At the 2016 Academy Awards, Jenny Beavan, as the costume designer of "Mad Max", took the stage to receive her own little golden man , the Oscar for Best Costume Design.
But when Jenny walked to the stage, many of the directors and celebrities sitting in the front row of the guest seat did not applaud her, and they looked dissatisfied and bored. The cold reaction of the guests was criticized by many media at the time, and the newspaper commented:
"This is Hollywood, why applaud an elderly woman who doesn't look pretty, or even dresses like a tramp?"
But Jenny Beavan doesn't care about the applause of those people, her costumes have stayed in film history, and she has stood at the top of the industry.
Eight-time Oscar-nominated and two-time Oscar winner, she is known as the Queen of Costume as one of the world's most famous cinematic costume artists.
Jenny has taken over countless blockbusters. Sherlock Holmes, Morris, Sense and Sensibility, Mad Max, The King's Speech.
She was also awarded the OBE Medal for her contributions to British cinema.
From beautiful and classical to rough and wild, she is meticulous about any film and television costume. Jenny always said, "I'm a storyteller with clothes."
And the behind-the-scenes magician who leads the audience through time and space, the woman who stands on the podium of one of the most important awards in the film industry, did not even watch TV when she was a child.
Jenny was born into a musical family in London, the son of a cellist and the mother of a viola player. The home has always been full of artistic atmosphere.
But unlike many people's imagination, the artist's children are not free and loose. His parents were extremely perfectionist in their profession and had instilled in Jenny a strong work ethic from an early age—to be serious about art.
Jenny's manuscript for the King's speech
It was still shortly after World War II, and classical musicians' income was very limited. They can't afford a TV or a chance to go out and see the world.
The biggest help her parents gave Jenny was to tell her that creativity was the most important thing. She and her sister were allowed to play freely, drawing on cardboard, drawing on each other's faces, and even leaving a wall for Jenny so that she could create freely.
It was around that time that Jenny fell in love with art. She proved to be quite talented, and in college she was successfully admitted to the world's most renowned art school, Central Saint Martins College.
Jenny's cloth collection for Anna and the King
There she learned to cut fabrics, not only interested in clothing, but also studied the depth of set sets. But in the world's hipster, the most famous school of future designers, Jenny has no interest in how to catch up with fashion.
Her dress even made her classmates call her "sloppy." Jenny's daily outfits are: jeans, sneakers, a T-shirt and a scarf. If you walk past her, you won't believe that she made so many beautiful little dresses.
The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes Manuscript
As the old saying goes, gold always shines, and Jenny's most valuable advantage during her studies is that she is not impetuous, she is willing to take a few weeks of sleep for a film, find literature, watch film and television materials, and then combine the script to customize the costumes for the actors to match the role.
Soon after, Jenny, introduced by a friend, began working as a free assistant for the set and costume artist on the set of the film, and has been out of control ever since.
"Room with a View" Trial Installation Annotation
"Room with a View" clothing purchase list
Her collocation always makes the film like a European neoclassical oil painting, without a gorgeous and complex design, but soft and abnormal, and even a faint sadness can be seen from it.
In 1985, at the age of 35, Jenny won his first Oscar for "The Room with the View." In this British film, the costumes are also dreamlike.
Maybe you remember the old drama bones wearing flat-topped straw hats on the grass full of Yu beauty
Or a pure and cute heroine in a white dress (played by Helena when she was young) will always be the brightest scenery in this film
Of course, there are the endless green lawns and hills belonging to The United Kingdom, and nothing reflects the beauty of the green fields more than simple pure white.
White + gray sky + green space, this is almost Jenny's trump card, no noise, let people more immersed in the story and mood, and return to the past with the protagonists. Left a lot of impressive famous scenes.
For example, in "Bostonian", the scene when the male and female protagonists meet at the beach.
This work is also nominated for the Oscar and bafta best costume of the year, which is beautiful!
For example, in Morris, the blonde James Willby and uncle Hugh in a white shirt
Whether it is a young master, a male servant, winter clothes or summer clothes, they are full of British tone.
For example, the stunning white veil of the heroine in "Jane Eyre" she produced
With Jenny, you can feel the drunken gold fans of Jazz Age high society in "Goldsford Manor".
It is also one of Jenny's many Oscar nominations
You can also experience the popular fashion of the 1930s in "Swing Frenzy"
In "Howard Manor", which won Emma Thompson and let Emma win the Oscar in one fell swoop, Jenny's costume design was also greatly admired.
She takes us back to the Edwardian era and appreciates the mature and elegant women's style of the year.
Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" was also directed by Jenny and was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Costume.
This time it is Jane Austen's Regency era, the freshest and most natural era in the history of British clothing in the past century. The femininity and tranquility are vividly expressed.
This photo of walking through the ranch in a high-waisted white dress is believed that no one will forget
Not to mention the picture of young Kate Winslet circling her lover under a gentle goose-yellow skirt.
Jenny's costume control of the period drama is obvious to all. Because she herself is a person who is very obsessed with traditional clothing.
She's done a lot of research on each of the films she's taken over, and she probably reads scripts more often than she does as an actress. Then Jenny would go and talk to the director about the scene they wanted to shoot, and then choose the color and material.
Jenny will list the identities, experiences, scenes, and costumes and accessories they need before they start. But that's not enough.
Next, she would draw a sketch of each person's clothes, and then combine it with the historical data to start looking for the clothes that could "go back to the past".
Reason and emotion
In The King's Speech, in order to make Uncle Colin's figure more like the emaciated George VI, Jenny prepared a lot of suits that were obviously waist-cinched.
It seems that the uncle is thinner and taller, and the figure is better. There is a saying among the tailors: "A good tailor can make people grow 5 centimeters tall and lose 3 kilograms", and the same is true for the costumer.
King's speech was also nominated for Best Costume Design
For a film and television work, the costume does not have to be fancy, and even in a work, there is an impressive match, which is already a very happy thing for Jenny as a costume artist.
Just like in "Anna and the King", the plot of those Mary Sues may not be remembered clearly, but those who have seen it will not forget Anna's stunning white gauze dress at the ball.
Colin Farrell, who plays the Emperor in Alexander the Great, is full of ancient Greek-style costumes, which has completely forgotten that he is an Irishman.
For example, when watching "Black Dahlia", although full of fear of this cruel mystery, it was still watched repeatedly by Scarlett Johansson's several looks. Thank you Jenny for letting us see the beautiful soup buns.
For example, "Casanova", although the movie is tepid, but after watching it, I know how to use classical costumes to reflect the "riot" of the famous prodigal son Casanova.
The costumes for the play were bought by Jenny from three Italian classical clothing manufacturers.
That's right, film costumes aren't all designers original or handmade. Jenny says you need to use everything you can to find the most suitable clothes. Whether it is to go to the manufacturer customization, second-hand shop to find clothing stores to borrow...
For a perfect set of clothes can read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles. That's what a top cinematic costumer should be.
Ana and the king in the cloth collection of children's clothing
"When you make a perfect costume, it can even have a magical improvement effect on the actors." Jenny can often hear the admiration of many of her colleagues at the big names, but her favorite thing than the Oscars is to hear her actor friends say:
"Put on your clothes and I feel like I'm in this role." That's why she loves the business so much, Jenny says.
Jenny's costume clipboard from "Tea with Mussolini"
In 2015, the production of Mad Max 4 began. Although it is an alternate world, all the costumes in the play are all handmade from real materials.
Jenny's studio has just been made masks
In order to create a sense of doom, Jenny ordered 200 boxes of clothing garbage from Australia. Find available materials in old goggles, scrap shells, broken kraft paper bags, and water pipe tires. In the end, the Academy Awards were assembled by "waste utilization".
When Theron went to Jenny to try on the clothes, he exclaimed, "It feels great, accept my compliments!" ”。
It's hard to imagine that Jenny, who is almost 70 years old, has made a set of hardcore lines for this wild doomsday film, and of course it is even more difficult to connect with her previous works of extreme elegance.
After nearly 30 years, Jenny won the Oscar again. To express his appreciation for Mad Max. Jenny decided not to wear a dress, but instead wore a motorcycle wallet to attend, which she said was more punk and more in line with the work she represented.
Max's rebellious spirit coincided with Jenny's the moment she stepped onto the red carpet, but some would only spit on her at dressing like a garbage picker. Let's go back to the question at the beginning:
"Why applaud an elderly woman who doesn't look pretty, or even dresses like a tramp?"
Because she deserves it, because the costume in her hands tells a moving story.
And those who refuse to applaud her, try to imprison the Oscars with seemingly gorgeous long skirts and dresses, will never understand...