If you’ve been following the global press tour for Dune: Chapter Two, you know there’s some serious fashion going bad. Zendaya in an archival Thierry Mugler robot costume? Anya Taylor-Joy in her translucent, hooded Dior veil? Timothée Chalamet in shiny Haider Ackermann trousers, head-to-toe Prada leather, or a Givenchy suit with custom chrome chest plate? At least fashion was fashionable.
The same can be said for the sequel to the epic space opera, now in theaters, that has become a masterclass in costume design. Jacqueline West returned for Part Two (this time, without help from the co-designer) and brought back what she calls the film’s “mod-judgement” mix of modern and medieval style. West, who has a double degree in art history from Berkeley, explained that in his research for Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster he became “sort of an Italian academic” and took references from Dante’s Inferno “to be torn apart and recreated for 10,000 years” . .” Luckily, Part Two delves deeper into the Dune universe than Part One, and the costumes get richer as they go along.
We caught up with West to get a closer look at how he took us on his costuming journey and what it’s like to dress some of Hollywood’s fashion-forward actors.
How was working on Dune: Part Two different from Part One?
The difference is that the story actually evolves and therefore the wardrobe changes. In Part Two we enter the Emperor’s world; We are faced with new characters such as Princess Irulan, played by Florence Pugh, and Lady Fenring, played by Léa Seydoux. There are lots of new characters and the worlds are expanding.
The big change this time was that you worked alone, whereas on Episode One you had a co-designer.
I didn’t assign a co-designer for this project because I thought Part One would be too big and would need both of us. But for this, I designed it more or less on my own but with an amazing team. My painter is back, my armourer is back, my private customers are back and all my milliners are back. I had new Hungarian stitchers and cutter fitters [because we shot in Budapest]but almost everyone in Division One wanted to come back, which was great.
For many films, designers design some or all of their costumes by shopping, vintage, working with brands, etc. They can be obtained through. But for something like this I think you have to build everything yourself. How much “stuff” did you have to create for this movie?
I think we made close to 4,000 pieces of clothing. We make masks, we make all kinds of jewelry, we dyed and hand-painted all the fabrics, and we even had to rebuild the stillsuits in Episode One because they took a lot of beating. But we supplied many parts; Our shoppers from Istanbul and Morocco were sending us things that we took apart and recreated 10,000 years in the future.
When we last spoke, you referred to Dune’s costumes as “mod-eval”; It was inspired by medieval costumes, but reimagined 10,000 years in the future. I assume this is still your thesis for Part Two. Where did this come from?
I have two degrees in art history from Berkeley, where I first read Dante. For example, with the expansion of Geidi Prime’s enemy world, I looked at the Divine Comedy and treated it like I was going through different layers of hell. And Arrakis is kind of like purgatory. I was completely immersed in medieval art; This will come but it starts again. I also relied on old paintings, especially those of Arabs in Morocco and North Africa. My references for this movie were quite old. The Fremen, for example, are the ones who actually managed to survive in the desert, so I looked at ancient Islam. They did not embrace the Islamic faith, but we see that they dress like a combination of different religions.
How did Timothée Chalamet’s costumes change in Episode Two?
The main difference from Episode One is that we see him wearing a much more cape. While he still wears his stillsuit for most of the film, there are different iterations of how he is disguised. In this film he deals with the religion and philosophy of the Fremen, so I wanted to give him this wise, monk-like quality. I wanted to give him this ascetic look, like something out of Dante. So I couldn’t let her wear Haider Ackermann, could I?
The cast in this movie is incredible, but I’m so excited to see so much more of Zendaya than we saw in Part One. What’s it like to cosplay him?
It looks beautiful on anything you put in it. I kept her wardrobe very simple and transparent so you can see her shape when backlit. This choice was to soften it and remove it from the stillsuit. She wears very simple clothes and Denis and I talked about it a lot. The idea is that you’d be wearing a lot of pajamas while under siege, but you could still put on your stillsuit in a flash.
The other fashionista we will see in this movie is Anya Taylor-Joy.
I’ve never met him! This costume was made in a jiffy.
You’ve never met him! So you just prepare a few things and hope it works in the end?
It just worked, it was amazing. I had some notes about her and the character, and I had read the novel, so I came up with something that I thought would fit into that world, being both a princess and the daughter of a Bene Gesserit.
Have you ever designed costumes before meeting the actor in your career?
Maybe twice!
Are stillsuits comfortable?
Yeah, I think so too! Only one player complained about his armor; I won’t tell you who! But no one was complaining about the stillsuits. Some actors stated that they really worked. Although the real costumes did not have a drinking water filtration system as suggested in the story, people said they never got too hot. We used absorbent fabrics inside and had breathing spaces between the individual parts of the costume, so that with the wind in the desert, the actors’ sweat would evaporate and really cool them down.
Was there anything your actors tried to steal from the set?
We bought them all very expensive supports, we had to keep changing them because people kept accidentally wearing them around the house! This is a very natural thing; All you have to do is wear your jacket over the undershirt you wear all day. I didn’t use silk because I thought they would get too hot in the desert, so we opted for Under Armor most of the time because it wicks.
These performance base tiers can get expensive once you start hitting a certain number of soldiers and shooting for a certain number of days!
It wasn’t a low budget movie!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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