We express our identity so much with the clothes we wear. Sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it, and as we get older and more mature, our tastes refine. What happens, though, when we experience a jolt of emotional turmoil? Does an identity shakeup translate into our wardrobe? For Jay Roach’s dark comedy, The Roses, costume designer PC Williams created two very different but defined wardrobes of two artists as their marriage crumbles around them.
Before Williams and I dove into specific characters and looks, we commiserated that modern or contemporary costume design doesn’t get its due. It goes beyond styling or just shopping for items. She curates a physical closet that she can mine inspiration from and build character with the actors she’s working with.
“I design by building an actual closet,” Williams says. “When we have curated something that detailed, then we can just start picking out pieces to see how they look as full looks or against other costumes in the scene. It can’t feel like it’s just this one thing is being worn this one time. If we create a closet, there’s a four-dimensional, living, breathing being and no longer just an idea of a character. They’re real. In order for them to feel that way, their costumes have to feel like they’ve come from somewhere rather than hanging on an actor’s body like on a hanger in a shop. Once we build the wardrobe, we can start fitting.”
Olivia Colman’s Ivy and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Theo do not share similar styles at all–opposites attract, remember? What interested Williams was how to tell a visual story of two different people colliding in love and battling it out through divorce. When Ivy becomes more successful in her job and Theo hits bumps in the road, their home lives and financial situations dictate how they want to present themselves. Their identities are beautifully telegraphed to us through fabric, color, and silhouette. Ivy gravitates towards color and pattern mixing while Theo feels more classic and traditional.
“Both of these people are artists: he’s an architect and she’s a chef, so I wanted to show the different types of creative people,” she says. “There is a spectrum, so I wanted to explore that. On top of that, I wanted to show how they change and how their dynamics develop as their relationship evolves. Olivia’s character goes from being the caregiver at home to being the breadwinner as her business gets huge. Does she lose who she is when she does that? Absolutely not. Her clothes do reflect the new spaces that she’s in, though. We keep the prints, we keep the color, but we refine the shapes to make them more fitted. Her fabrics go from less cotton and knit to silk or satin. Her pants are no longer baggy.
Theo’s wardrobe is reflective of the type of man that he is, which is someone who’s focused on design. It’s not about things not being loud and showy, but it’s about the silhouette, the detailing, and the fabric. All of fabrics are natural like linens and wool that are really modular. A lot of navy or all beige or all khaki. He is able to wear anything with absolutely anything else.”
A great example of Ivy’s looks evolving is in the butternet squash colored top she wears when friends come over for dinner, and they realize that their marriage might be in trouble. You can see more detailing any time Colman is in close-up, and while that top might not have a showy pattern, its texture reflects that same style and taste.
“That scene is so emotional, and Ivy goes through so many different things before that massive, gut-punch monologue,” Williams says. “If she was in [one of] her usual prints, it would’ve been too busy, Even though we don’t have a print there, there is still a lot of beautiful texture and color. It still feels like her. I thought that top, especially with the high-waisted, wide-leg pants, would be something that Olivia could also pull off in real life. I didn’t want the costumes to distract from what was happening in that scene, because it is a key moment for them as a couple.”
Theo, in that scene, is wearing a white shirt with an open, brown-ish button-up. Williams retains the palette and color scheme, but she opens the shirt in a great example of how our clothing–and how we wear them–can be affected by our mood or circumstance.
“The only other time that we see him outside of his normal palette is when the building falls down,” she says. “He’s wearing a button-up shirt and an almost tan cardigan. He’s wearing a similar outfit as his marriage is falling apart. In those moments, it felt like the right thing to do. He’s this kind of guy where his costumes go from suiting, at the beginning, to being much more practical. He builds his house from scratch, for goodness’ sake. Theo doesn’t care about being fashionable or on trend, but it should still be beautifully designed with amazinf cuts and incredible fabrics. Benedict is playing a character who is gardening in a £600t-shirt from Loro Piana–that’s just who this man is. I like costuming a character where his clothes are nice in terms of detail–subtle but expensive.”
I kept thinking about cooking and food styling when it comes to Ivy’s clothes becoming more elevated. If you ever watch a cooking show, some chefs refer to themselves as home cooks while others have a lot more experience as a skilled professional. If we were to watch The Roses on mute, we could see how Ivy’s ambitions grow and how that’s reflected in her costuming.
“We did look at food, and we did a lot of hand embroidery on some of her shirts and pants,” Williams adds. “My junior ACD, Jamie [Currier], spent quite a while just mark making with embroidery to see what sort of marks were the most effective of what Ivy was doing in the kitchen that could then also come onto her clothing. A lot of her shirts are from a [London-based] brand, Lisou, and I just think they’re so much fun. I think prints can sometimes be done really young, and I wanted them to feel more womanly and age-appropriate. That was a lot trickier than one might think.”
Ncuti Gatwa’s Jeffrey pops in an out of Roach’s film as Ivy’s employee, but his costuming feels different than everyone else’s. I thanked Williams for putting Gatwa in plunging necklines or sleeveless, knit tops, but the colors also feel like they belong uniquely to him. I always wanted to follow him out of a scene, because Jeffrey knew where the party was going next.
“Listen, I know what I need to give the gays when I’m designing, darling,” Williams says, with a laugh. “I’m very much aware that they need that body oddy oddy. I based a lot of Jeffrey on a friend of mine, actually, who is no longer with us, unfortunately. Him and a particular group of his Italian gay friends who are in London love an afterparty. I didn’t want us to know where to place him. He speaks with an American accent, so is he from LA? When did he come here, and how did he end up in this random city? I wanted him to feel like a character who has definitely had a life. I wanted us to be curious about him, because he’s such a cute character. And I wanted to show of Ncuti’s physique since he was comfortable doing that. I loved that moment where he was putting his tips in his Nike jockstrap–his go-go moment.”
I could never pull off Theo’s clean lines or Jeffrey’s bold silhouettes, so if I was to steal something from The Roses‘ set, I might have to sneak into Ivy’s closet. And I would find Williams in there as well.
“My favorite costume is one that we made in the studio, and it’s the dress that she wore to the barbecute when they get told that their marriage is on its las limbs,” she says. “It would work so well with the rest of my multi-colored, multi-patterned prints that I have in my wardrobe. I love the hopefulness that you get at the end of that scene after Ivy compares Theo to Charles Manson. At the end, there’s that line about hating everyone but you, and it also just reminded me of what a great shoot we had.”
The Roses is in theaters now.
