeit historically inaccurate, blue gown fit for such a queen. Byrne earned another Oscar nomination for Mary, Queen of Scots, in which she took the unique approach of building medieval costumes from altered denim to implicitly denote modernity. Overall, Alexandra believes that costume design should immerse viewers in a film’s environment and time period, which she has always executed impeccably.
Report: Nia Hunt
At the rise of Covid-19 many of us first questioned the timeline of fashion week and would we see the regular calendar continue - the question weighed over many of us for months! It was refreshing to see design houses and designers across the globe take advantage of the uncertainty and plow into production mode - thus my interest in Jerri Reid New York - The Black Designer based in Brooklyn New York wow’d instagram with his latest collection paying homage to the Black Is King film which debuted earlier this year in July. I was taken aback at quick of a turn round the young designer produced and released his well crafted designs reflecting some of the films most memorable moments.