Daniel Day-Louis plays the male lead in the movie "The Phantom Sewer". (Source: Independent)
When Daniel Day-Lewis played a fashion tailor in the 1950s, he was so intoxicated by the fashion world that he even vowed to quit the film. The author tells us the fascinating story of the Phantom Thread.
"This friendly gentleman turned out to be De Louis"
"We always say that the first 100 buttonholes made are the worst. I told Daniel that this was the necessary stage. Joan Emily Brown said. In August 1960, she began her apprenticeship as a seamstress in the Hardy Amies studio. "He started getting started because then I heard he'd been practicing."
Brown was one of the last generation of people in British fashion stores to undergo rigorous training, where strict etiquette rules and hierarchies were enforced, as standards of perfection as they demanded when making garments. So, when directors Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Louis chose to explore the world of clothing in London in the 1950s for the filming of The Phantom Seamstress, Brown became a source of knowledge and inspiration for them. Brown now volunteers professionally with her friend and colleague Sue Clarke at the V&A Museum in Victoria and Albert.
They met for the first time at Blythe House, west of London, the research and design archive of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Brown and Clark were completely unaware that the man in front of them was the actor known for his immersion in the role. "We discussed the technical details of dozens of works in the archives." Clark recalled. "I had a great chat with this friendly gentleman. Later I remembered who he was. ”
The mission to delve into the archives was to shoot The Phantom Sewnsmith, the second collaboration between Anderson and Day-Louis. In 2007, they collaborated for the first time on the film There Wil lBe Blood, a film centered on the oil boom in California in the 20th century. At the same time, he also won the second Academy Award for Best Actor (he won the Academy Award for Best Actor three times).
Portrays a long and twisted relationship
The film's name derives from a Victorian concept in which a tailor could feel a needle between his fingers even if he wasn't working under overwork. The original idea for the film stemmed from a casual few comments from a friend of Anderson's, Jonny Greenwood (keyboardist for the famous British band Radiohead).
One day, when Greenwood saw and saw the suit Anderson was wearing, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Look, you're simply Beau Brummell (king George III's famous clumsy boy and synonymous with fashion." This phrase is enough to illustrate the charm of fashion, and those designers, such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Charles James and Amies, who and the fashion kingdoms they have created are often mysterious to the eyes of the world.
De-Louis plays the lead singer, fashion guru Reynolds Woodcock, and his sister Cyril, played by British actress Lesley Manville, runs the costume studio Woodcock House, but the presence of a woman puts the siblings' relationship at stake.
Woodcock has always had all kinds of beautiful women in his life, but he is tired of this life. Until one time he met Alma, an Eastern European waitress in the countryside — played by Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps — that he was immediately fascinated. The film portrays their entangled and twisted relationship in a morbid and extravagant post-war tone.
In this film, you can see hitchcock's shadow, but you can also see Du Maurier.
The picture shows the poster of "The Phantom Sewer". (Source: Internet Movie Database)
A Balenciaga dress was reproduced for his wife
De-Louis threw himself wholeheartedly into learning tailoring techniques, as he had previously played Bill the Butcher in the movie Gangs of New York, mastering slaughter and using knives, and like Christy Brown in the movie My Left Foot, teaching himself to use his toes as flexibly as a finger. A year before the film began, he was mentored by Marc Happel, costume director at the New York City Ballet. During their studies, the eye-catching is just one part of a vast series of training courses that, at the heart of which is not just to teach a few techniques, but to stimulate a certain instinctive instinct of men to understand what a princess should wear in a prom dress in the same way that a woman should know.
"We spent days just learning to position with a positioning pin and trying to make the movements look naturally skilful." Happel said this over the phone while he was in New York, surrounded by clothing accessories. "It makes me really appreciate Daniel because a lot of the laypeople who watch the movie don't really notice how he uses the pin, but some novice viewers still notice the details." There are clumsy ways to pick up a pair of scissors, and there are also elegant ways to pick up. We'd be practicing how to pick up a pair of positioning pins and put them in our mouths and fix them to the skirt. ”
Most of Day-Louis and Happel's time together was spent after the ballet vendors closed in the evening or during the intense 8-hour seminar course in the summer of 2016. But he also participated in the costume production of Firebird by the New York City Ballet, where they recreated marc Chagall's legendary 1945 costume.
The culmination of this short, high-intensity internship was the actor's reproduction of an original Balenciaga design for his wife, writer and director Rebecca Miller. "He wanted to go through the three-dimensional cropping, pattern-making, cropping, and accessories on his wife, and after modifying it, he would make a second adjustment." Happel recalls, "He deliberately picked a dress from a book, so I contacted the Balenciaga archives in Paris and they sent us more craft photos." We spent weeks making this dress. Balenciaga has always paid great attention to the details of the sleeves and has made every dress perfect. This skirt has a kind of sleeve, which we can't always make at first, but in the end we succeeded. ”
He knew the world and knew how the characters dressed up
When De-Louis learned to cut, crepe, and press needles, he was ready to start fitting for the character. That required Mark Bridges, the costume designer for the film The Phantom Seamstress and Paul Thomas Anderson's right-hand man. Like magic, he custom-made nearly 50 outfits for the film and contacted a panel of experts— including Brown and Clark — to seek advice on the etiquette of a mid-20th-century studio. Day-Louis was the least of his worries, and the actor already had an accurate idea of what reynolds Woodcock should look like.
"Daniel knows the world and knows how Reynolds dresses up. We went shopping together at Drake's, Budd and Hilditch & Key (all brand names above) on Jamin Street and Savile Street. We went to George Cleverley (one of the world's top handmade luxury custom men's shoe brands) to buy shoes for him, and went to Anderson & Sheppard (a handmade custom suit brand) to buy suits, and these stores were all his suggestions. Anderson & Sheppard has a long-standing relationship with Hollywood — the store has made clothes for Fred Astaire ,a well-known American film actor who won an Oscar for lifetime achievement ) — and men like Woodcock will be customers of the store.
Bridges suggests that any self-respecting and well-dressed English gentleman would also need to "show his personality". For Woodcock, this personality is highlighted by the collection of socks of different jewelry colors by Gammarelli (the papal sock supplier).
Every fashion brand has a "secret language"
Once his appearance was determined, De-Louis began researching the costumes of Alma, Cyril, and several of Woodcock's loyal customers. Every fashion store has a "down-to-earth mantra" — a verbal or non-verbal rule that sets their designs apart from other competitors — and Woodcock's is "consistent." "We studied the everyday behavior of people in that era, which led us to think not only about where Reynolds Woodcock was in that world, but what was the hallmark of that clothing studio." Bridges said he looked up fashion magazines, news clips and costume museums. "We think of rich colours, heavy fibre fabrics, lots of British wool, and heavy lace and satin. In the film, Reynolds also talks about how to learn trade from his mother, all with a nostalgic sense of the times, some of the turn of the century (referring to the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century). ”
Woodcock and Cyril's partners are a close match, and in reality, the fashion industry is not uncommon for siblings to be seen, dating back to Norman Harnell in the 1950s, and then to Gianni Versace in the 1990s, and now Christopher Kane. Leslie Manville's costumes are based on the appearance of Balenciaga's female clerks, whose uniforms are a navy blue skirt with pearls and tightly combed buns, and elegance with a touch of unsettling malice. "Paul wanted Cyril to wear black, but then we all compromised because I thought dark gray could show Leslie's pale but good skin texture and give a sense of order." Bridges said, "She's happy to be able to put on a beautiful pair of high heels, so that she can walk with more authority and determination." ”
We also met Alma. She was the goddess and object of infatuation with Woodcock and later became his wife. As a "listless" waitress, she wore a skirt that didn't fit—"but the skirt was bright red, proving that she wasn't a timid person." Bridges commented. Later that day, she wore only a "poor slip dress" because Woodcock was going to dress her with one of her own pieces. This scene shows De-Louis's boundless design power for the character. "He looked around, looking at her in the mirror, or staring straight at her through his glasses." Bridges said.
Woodcock urgently completed a red dress for Alma backstage at a salon show. This red dress showcases the "whisper" of this fashion house through its stiff round skirt and intricate lace detailing. As Alma rotated the skirt for a group of clients, Woodcock gazed at everything through the peephole and was ecstatic, and at that moment, his irritable anxiety disappeared. They later got married.
At the wedding, Alma wore a suit dress that Bridges had made based on images of weddings in the 1950s. "Daniel chose oyster-colored satin, which I think is beautiful." Bridges said, "The skirt still looks white, but it is more charming and beautiful." ”
60-year-old announced that he will enter the fashion industry?
Throughout the shoot, Bridges would share the proofs and ideas with De Luiz before making the final decision, and De Luiz was immersed in his role. "It's like working with a real womenswear designer." Chief tailor Cecile Van Dijk added.
After performing a "surgical" examination of samples from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the team in charge of the costumes discovered many costume-making techniques and imitated them. "There was a robe with a lot of sequins embedded in the fibrous fabric, which gave off a subtle glow. So we used this technique to make a plum-colored dress for Alma. Later, I also made tights and made everything out of a silky flat transparent hard gauze lining. Bridges explained.
Brown and Clark played minor supporting roles in the film — leading seamstress Nana and Biddy, respectively. "We had to choose a frame from the 1950s and put the lenses in it again. You don't realize how many details you noticed in total. Brown laughed.
However, the first thing they did after joining the group was to tear down the studio built by the set designer. "It shouldn't be like this. They used needles to plug the polypropylene plate up. We said, 'No, it's going to fall.' Clark said, "Everybody has their own sewing kits or sewing boxes with their own stuff in them. "They also observe Day-Louis's work." Every time between shots, he would look up at me and say, 'I'm moving faster.' ’”
When filming ended, 60-year-old De Luis announced his retirement. "When I started [as an actor], it was a question of salvation. Now, I want to explore the world in a different way. He explained in a recent talk show. At the same time, he added, during filming, he "was always shrouded in sad feelings: we didn't know what kind of person we had created." "Obviously, as an actor who will always fit into the role, he often resonates with the characters he creates. Some even thought he would start his own fashion brand. "We've made jokes like this." Happel said he is still a good friend of De Luis. "Who knows?"
"The Phantom Sewer" was released on February 2. The Film Stills Book The Women of Woodock (August edition, £40) published by Laura Hynd was sold on February 1 at Photographers' Gallery (LondonW1) from 18 to 20.
This article is written by Bethan Holt
Compiler: Shen Xin