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Beth Harmon was facing a sort of “sudden death”.
The fictional chess star overcame her orphan childhood, struggled with her addiction to pills and alcohol, and managed to qualify for the world championship in Russia. The problem now? She had spent all her money on clothes and couldn’t afford her $ 3,000 trip to the greatest game of all time.
“You could give me the black dress,” Beth’s friend suggests in an episode of “The Queen’s Gambit”. “Or purple.”
Beth laughs and declines both offers.
In a field dominated by men, chunky glasses and ill-fitting white button-down shirts, Beth Harmon is a sudden style idol. Yes, she’s a character developed from Walter Tevis’ novel of the same name and now outfitted by Gabriele Binder in a hit Netflix series. But somehow, she might be able to provide an introduction from the world of chess to the world of fashion, an unlikely but beautiful couple.
“At first glance, chess is neither stylish nor trendy, but players make choices about what to wear and why they wear it,” Ms Binder said, speaking on Zoom from her home in Berlin. , wearing a simple black shirt waist up, without accessories. And these choices are important, she believes. “It brings them good luck or gives them a good experience.”
“The Queen’s Gambit” takes place in the 1960s, and at that time only a few American and Russian players were in the big leagues. Ms. Binder rethought the way men dressed, and they had “geeky nerdy fashions.” The looks of the women were similar. Beth, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, is anything but cheesy. And that can be a game changer. As it was.
“Failures will never be the same,” said Cathleen Sheehan, professor and interim chair of the FIT Fashion Design MFA program in New York City. “This story brings international glamor, humanity and relatable history to the game of chess. Whenever the scene changed, I felt excited to see what she would wear next.
Inspired by Edie Sedgwick, Jean Seberg, Pierre Cardin and Balenciaga, Ms. Binder has created a dizzying array of looks that take Beth from her orphan days in Kentucky through her chess tournaments in Las Vegas, Paris and Moscow. No less than a dozen of her outfits feature geometric patterns reflecting the chessboard, but Ms. Binder would never do anything as obvious as printing a chessboard on a top or skirt.
Instead, for example, Beth tiptoed into the world of chess with a simple plaid sleeveless dress over a fitted white button that didn’t stray from the style of the era. She was desperately trying to find her own path in the fashion and chess scene – and her outfit reflects that, Ms Binder said. At the end of the series, Beth comes out in a white woolen coat paired with a totally on point white hat for a chess queen.
There’s also the makeup, which helps transform Orphan Beth into a very glamorous chess starlet, reflecting her state of mind along the way (like a fluttering eyeliner to highlight a hangover). “It was an exaggerated make-up to support that she’s really apart from herself, doesn’t fit the idea of a chess player,” Ms. Binder said. “It was kind of like ‘This is me, and I’m fragile.'”
Fragile, but chic.
Jennifer Shahade, two-time American women’s chess champion and director of the women’s program at US Chess in Philadelphia, said she had always viewed the game as a glamorous sport. Ms. Shahade was able to party with her peers on rest days; she left the country for the first time at the age of 15 to compete in a world junior championship in Brazil; and she celebrated her 16th birthday in Iceland for another chess excursion. It’s an aspect of chess that those outside the game cannot necessarily see.
“Glamor fueled my work ethic and vice versa,” Ms. Shahade said. “The overlap between chess and glamor is nothing new, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it portrayed so brilliantly on screen, taking it to an even higher level of imagination. “
While this might not be the first time chess has entered the fashion scene, it might be the biggest move he’s made.
In 2005, Alexander McQueen did a chess-inspired fashion show, in which a chessboard was thrown to the floor and each model depicted a chess piece. Then, at New York Fashion Week in 2010, G-Star, the Amsterdam brand, introduced Magnus Carlsen, a grandmaster, playing a chess match before the parade. G-Star also created an advertising campaign around Mr. Carlsen.
Yet fashion and chess never really gel. The World Chess Hall of Fame partnered with the St. Louis Fashion Fund in 2018 to challenge novice designers to create stylish chess outfits. Spoiler alert: The Grandmasters continue to wear their usual simple black suits.
“Although the grandmasters dress much better than they did 15 years ago, there is a way for top American players like Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura to be recognized as a style icon,” said Lennart Ootes , chess photographer and broadcaster in Amsterdam. “Chess has been featured in countless films and commercials as a metaphor for strategic decisions, but you will hardly see a chess player on a red carpet.”
Now that “The Queen’s Gambit” has arrived, it looks like chess is having a fashion moment. At the end of November, the “Keith Haring: Radiant Gambit” exhibition will open at the World Chess Hall of Fame. It will include Mr. Haring’s custom street art chess sets.
Also intended for a program at the Chess Hall of Fame is Michael Drummond, the St. Louis fashion designer featured on “Project Runway.” Her exhibition, “Being Played,” examines the effects of fashion and climate using chess figures as a metaphor. (We’re here for the all-chess black mini dress.)
And now, the costumes from “The Queen’s Gambit” can be viewed on a virtual exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, which worked with Netflix to offer a more detailed look at the outfits from the show, as well as costumes from “The Crown.”
The bad news, however, is that none of these glamorous Queen’s Gambit costumes are available in stores. Ms. Binder made them all especially for Beth, or bought them from the Costume Archive. So when it comes to buying them, it’s your choice.
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