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Costume Designer

May 4, 2012

Fashion in Film Festival: If Looks Could Kill (May 4-13)

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[Image via the Museum of the Moving Image]

The title, If Looks Could Kill, has taken on an entire different meaning from May 4th-May 13th, 2012, as the Museum of the Moving Image in New York collaborates with the London-Based Fashion in Film Festival and the London College of Fashion to bring the exhibition, research, and education to the States. The festival, curated by Marketa Uhlirova and Davis Schwartz, with Associate curator, Christel Tsilibaris, explores the compelling links between cinema, television, fashion, crime, and violence. The festival will cover themes of disguise, desire, and corruption of beauty by featuring characters, costumes, styling, gestures, and cinematic genres covering thriller, gangster, film noir, and horror.

Various movie screenings will occur every day, giving you a chance to catch a flick, learn about the research, and listen to guest speakers, including costume designers John Dunn and Lisa Padovani from Boardwalk Empire, assistant costume designer, Lauren Press, from The Sopranos, Shelley Fox, a professor of Fashion at Parsons The New School for Design, Betsey Wissinger, a professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community college, and film scholar, Tom Gunning. Do not miss your chance to check out this phenomenal series of events!

Schedule:
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April 26, 2012

A Chat With Leesa Evans, Costume Designer of The Five-Year Engagement

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[All movie stills courtesy of Image.net]

“The Five-Year Engagement,” starring Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Alison Bree, and Chris Pratt is the new romcom due in theaters Friday, April 27th, that gives a comedic perspective of what happens to a couple when their walk down the aisle keeps getting perpetually delayed. I had the pleasure of chatting with Leesa Evans, costume designer for the film who also worked on last year’s smash hit romantic comedy, “Bridesmaids.”

I had questions, like for starters, where do you even begin to figure out what to get, what to make and how to organize it without going bananas? Read on for what it’s like working with Jason Segel, an important camera styling trick, and advise for those of you who want to break into the biz!  P.S. – check out the movie’s site and blog, TomandViolet.com, which functions as a true couple’s wedding site. It is genius, adorable, and hilarious, of course!

[Costume Designer Leesa Evans]

Fashion Pulse Daily: How much is doing costumes for a movie a collaborative process with the actor(s) involved, and how much is it working independently to find the items you need, and presenting them to the actor(s)? I imagine it depends on the film and the character’s needs…

Leesa Evans: “The collaborative effort is always initially with the director. I come up with a design concept for the film and present it to the director; we collaborate more about the characters and what the film should look like. And then when the actors get involved they bring more ideas to the table and the collaborating continues…it’s continual and ongoing.”

FPD: What are some little known facts about selecting certain colors or prints, and how the appear on ‘the big screen’? For example, perhaps a way to beat the theory, via clothing, that ‘the camera adds 10 pounds’?

LE: “I think the most important styling trick for anyone going on camera is to keep the silhouette small. I love using color, I just use it sparingly.”

FPD: When do you start researching and acquiring product, and a team to for a movie? Maybe three months before filming? Can you give us a timeline of the process, perhaps as your most recent project, “The Five-Year Engagement” as an example?
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