If you've seen A24's dystopian war epic 'Civil War', you surely noticed the unique costuming layered throughout the different militias and journalists throughout the film. Hawaiian T-shirts? Painted fingernails? Transparent red sunglasses? Pretty cool. 'Civil War' costume designer Meghan Kasperlik put a lot of time, research, and thought into how to flesh out director Alex Garland's dystopian United States. Working closely with Garland, she took inspiration from real life war journalists and considered what different militia members would realistically wear in this world. She even made seven jackets out of a table cloth. Read below Kasperlik's process and advice for aspiring costume designers everywhere. Editor's note: the following quotes from Meghan Kasperlik are edited for length and clarity. Number One Rule of Costume Design? Research "I do a tremendous amount of research, and I'm really interested in getting into the character's head and what they do—what they do for a job, where did they go to college or they didn't go to college, what do they eat? I go full gamut and try to learn as much as possible. For Lee's character (Kirsten Dunst) in Civil War, I read a book by Lynsey Addario, a very famous female war photographer. As I was reading this book, I thought, oh, wow, the beginning stages of Lindsay's book are kind of where Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) is. As she gets more professional, it's like, oh, this is later in life, this is the stage where Kirsten's character Lee is. By no means are either...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Saturday, 11 May