Amy Westcott on Her "Black Swan" Costume Snub
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 10:00AM 
Wescott's Nina sketchesGiven my fascination with Costume Design, you'll recall I already named my nominees (which included Amy Westcott and Rodarte for Black Swan) and said a few words about Westcott's own work on Black Swan, I drank up this interview in Clothes on Film with the designer post-Oscar snubbing. And I'm alarmed that I missed it two days ago.
A week or so ago film sites were discussing whether or not it was fair that Rodarte could not be nominated alongside her (everyone assuming that Black Swan would be nominated). Perhaps I was just naive but I didn't realize that ill feelings were brewing behind the scenes. Is life imitating art given the rivalry in the Black Swan plot.
Here's what the talented designer tells Clothes on Film about Rodarte's lack of credit and the interviews and press that followed once the film caught fire.
Clothes on Film, Chris: Are you aware of the controversy surrounding yourself and fashion house Rodarte (the Mulleavy sisters) in the press; that they should be credited alongside you as costume designers?
Amy Westcott: Controversy is too complimentary a word for two people using their considerable self-publicising resources to loudly complain about their credit once they realised how good the film is.
CoF: Do you feel as though you are being vilified for something out of your hands?
Westcott: I was happy for Rodarte’s persistent publicity efforts at first; I’m so proud of the film and anything that brings it to an even wider audience is genuinely welcome. I tried to put aside my ego while being airbrushed from history in all of their interviews, as I’m just not that kind of person anyway. But when articles were planted that attacked me personally as if I had conspired against them I felt nothing but despair and betrayal. I don’t have a publicist working for me, needless to say, and I was asked to stay quiet –“not to engage”, to avoid any bad press towards the film. Unfortunately this seems to have proven detrimental to the perception of my work on Black Swan. I didn’t make the rules that the Guild and the Academy set and I am proud of my professionalism and commitment to my work, so to have my name dragged into such ill-informed gossip is galling and hurtful to say the least.
Sad that things went in that direction. Westcott also talks about how she feels about the snub, working with Aronofksy, whether she'll work with fashion design labels again on a film, and what was hardest to achieve on the visually stunning film. Well worth a read.
Black Swan, Costume Design, Oscars (10)
Reader Comments (6)
I was only insofar aware of the controversy surrounding the movie's costume design that Rodarte was excluded from being nominated along Westcott. The hard feelings between these two (or three) are new to me.
Westcott herself on the one hand ackowledges that the Rodarte sisters worked and contributed towards the movie's costumes but then diminishes their influence short of saying that she too feels that they should not have been nominated alongside her (though that's a moot point now).
If that was her feeling from the beginning and the Rodarte sisters knew that then I, too, would have been pissed and voiced my opinion. Though, again, I have no clue in what manner the Mulleavy's did it.
Lara -- well this is all about Academy rules and not Westcott's choices. Rodarte did not negotiate for a co-costume design credit when they signed on and the academy only acknowledges lead costume designers. So they would have had to negotiate to be billed equally with Westcott which they didn't.
but it did start getitng weird when Rodarte was being interviewed for Black Swan costumes and westcott was usually not.
hi, Antonella will win.. that's it! :-)
Not being familiar with the film industry, do you know if there will be repercussions against Rodarte? I wonder if this is in breach of their contract, in some way.
Hey Nathaniel, I read the interview a couple of days ago and thought about sending it to you, what i will do now is send is send you a link to an interview with Antonella Canarozzi, which is a complete 180 on the black swan debacle in that she worked with fashion labels really well!! (perhaps you could do a post on this too ;)
http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/332/Antonella_Cannarozzi_Costume_Designer
There's some sketches of the designs here:
http://news.instyle.com/photo-gallery/?postgallery=17179
http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/daily-news/2010/03/tilda-swinton
I do find the Rodarte thing sort of annoying because a lot of costumes used in films are bought from shops and not made specifically for the film by the costume designer. Rodarte served this function on about a half dozen costumes. But every single stitch of clothing was fully or partially designed/selected by Westcott, who had to then put the outfits together to convey whatever the hell DA wanted, while overseeing fittings and everything else. Rodarte hasn't been snubbed; their work - partial design and creation - has been acknowledged.
Unless there's an element I'm missing. Anyway, it's all very interesting to me given that while the ballet costumes were beautiful it was largely the outfits Nina wore during practice and her Uggs that I liked best from the film.