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Jacqueline West, who has been nominated for multiple Oscars, opened up the topic of creating semi-functional stationary clothing and embedding historical references into her clothing.

When Dennis Villeneuve first contacted the costume designer Jacqueline West to work for Dune, she flatly refused. "'No, I don't shoot science fiction,'" West remembers telling the filmmaker.

A few weeks later, Villeneuve made up his mind, circled again and asked again, but West did not give in. "Dennis, I like your work," she told him, "but it's not my type."

A former high-end fashion designer turned into a clothing creator, West has won three Oscar nominations, all of which are from the critically acclaimed period movie: Philip Kaufman's biopic "Feather Pen" of the Marquis de Thad "(2000), David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "Wild Hunter" Many of her other outstanding film works are of the same genre, usually with widely acclaimed directors: Terrence Malik’s New World and Tree of Life, Ben Affleck’s Argo-followed by Martin A Western movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio of Scorsese, the killer Huayue.

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West’s reputation for in-depth research and role-driven design is what attracts Villeneuve, because he is envisioning a science fiction epic with extraordinary complexity and grandeur. "He kept saying that the reason he wanted me was because of my background in historical work," West said. "He has read some quotes that Brad Pitt once said, saying that I am a'method fashion designer'." All this is very flattering, but I just don't think I can do it. "

Mary Parent, Dune's chief producer, worked with West on The Revenant before intervening. The parents said, "Jackie, you just need to meet him. Come to my office in the legend alone; I want to put Dennis on the big screen with you from Canada. I promise you that once you hear him With the vision of this movie, you will want to do it."

"So I did," West recalled, "she was absolutely right."

The Hollywood Reporter recently contacted West to discuss her creative journey with Villeneuve on the sand dunes-and how she turned to the aesthetics of the Pope, pre-revolutionary Russia, and the Templars, for the multi-layered world of film Give symbolic meaning.

I heard that you and your collaborator Bob Morgan have designed more than 1,000 outfits for Dune. This seems to be an amazing amount of creative work. Is this a typical project of this size?

We think we actually created about 2,000 sets of clothing-400 of which are professional clothing. So this is huge. This may be better than anything in "Star Wars" or any other major science fiction movie. It has things like the original Ben-Hur or some classic epics there.

When I read the script for the first time, I thought, "Oh my God, 400 featured costumes — it's scary." So then I asked [Clothing Supervisor] Bob Morgan to join me. He had never designed before because He has supervised a lot of movies in special costumes, and I know he will hire the right staff for us, and have an incredible investment in effective things. What does not work on the human body.

What were some of the earliest creative development conversations between you and Dennis?

Initially, Dennis was most concerned about two things: what Baron Hakonan would look like, and how we would make the still life suit, because Frank Herbert’s book has such a detailed description.

The baron will be a 400-pound person, he can only walk around with a sling, because he can't carry his own weight like in the book. Dennis worried that he needed to look strong and threatening. He can't look stupid. And how should he wear it? I suggest that maybe Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now" is a good starting point-and he can wear some kind of long black silk, almost transparent, muumuu. Dennis was really furious at the idea. I think he has actually been thinking about these references inspired by Brando, because he said, "Exactly!" We were immediately on the same page.

Those Brando touches are some of the most interesting details in this movie. Of course, Stellan Skarsgard only pointed this out. So how did you start using still life clothes?

I worked with an incredible conceptual sketch artist, Keith Christensen. He came up with about four drawings of still life suits, and I immediately put them in front of Dennis, and Dennis fell in love with them. Once I took Bob, we took one of the four paintings to Jose Fernandez at Ironhead Studio (a special effects company specializing in clothing and biological design) in Los Angeles. Jose is also a dune freak through and through, and he wants to create something that fits the book perfectly. He is an amazing sculptor, he came up with a way to make it work and created a prototype.

Then, when I finished the rest of the design with my concept artist, Bob took the prototype of the still life suit to Budapest, where we will shoot. He continued to hire the best and most talented crew, most of whom came from England and came to Budapest. Then, he asked the staff to make the 250 sets of still suits we needed, all of which had to be customized because they fit very well. We have actresses who are 5 feet 3 inches tall like Rebecca Ferguson, and Jason Momoa who is 6 feet 5 inches tall. They are made separately for each body, and each one takes two weeks to make.

Dennis likes them and I think they have achieved great success. We got a lot of positive feedback from people who like this book on how they feel authentic. What I am most happy about is that they really seem to be useful-and they did keep the actors calm when filming in Jordan.

Can you share more about their construction? Their function is similar to the way described in the book, can they prevent actors from overheating in the desert?

Well, they played a role in a way...the actors didn't drink their own waste water. (Laughs.) In the book, the suit is a winery. It collects human waste water-sweat, urine-and distills all ammonia from it, and then adds oxygen to hydrogen through the bridge of the nose to produce drinking water. In the book, when you spend a day in the desert wearing a suit, you will only lose a top of water full of humans.

What we do is make a catsuit with five or six layers of fabric that we call "micro-sandwiches". This is no different from some fabrics used by Under Armour. When a football player wears it under a football mat, it will be used to absorb moisture from the body. We chose a beautiful Japanese fabric that can absorb moisture from the body, and then through the mesh system of cotton, nylon and acrylic, when moisture enters the Jordan air, it will cool the body. When there is a breeze in the desert, the wearer will have a cooling effect-the actors say this is really effective.

In the real stills of the book and the movie, there is a network of pipes that collect air from the outside through the nose pads, and at the same time collect the absorbed body water, which passes through the filtration system in the different pockets of the clothing, and then the distilled drinking water is also A cooling system is formed around the entire body. All of this is mechanized by the pump system, which starts from the heel, and the entire system is powered by muscle tissue and body movement.

For us, this means that it must have all these functional elements, but it must fit perfectly. You must be able to say that all this is mechanized by their body movements. It's very complicated and makes it look like this, because we actually have to create collection compartments through the clothing and the pipe system that runs through the clothing-around the legs, arms, chest, and neck. But we must also make it attractive and fit. This is definitely a huge challenge.

We may need one in Los Angeles soon, because the heat wave and forest fires of last summer were debilitating. I really see sand dunes as our vision for the future, and I can see that things like still life are things we need to use someday.

For other clothing, how helpful is this book? Like you said, the description of the costumes is still quite detailed, but I don't remember how many other detailed descriptions of the characters dressed. Are there any other hints in the source material?

For Dune, it is not too much description, but the feeling it gives you. I know that when I did The Revenant, I really relied on written descriptions of the costumes and costumes worn by hunters and indigenous tribes of that period. Frank Herbert did not go into these descriptions. He created a feeling. This feeling is so deep in Dennis's heart-he has such a strong and intimate feeling for this prophetic masterpiece. So Dennis became my barometer.

However, I think I also have some feelings. I'm from Berkeley and Frank Herbert wrote in the area. In fact, he wrote a lot of famous sand dunes on Allan Watts's houseboat in Sausalito Harbour, and my houseboat is only 30 feet from the Allan's houseboat when I was a kid. A few years later I went to [University of California] Berkeley and everyone was reading it. Dune was like a bible at the time. They are even sold in the Whole Earth Access store. So I always feel that I have a connection with it.

I said to Dennis: "I think this is a world ten thousand years from now." If you know this story, computers have made the world crazy and created all these interstellar problems. So I said to Dennis: "I think I have to look back at the past-the distant past-to find a style for this movie. I think it is'modern', a modern interpretation of the medieval era." Dennis likes this. . This is why he wants a designer with experience of the times.

What references do you have?

I started with Mrs. Jessica and used a lot of Goya, Caravaggio, Giotto. I use the old Marseille Tarot, the Golden Tarot, for Bene Gesserit and Mom Mohiam. I used drawings and paintings for the Avignon tapestry of the Templars in Atreides armor. For the Harkonnen world, I used a lot of medieval insects, spiders, ants, praying mantis and lizards picture books. The monks painted these absolutely beautiful pictures of various insects and animals. The textured black leather of some Harkonnen clothing comes from the ideas of insects, lizards and spiders. I have read Frank Herbert's notes. He mentioned in the notes that Baron Harkonnen's mother was called "Black Widow" and she looked like a spider, so this gave me a hint. The Harkonnen helmet comes from a huge ant head.

There are hints everywhere, such as he aligned Sardaukar with the planet Salusa Secundus, which is SS-they are the Nazis in this universe. I think the Freemans are the French resistance movement, so I think I have to disguise them like the resistance movement in southern France during the war. Every world has a symbol for me.

Many people will naturally wonder to what extent you have reviewed or avoided past explanations of Dune - whether it's David Lynch's movie, TV series or Alejandro Chodolski's famous and failed adaptation of this Try this book. Or even a lot of fan art created in decades.

I am a virgin. I have never even watched a Star Wars movie, even though I know George Lucas, because we all grew up in San Joaquin Valley. I have never watched a David Lynch movie. I have seen some fragments of Chodolowski's work. A very close friend of mine was a countess in the south of France, and when he tried to make that movie, she lived with Chotorowski in Paris. She is like my mother and I love her very much. She called him because of her relationship with "Jodo", and she showed me a clip of that documentary, and when they lived in Paris, he tried to make it. Apart from this, I don't have any reference points other than this book. I don't want to be influenced by what I know Dennis is trying to avoid.

He always said that he didn't want to make a typical science fiction movie. He doesn't want anyone to make video game costumes, space suits, or anything else he doesn't think is part of this hierarchical and complex masterpiece with mysticism. He wanted a new look that no one had seen before.

Brad Pitt's famous quote shocked me about being a "methodistic fashion designer". Do you think your method is accurate? Is this project real?

This is. I think I have to dress everyone from the inside out, and I have to show arcs for these characters. In addition, I am a contemporary fashion designer, and when I was asked to shoot my first major movie, it was Quills. At the time, I told my husband, "I am a'completely modern Millie', can I really do this period?" My husband said, "Yes, of course. You have incredible taste— Use it as your guide. Just buy all these characters in your movie age, and then choose only what they will choose for them. Read the script seven times, learn about those people from the inside out, and then take everyone from Dress well inside and out." This is the method of my entire career.

Once I put myself in their skin and remove all the onion skins, the layers between the inside and the outside, I think I can help build the bridge from the actor to the character. I have conducted psychological research on each of these roles. Mrs. Jessica is basically a concubine, but a very smart and well-trained Benne Gesserit. She has not only a mysterious side, but also a wise, ancient soul side. I hope her dress is as eye-catching as a nun, but also suitable for prostitutes. This is also her character. I have to reflect all these somewhat contradictory things in her costume.

So I went to Goya, he is one of my favorite painters. I have always felt that two painters from the past would become filmmakers if they lived today. One is Goya and the other is Giotto. I took it from them both-Giotto is more Benne Gesserit like a nun; Madame Jessica has more Goya, because there is a deep Spanish romanticism in his paintings, especially "Maha in Clothes". This is how I designed a lace dress for her. I did not use Spanish lace, but I made a lace, which looks a lot like the future, but with a real romantic touch of the past.

So, the clothing of the entire dune is amazing, but the scene that really makes me at a loss is the ritual sequence of the official transfer of the planet Arakis to the Atredes family. It's almost like watching a sci-fi fashion show all of a sudden, the characters confront each other, and the costumes form a kind of collection. What is the process of showing all these works in one scene?

Well, as I mentioned, all of my Atreides armors are based on the Templars, so this idea was raised very early in a conversation with Dennis on how the Catholic Church condemned the Templars, so I think Maybe the Pitch Association should be quite ecclesiastical. I think this is a good symbol-the ruling body hunts down the Atredes family, just as the king and the church hunt down the Templars for the most arbitrary reasons.

So, those space guild costumes, because they are all lined up in a row, are all white—and those huge dome headdresses. All this is very missionary. I have seen a lot of paintings and murals by the Pope of Avignon in the 1200s, but we used those big domed headdresses to make it look even more ominous. I have been working with Keith Christiansen, and he came up with a lot of these ideas, I just find these ideas amazing and beautiful. When I showed it to Dennis, he said, "Yes! Yes! More of this!" So the dome became bigger and bigger, and we made all Sadokuls wear blood-red stripes. Kneeling in the space suit.

Piter de Vries, Harkonnen Mentat played by David Dastmalchian, is another of my favorite characters because he is like a human high heels. He is amazing. He has something similar to a praying mantis, but it is black. Then it was the messenger of change, and I also turned him into a very church person. We need you to feel the cultural depth of this world and reference materials to help us get there.

Throughout the process, how closely did you collaborate with Dune's production designer, Patrice Vermette? Do you have to keep in touch with each other in some way to interweave the visual language of the movie?

In this film, I worked very closely with the production designer. They started work before me, but my guide was always Dennis because he knew exactly what Patrice was doing because they had been talking about it for so long. So when I show him what I'm considering, Dennis will be my filter. Dennis has incredible taste and incredible vision. As a visual director, he is very, very smart. He has deep feelings for this movie and saw it all in his mind. Whenever I put something in front of him, if I get this very heartfelt reaction, I will know if it is correct and he will be very excited. "Yes! Yes, Jacqueline, yes!" I also talked a lot about the color palette with Patrice.

I know that Dennis’s vision for this is quite barbaric in terms of Karadhan and Alakis’ palace architecture. As the book says, this is a world that starts anew. If you imagine the brutalist architectural movement, it was huge in the UK after World War II, when many things were destroyed and they had to rebuild most of the UK. For these castles on these planets, they are very rough buildings, with many simple and unadorned rooms and large spaces that can be used. This makes a lot of sense to me-it will be the aesthetics of a new world. You don't want it to look like the court of Louis XIV; you want it to be simple, streamlined, and practical. I approached almost all clothing in this way. I never want anything to look too exaggerated, or excessive and Baroque in any way. The only thing I didn't do was based on the pope's costume, but I still simplified these greatly.

Also, when the Duke of Leto’s family was in Karadane at the beginning of the movie, I saw a lot of photos of the Romanov family before the Russian Revolution, because I think their costumes are elegant but simple. They are much simpler than many other houses in Europe, but they are very magnificent. I used the paintings of the Romanov family because I think they are a family doomed to fail, just like the Atredes House, where everything will be taken away. I think the audience can see and feel some symbolism. Maybe they will establish this connection, even subconsciously.

It must be a pleasure to put on this special actor, one of the most impressive actors in a big budget action movie in recent memory. Everyone in this cast can find something that suits them—whether you're an art studio person, a big-budget action fan, or even just a fashion lover. 

Oh, it's always easier when you work with great actors who have their own specific body language. I will never forget that I once dressed Geoffrey Rush as Marquis de Sade, and when he came in, he drooled lazily and almost limped as if he had no bones. But when he put on the Marquis de Sade costume, he became the magnificent nobleman of the 1700s. When you choose the right costume, the transformation of a good actor is the biggest gain of becoming a costume designer.

The actors in Dune are perfect and great actors, and are as elegant and confident as people-yes, they are really fun to dress. In a way, Timothée Chalamet is similar to when I first met Geoffrey Rush. Timothée's mother is a ballerina, he is incredibly elegant, and his movements are very smooth-but he is also very young and has a super calm feeling. But when he put on that still life suit for the first time, he became a desert warrior—it looked so beautiful.

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