The Hidden Details Of The Costumes In The Poor Things Leaves Audience In Awe

The Poor Things outfit, created by Holly Waddington and nominated for both the Oscar and BAFTA awards, is brimming with frills, balloon sleeves, culottes, and corsets. Bella, portrayed by Emma Stone, is matched to the outfits in every way, tracing a frenzied journey from baby doll dresses, happy, frothy ruffles, enormous sleeves, and forgotten or discarded trousers, to sensible, protective coats and more somber, medical student monochrome.

The Inspirations Drawn From Various Sources

The movie based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray and set in the Victorian era, drew inspiration from not just the period in which the story was set. The costume designer Holly Waddington has revealed that even though she took inspiration from the Victorian age, she was not trying to be faithful to the era’s fashion. The director, Lanthimos urges Holly to work with her imagination. He asked her to take the material and come up with what she found appropriate for the movie.

In an interview, Waddington said that she took inspiration from Victorian shapes, but tried to incorporate rich textures which she needed to feel animal, unruly, and organic. She also said that a lot of references for the costumes were taken from the female bodies. Waddington designed a white blouse for Emma which resembled the female vagina. She said that she tried to portray it subtly and not slavishly. Waddington skilfully used the pinkish skin tones, clothing surfaces, and forms that resemble bodily parts to further suggest the idea of altered flesh for Bella.

In Poor Things, Waddington exhibited pompous behavior by donning shoulder pads, particularly about Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal of Duncan Wedderburn. Consequently, she initially offered him and Emma enormous costumes. She said that she thought it would be funny that Bella would have huge shoulders and be overpowered by them and Duncan would have slightly diminutive shoulders with a curvy pigeon chest. 

Waddington said in an interview, that she intended the costumes to portray Bella as alive as possible following her resurrection at the beginning of Poor Things. The goal of Victorian clothing is to regulate the body and form it into a certain shape. She said that there were inconsistencies in the Victorian outfits as she never had corsets in her closet. Her decision to replace the Victorian bedding and lace was to portray how Bella was unruly, uncontainable, and a living creation.

Bella’s outfits briefly shift from visceral and textured to conservatively wrapped up as she appears in the brothel scene. The so-called “condom coat” seems like the ideal outerwear for her arrival at a point where she intends to use her body for commerce and exploration but not for procreation.

Bella chooses a garment with elaborate yet delicate and translucent sleeves for her wedding, which takes place near the end of the movie when she returns home and prepares to marry Max. Although the cage-like construction is visible, they have a texture more akin to a mayfly wing than a prison. Waddington, who has always “been a bit resistant to marriage… a bit sort of horrified at the idea of being given away on an aisle,” claims that all of these men are “trying in some way to entrap her.” 

Bella’s mood and mental state were reflected through the colors of her dress. She dons a burnt orange outfit in one episode that is the most restricting item in her wardrobe, which reflects her disturbed and chaotic state.

Read more: Emma Stone Looks Gorgeous In Pink Attire And Heels

Poor Things

Poor Things, the 2023 film directed by Yorgus Lanthimos and written by Tony McNamara was based on a Victorian novel. The movie was first released on 1 September 2023 in Venice. It was later released in the US, UK, and Ireland in the consecutive months.