Jacqueline Durran: From Kubrick to Barbie
Wednesday, July 26, 2023 at 12:00PM 
Two-time Academy Award winner Jacqueline Durran is undoubtedly on the path to another Oscar nomination, maybe even a third victory. The British costume designer brought the pink paradise of Barbie to life, delighting audiences with a mixture of archival recreations sized-up from doll scale and original creations in line with Greta Gerwig's reality-hopping narrative. The movie is a delight for costume lovers everywhere as soon as its first scene when it contrasts the graphic modernity of the 1959 swimsuit-clad Barbie with the attire of midcentury girlhood, their look defined - perchance shackled - by domestic aspiration. Then comes a series of classic Mattel outfits, a flurry of rosiness, and our welcome to BarbieLand. It's a colorful explosion of femininity as understood by kids' imaginations...
Durran's character-specific work lays the foundation for Ken's eventual kitschy revolution in his faux mink lined with horse-print and parody Calvin Klein underwear. Still her work is more than just exceptional storytelling function, it's also loyal to a sense of dazzlement. You can enjoy it in aesthetic ecstasy, while laughing aloud if you identify a deep cut or relate to the quirks of child play that created Weird Barbie. The designs, which feature plenty of Chanel, glean the influence of historical trends in constructing the blonde idol, though they point to the brand's future, the fantasy, the collective dream. For the designer behind it all, it's one triumph among many…
To get to this year's most viral movie mania, Durran came a long way, starting her career at the twilight of the 1990s after graduating from the Royal College of Art. Her formal training wasn't in costume design, but she learned on the job, earning her first screen credit as wardrobe mistress for Stanley Kubrick's last feature film, Eyes Wide Shut. Still, that experience wasn't nearly as formative as her collaboration with Lindy Hemming, who she assisted in various pictures, including Mike Leigh's Oscar-winning Topsy-Turvy. That connection soon led to Durran's first gig as costume designer proper, dressing the British auteur's Cannes-competing All or Nothing in 2002.
That same year Jacqueline Durran costumed a staging of Medea starring Fiona Shaw and worked on the second Star Wars prequel as an assistant. Between social realism, extravagant fantasy, and classic theatricality, you can grasp just how varied her career would soon become. That said, it'd be hard to predict how controversial Durran's vision would grow to be among some select circles. It all started as her work for British auteurs took her to the lands of period film, first with Vera Drake and then in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice. Durran may have received her first Oscar nomination for the Regency romance, but many historical costume aficionados loathe her stylized approach to this day.
One shouldn't presume that the designer chooses inaccuracy as default or that she does it out of laziness. Instead, whenever Durran goes beyond fact in period recreation, she does it with clear intent, often appealing to a sense of modernization as a direct pathway to audiences. For Atonement's iconic green dress, ahistorical construction enhances the impressionist sprawl of memory, laser-cut fabric so vaporous it feels like a mere whisper of green over the naked body. In other cases, stylization is a tool for paradoxical alienation, repudiating realism as it aims toward something bigger-than-life.
If nothing else, Durran's work in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Leigh's various period pieces should prove that, when she sees fit, the costume designer can conceive windows into the past of near archeological precision. Other usual complaints focus on the supposed lack of fidelity between her Beauty and the Beast designs and the animated picture's whimsical notions. In that regard, it's interesting to note how Durran created a splendorous Rococo-adjacent wardrobe overall, with only Emma Watson's costumes veering into disappointing compromise. That didn't stop the Academy from nominating her, of course.
Over twenty years of credited costume design work, Jacqueline Durran has accrued eight nods – Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), Mr. Turner (2014), Darkest Hour (2017), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Little Women (2019), and Cyrano (2021). She won for the Tolstoy and Louisa May Alcott adaptations, efforts that eschew museum fidelity for different purposes. One invokes hyper-artifice, the other beckons the contemporary audience's immersion in the other. Also, for those eager to point out the use of Ugg boots in the latter, sights of those come from behind-the-scenes shots, the shoes never visible in the finished film. The Little Women designs may not be Oscar-worthy, but they deserve more than glib snark.
At least, the general public, like many a great director, seems more open to Jacqueline Durran's artistry than the costume community. That should help explain why she gets more acclaim from the Academy than the Costume Designers Guild, among other things. Hopefully, Barbie will receive all the plaudits it deserves, including love from The Film Experience readership. Indeed, inspired by Ann Roth's pivotal cameo in the Barbie movie, I decided to give Durran a similar treatment to one I gave Roth once upon a time. From Leigh's kitchen sink dramas to Mattel marvels, going through spies, Mary Magdalene, Batman and the former Princess of Wales, here are 25 highlights from Jacqueline Durran's filmography and where to watch them.
ALL OR NOTHING (2002) Mike Leigh
Streaming on Tubi. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and VUDU.
VERA DRAKE (2004) Mike Leigh
Streaming on Hoopla. It's also available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, DirecTV, and the Microsoft Store.
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005) Joe Wright
Streaming on Netflix. The film's also available to rent and buy on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, Redbox, VUDU, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
;)
ATONEMENT (2007)
Streaming on Hulu. You can also find it available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
HAPPY GO-LUCKY (2008) Mike Leigh
Streaming on Hoopla. You can also rent it on Amazon Video, VUDU, and DirecTV.
;)
THE SOLOIST (2009) Joe Wright
Streaming on Max, Kanopy, and DirecTV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, and the Microsoft Store.
NANNY MCPHEE AND THE BIG BANG (2010) Susanna White
Streaming on Netflix. You can also rent and purchase it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
ANOTHER YEAR (2010) Mike Leigh
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Google Play, Youtube, Amazon Video, VUDU, and DirecTV.
;)
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011) Tomas Alfredson
Streaming on Starz and DirecTV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
ANNA KARENINA (2012) Joe Wright
Available to rent and purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and the Microsoft Store.
THE DOUBLE (2013) Richard Ayoade
Streaming on Peacock, VUDU, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Redbox, Crackle, Pluto TV, Plex, and Magnolia Selects, It's also available on most platforms, available to rent and purchase.
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
MR. TURNER (2014) Mike Leigh
Streaming on Starz. You can also find the film on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and Spectrum On Demand, available to rent and buy.
;)
;)
;)
MACBETH (2015) Justin Kurtzel
Streaming on DirecTV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
BLACK MIRROR: NOSEDIVE (2016) Joe Wright
Streaming exclusively on Netflix.
;)
;)
BEAUTY & THE BEAST (2017) Bill Condon
Streaming on Disney+. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Youtube, Google Play, VUDU, DirecTV, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
;)
;)
DARKEST HOUR (2017) Joe Wright
Streaming on Netflix. You can also find it available to rent and buy on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, Flix Fling, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
MARY MAGDALENE (2018) Garth Davis
Streaming on AMC+, Tubi, Kanopy, and DirecTV. You can also rent it on Apple TV.
;)
;)
;)
PETERLOO (2018) Mike Leigh
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Freevee.
;)
1917 (2019) Sam Mendes
Streaming on Paramount Plus, Showtime, Fubo TV, and DirecTV. You can also rent and purchase the film on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum ON Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
LITTLE WOMEN (2019) Greta Gerwig
Streaming on Starz and DirecTV. You can also rent and purchase it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Flix Fling, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
SMALL AXE: LOVERS ROCK & ALEX WHEATLE (2020) Steve McQueen
Streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
;)
;)
CYRANO (2021) Joe Wright
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus, MGM+, and Fubo TV. You can also rent and buy it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, and the Microsoft Store.
;)
;)
;)
;)
SPENCER (2021) Pablo Larraín
Streaming on Hulu and Kanopy. The film's also available to rent and buy on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, DirecTV, and Spectrum On Demand.
THE BATMAN (2022) Matt Reeves
Streaming on Max and DirecTV. You can also find it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, Youtube, VUDU, Redbox, Spectrum On Demand, and the Microsoft Store, available to rent and purchase.
;)
;)
;)
;)
BARBIE (2023) Greta Gerwig
Currently in theaters worldwide.
If you had to name your favorite Durran-designed projects, what would they be?
Reader Comments (8)
Now that is a costume designer and.... it's no contest. She wins the Oscar for Barbie. Just forget everything else. The race is over.
The Double, Atonement, Anna Karenina, Mr. Turner, and Little Women. Haven't seen Cyrano but perhaps I should if it looks as striking as it appears in these photos.
Barbie’s costumes were truly amazing. My favorite piece wasn’t even it this compilation: the yellow dress that Margot wore near the end of the movie. It’s so highly symbolic yet also incredibly lovely!
Please do a post on Oppenheimer costume designer Ellen Mirjonik, who's had an equally varied and fascinating career, and has pissed of her fair share of historical accuracy sticklers, just like Durran. Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Basic Instinct, Strange Days, Showgirls, the Brandy Cinderella, Behind the Candelabra, The Greatest Showman, there's so much to explore and revel in. Hoping she gets her first (!!!) Oscar nomination for Oppenheimer this year.
What an eyesore.
Her costumes for Little Women and the Joe Wright collaborations are justifiably famous, but in scrolling these photos, I really appreciated how much her designs brought to All or Nothing, Happy Go Lucky, and Another Year. Her costumes pop while still being totally appropriate to Leigh's working- and middle-class characters. I hope she is working with him on his upcoming film.
That Ann Roth scene in Barbie is a treaure!
I will always love her Oscar win for Little Women, simply because it meant a second Gerwig masterpiece didn't have to leave the Oscars empty-handed. If you have a problem with it, blame the Academy for their bone-handed decision to give Taika Waititi the Adapted Screenplay Oscar over Greta that year.
thevoid99 -- I still think DUNE is a threat if it's not delayed.
ScottC -- In CYRANO, only Bennett's costumes are Durran's design. The rest of the wardrobe was conceived by Massimo Cantini Parrini. Regardless, the entire film looks splendorous.
ajnrules -- I couldn't find a good picture of that pivotal yellow dress, but I completely agree with you.
Grace MacLaine -- Thank you for the suggestion.
jules -- I have little issue with her second Oscar win, though I would have voted for Arianne Phillips. However, the historical costume community was in paroxysms of outrage about it. Agree that Gerwig should have won Adapted Screenplay over that Waititi-penned mess.
To clarify, Barbie is the eyesore, the rest is magnificent.