Sandy Powell's Design from Gangs of New York - Research

Costume designs from Gangs of New York

    Sandy Powell is a British costume designer. Costume designers are different from fashion designers because they are not trying to sell based on trends, but they collaborate and communicate instead with the team of production, including actors, directors, the audience, and the team; also, costume designer needs to consider the art and the psychology (Rogers, 2022). Subsequently, Powell was the costume designer of a movie called 'Gangs of New York'. Here, I want to research her design through the character in the film Bill the Butcher. Moreover, Gryn (2012) mentions that this design is for the 1860s period, so she took inspiration from the 1930s movie that had gangster style.

  I like her design in the film 'Gangs of New York' because the design is eccentric and fantastical, and it is suitable for the design that I will create for this term as a national costume for a man as inspiration and for the school uniform, especially the coat. According to Gryn (2012), she designed the costume with "...all frock coats and top hats. Narrow-leg trousers and checks...". To achieve a great costume, she needed to measure the body of the actor properly so the outfits would look good while the person was wearing them because the person's silhouette could help build the atmosphere of the period of setting in which the movie was set. Powell included a stripe on the collar; she added this detail because she thought about the mood that could be built, the actor himself when he wore it, and the tone (Hawker, 2016). Therefore, the outfit for this movie was successfully designed because she was nominated as the best costume designer in 2002.

  Why did I choose her as my inspiration? I like how she can communicate the idea towards the outfits that she designed for a character in the movie, and she succeeded in making the actor look what the director wanted. Also, I am going to make a design for a national costume for men; I think it will be suitable for the concept that I am trying to work on in my design, which is fantastical and modern. In addition, I will use a tartan pattern as the fabric in the national costume; since Powell uses an outfit that has a check pattern for this movie, it is an excellent choice for inspiration. Moreover, the coat design is good for the blazer for the uniform design that I will create; it is long and feels magical.

    Reference List

Gryn, N. (2012). Stitches in time: Sandy Powell’s Oscar-winning costumes. The Guardian. [online] 17 Oct. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/oct/17/sandy-powell-oscar-winning-costumes [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

Hawker, P. (2016). Sandy Powell, Oscar-winning costume designer, on working with Martin Scorsese. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/sandy-powell-oscarwinning-costume-designer-on-working-with-martin-scorsese-20160517-gox0np.html [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

Rogers, S. (2022). London Design Festival. [online] London Design Festival. Available at: https://londondesignfestival.com/stories/in-conversation-sandy-powell [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].