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After reading the script for Emerald Fennell’s revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman”, costume designer Nancy Steiner envisioned a prominent woman who was “disheveled” or, in milder terms, “less than gathered.”
After all, Cassie – the main character in the film played by Carey Mulligan – is depressed. The 30-year-old medical school dropout has never recovered from a mysterious traumatic event, an event that inspired her to fill her nights of revenge on toxic men. Yet in her day-to-day life, Cassie is dressed head to toe in bubblegum pinks and flowers, with her long blonde hair often pulled back in a braid and decorated with ribbons. It is all deliberate.
“Emerald really wanted Cassie to dress like she was that happy girl. You would never know she’s depressed, ”says Steiner, whose CV includes“ Lost in Translation ”,“ Little Miss Sunshine ”and“ The Virgin Suicides ”. “I’ve come to realize that it’s just another one of her costumes that she wears to hide who she really is.
Her girly exterior, what Steiner calls a “sweet American girl,” is part of Cassie’s chameleon tendency to hide in plain sight. Her everyday outfit can be full of bold prints, bold hues, and multi-colored manicures, but rest assured, she isn’t trying to stand out.
“I went back to the 60s,” says Steiner. “I had pictures of Brigitte Bardot on my mood board – lots of cute blondes.
As a costume designer, she sees her job as “telling the story without shouting”. But, she said with a knowing wink at the film’s shocking finale, “sometimes you need to scream.”
“Promising Young Woman” debuted in theaters on Christmas Day and came out on demand last weekend. Here, Steiner details the key outfits worn by Mulligan in the film.
Drunk business
Cassie at what the crew calls “the business bar.”
Courtesy of Focus Features
Throughout the film, Cassie frequents many clubs and bars to bait her prey. Behind the scenes, the crew gave each waterhole its own nickname to differentiate the vibrations. “Promising Young Woman” opens with Cassie at the “business bar”, a traditional pub where men gather after work. As she does in her daily life, Cassie dresses to fit in. (At the “hipster bar,” she dons feather hair extensions.)
Steiner chose a traditional costume to keep Cassie in the center of the photo. Meanwhile, a montage of sweaty men dressed in khakis and ill-fitting shirts play to rousing music.
“We were trying to show how disgusting it can be to look at men from a woman’s perspective,” Steiner said. “You know, like ‘Ew!'”
The bachelorette
“There’s a ‘Stepford Wife’ kind of thing about it,” Steiner says of Cassie’s dating.
Merie Weismiller Wallace; SMPSP
When she’s not tormenting perverted men, Cassie poses as a barista. At the cafe, she reconnects with a former medical school classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham). After some cute and awkward banter, the two start dating. One of Steiner’s favorite scenes takes place on a date, where Cassie and Ryan walk the aisles of a convenience store using snacks as karaoke props to cap Paris Hilton’s pop anthem “Stars Are Blind.” She wears a hot pink cardigan, a shiny floral top and blush colored jeans.
“There’s a ‘Stepford Wife’ kind of thing about it,” Steiner says of Cassie’s evening dress. “She puts on the nice clothes and spends the day. No one asks her about herself because she blends in perfectly.
Depreciated Eurovision
Cassie at what the crew called the “Eurotrash” bar.
Merie Weismiller Wallace / Focus
Later, at what the crew dubbed the ‘Eurotrash bar’, Cassie dresses in a bodycon mini dress with sparkly sequins, accessorized with seedy hair extensions, high heels and silver earrings. . Cassie leaves to go home with her next pawn. But not before she awkwardly bumps into Ryan as she is draped over another man, who is wearing a fedora.
“She goes to these places thinking she won’t be recognized. I don’t know why the character of Bo went to this bar, ”Steiner posture. “I never understood that. It is not him. It was disturbing.
Ratchet nurse
The “promising young lady” costume designers wanted Cassie’s nurse outfit to be “sexy,” but not overly overdone.
The film climaxes as Cassie makes a surprise visit to the bachelor party of the man responsible for her trauma. In reference to their medical school days, Cassie arrives at a secluded cabin in the woods dressed in a sultry nurse costume that includes a multi-colored wig and blood-red lipstick. Steiner says she didn’t find the perfect costume, so she ended up creating her own.
“We wanted something that wasn’t too over the top, but still sexy and provocative,” Steiner says. “It was fun to design because it was so different from Carey and Cassie.”
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