In 2016, movies remain one of the most potent sources of fashion inspiration, with plenty of new films rife with compelling sartorial subject matter, including costumes and memorable art direction. Take a look back at the 10 most fashionable things to happen onscreen this year, from the re-creation of an iconic First Lady’s wardrobe in Jackie to The Neon Demon’s horror treatment of the modeling industry.
Costume designer: Sang-gyeong Jo
The intrigue of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden wouldn’t be half as compelling without Sang-gyeong Jo’s arresting costumes. Set during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the class differences between the reserved Lady Hideko and pickpocket turned servant Sook-hee are illustrated via their respective wardrobes. Hideko’s status as a prosperous outsider is mirrored in her colorful kimonos and corseted European gowns, while Sook-hee’s dreams of wealth involve sapphire earrings and expensive baubles. Clothes are often used to signify social status on-screen, but the exquisite nature of the pieces featured make the film a standout.
Costume designer: Madeline Fontaine
Jacqueline Kennedy’s style is embedded into America’s cultural consciousness, and Fontaine’s impressive re-creations of the First Lady’s signatures for Jackie live up to their inspiration. Fontaine collaborated with Chanel to source the exact buttons for the costume version of Kennedy’s pink bouclé jacket; she sought out pieces from the ’60s at vintage rental outposts such as La Compagnie du Costume; and she remade standards, like Kennedy’s Dior suit and mourning suit, with her team to faithfully translate to film the look and feeling of an era.
Costume designer: Mary Zophres
Musicals are known for pushing fashion forward with their surrealism, but La La Land’s version of Los Angeles is grounded in reality. Director Damien Chazelle’s Technicolor world required real-girl fashions, with a hyper-saturated look. To achieve this, Zophres worked with production designer David Wasco to make sure the clothes and the backgrounds coordinated in every scene. The attention to detail pays off in key moments—for example, when Emma Stone’s little yellow dress pops perfectly as she dances across the screen.
Costume designer: Jacqueline West
Flappers! Bootleggers! Gangsters and their molls! Prohibition-era fashion possesses a special electricity, and West’s costumes for Live by Night add polish to Ben Affleck’s crime drama. Zoe Saldana and Sienna Miller are nearly unrecognizable under bobs and marcel waves, and West’s sequined dresses and crystal headbands give the film’s female stars the very best of Roaring Twenties glamour.
Costume designer: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh
Kate Beckinsale’s Lady Susan has a reputation for cunning, and Mhaoldomhnaigh’s costumes in Whit Stillman’s Love Friendship play that up beautifully. Always better dressed than her contemporaries and clad in the height of 1790s fashions, Lady Susan’s corsets and bustles captivate attention and no doubt aid in her efforts to manipulate nearly everyone she comes in contact with.
Costume designer: Kym Barrett
The 1970s are not often remembered as a particularly glorious time for menswear, but in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, Barrett showcases everything charming about the era. As private eyes looking to solve a complex mystery, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe cruise around Hollywood in rumpled suits and leather jackets that mesh perfectly with the offbeat personalities of their characters. Leisure suits and disco finery appear on the backs of background players, but it’s Crowe’s and Gosling’s real-guy wardrobes that stand out.
Costume designer: Arianne Phillips
It would have been easy for Phillips to fill Tom Ford’s second feature with pieces direct from the runway, but her choices went far beyond the expected. By dressing Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Isla Fisher in wardrobes devoid of designer wares, Phillips kept the audience grounded in the sleek world of the film.
Costume designer: Brenda Moreno
The power of sneakers is at the heart of Kicks, a coming-of-age story centered on an Oakland teen, Brandon (newcomer Jahking Guillory), and his desire to get his hands on the most exclusive shoes of the moment. Naturally, the minute he saves up enough money to acquire a pair they’re promptly snatched by local tough guys, but the film tackles the emotions behind Brandon’s sneakerhead tendencies, namely a desire to define himself. Moreno’s costumes skew naturalistic with every piece worn by Brandon and his friends, looking like something you’d see in real life.
Costume designer: Jürgen Doering
Kristen Stewart’s Maureen exactly doesn’t love her job in Olivier Assayas’s fashion thriller, Personal Shopper, but it gives her access to some incredible clothes. More concerned with connecting with the ghost of her brother than catering to the whims of her wealthy clients, Maureen finds herself slipping into their pieces from Chanel and Vionnet as she tries on their lives for size. Doering’s mix of luxury gowns suited for the ultra-rich and the down-to-earth jeans and T-shirts that define Maureen’s closet helps create a striking portrait of a young woman trapped between two worlds.
Costume designer: Erin Benach
Even when models turn into bloodthirsty cannibals, they still have to look good, and in The Neon Demon, Nicolas Winding Refn’s fashion-industry horror flick, being beautiful is a matter of life and death. As the embodiment of purity, youth, and unattainable beauty standards, Elle Fanning transitions from wide-eyed newcomer to the titular demon thanks to Benach’s curated costumes. By utilizing runway pieces from Giles and Emporio Armani for high-fashion authenticity, Benach grounded Refn’s world in luxe materialism, and by the time Fanning slinks across the screen in glittering Saint Laurent, everyone is clearly doomed.