A Celebration of Jacqueline Durran
Thursday, January 16, 2020 at 9:00PM 
Florence Pugh and Durran on the set of Little Women
Though not as well known as preeminent costume designers and Oscar-magnets Sandy Powell and Colleen Atwood, Jacqueline Durran has quietly been building a stellar reputation over a two decade career. She is best known for her collaborations with Mike Leigh and Joe Wright, though in the last few years she's expanded her repertoire of directors and costumed movies such as Macbeth, Beauty and the Beast and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
This year she worked with Sam Mendes in creating WW1 military garb in 1917 and with Greta Gerwig dressing the March sisters in Little Women. The latter marks her 7th Oscar nomination. She's won once before. Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of her career...
Atonement (2007)
Mr Turner (2014)
Durran has also made six movies with Mike Leigh, starting with All or Nothing (2002), her first feature film and their last collaboration was released earlier this year, Peterloo. Her only Oscar nomination for a Leigh film came for the artist biopic Mr. Turner.
Macbeth (2015)
For Shakespeare's 17th century blood thirsty couple, Durran designed stark minimalist costumes mostly in off - white so that when the blood mingled with mud the colors jumped off the screen. To these eyes it remains her most gorgeous work.
Next for Durran is her first foray into superhero territory with Matt Reeves take on The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. Which film has had your favorite Durran costumes?
Reader Comments (10)
Looooooove her contemporary work in HAPPY-GO-LUCKY. So underrated.
I adore her work, even if sometimes her taste for anachronistic stylization distracts more than it contributes to the film's experience. She has a rare ability to make costumes look like real clothes. This happens even when her designs fuse victorian influences with French-haute couture or the glamour of the 30s with 21st-century techniques like laser-cut silk. They look like fashion editorials but never feel like costumes.
This year, one of my favorite costume details in a movie was the way she suggests individuality and class distinctions in 1917 through small hints of variation within the spectrums of uniforms. I love how the officers are clearly upper-class, sometimes wearing sheepskin jackets underneath their uniforms or custom made leather gloves while the lower-rank soldiers only have ratty knits or soiled cottons. It makes it all feel real and suggests a world outside the confines of the narrative.
While I'm rooting for Arianne Phillips, I wonder if Durran will get her second statue this year.
She's currently working in a new Batman movie... which is terrible.
My favourite is Atonement, obviously, but I also love her work in Happy-Go-Lucky. So Poppy!
@Roger everything about Happy-go-Lucky is underrated, one of my favorite movies of this century.
Oh wow, I forgot how stunning her designs were in "Macbeth". She's deserved all her Oscar nominations (save "Darkest Hour"). And she already has a little gold man so let's spread the wealth and give Arianne Phillips her first win for those instantly iconic "Hollywood" costumes.
I live for everything about ANNA KARENINA - its two wins, including Durran's, were a highlight of that Oscar year.
And her work in LITTLE WOMEN is ... dare I say it, emotional? That first long take of Jo running down the street after her publishing victory, with her dress flapping open to reveal the pants underneath, took my breath away. (Plus I loved how it sent me back to Gerwig herself dancing down the street in FRANCES HA to Bowie's Modern Love.)
Swoon!
Thanks for this article on one of my favourite below the line people. I have followed Durran's work since "Pride and Prejudice". She has a real talent for coming up with period work that is very individually visually arresting for all of the performers, male and female. Also, she pays attention to elements that make the designs look like they are worn by real people in real life.
Little Women showed her talents off in great fashion. That green jacket that Jo March wore as her "writing jacket" was perfection. (she has great luck with green).
Her win for Anna Karenina was so well deserved, but it seems she is up against stiff competition this year, but who knows,
Her work is always so much fun to look at. I'm not thrilled that she is doing a super hero movie, but she is bound to make it interesting.
The variety of styles, cuts, and colors of the Anna Karenina costumes do make it my favorite. So many improbable designs you can't believe work as well as they do.
The green dress gets all the acclaim (and rightfully so), but I love the daywear patterned blouse and skirt Keira wears in the first half of Atonement before dinner. So period appropriate but so chic.
I don't think she gets enough credit for her menswear either. The suiting in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is so immaculate and specific to each man. Might have been my costume winner in 2011.
I remember reading that the Anna Karenina ballgowns were going to be modelled on 1950s Dior styles, and I immediately marked the movie down as a must-see.
I was also mesmerized by the jewelry in Anna Karenina. Most films sensibly use costume jewelry, but this film used real jewels. What a difference that makes! They sparkle and entrance, and the clothing looks more exquisite and textured and luxe next to them.
I kept thinking “I want that piece of jewelry and that dress” and almost understanding the mental state of the women who could ignore what it took to keep them in that privileged state. Therefore, perfect costuming for the story and theme.
She's one of my faves and it's nuts she lost for ATONEMENT. That green dress alone...