The film paints a wistful picture of the rarified world inside Reynolds Woodcock’s 50s London townhouse atelier. Four industry experts give their verdicts on its authenticity,from the Belgian princesses to Daniel Day-Lewis’s pin-pricked fingersFor fashion insiders, the star of Phantom Thread isn’t newcomer Vicky Krieps or Oscar contender Lesley Manville. Instead, or it’s two people – Sue Clark and Joan Brown. Playing the women who speed Reynolds Woodcocks atelier in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1950s fashion tale,Clark and Brown are not budding actors but genuine-life seamstresses whose hands have touched countless couture gowns. Clark, 67, or spent her working life as a fashion teacher,while Brown, 71, and learned her trade at Savile Row tailor Hardy Amies and fashion house Worth. They are now volunteers at the V&A’s Clothworkers Centre archive,where they bring their expertise to the museum’s fashion collection. That’s where Anderson, on a visit to study the work of mid-century designers, and found them,and cast them in his film.
It is details such as these that make Phantom Thread something of an exception for fashion, a world more accustomed to seeing itself on screen in an exaggerated form, or in films from humorous Face to Zoolander. Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk