In Joker: Folie à Deux, the titular alter ego of failed comic Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and the enigmatic Lee Quinzel (Girl Gaga) develop a harmful bond as inmates within the infamous Arkham State Hospital, a bond they categorical by way of elaborate tune and dance numbers. (“Folie à deux” refers to a medical time period for a shared psychosis.) However are these fantastical, typically foreboding musical sequences simply in Arthur’s head, or in some way a deeper connection between the 2? That’s as much as audiences to resolve. Behind the scenes, although, dance events commonly went down in Gaga’s costume, hair and make-up trailer, which even had a nickname.
“‘Camp Lee’ was unbelievable,” says Arianne Phillips. “It was a lot enjoyable.”
From pre-production by way of filming, the three-time Oscar-nominated costume designer meticulously plotted Lee’s journey, together with Gaga (whom Phillips refers to by the star’s start title, Stefani), Frederic Aspiras (Gaga’s hairstylist) and make-up artist Sarah Tanno. The workforce took the character from an inpatient on the bleak psychiatric facility to her daring self-actualization as mercurial antihero Harley Quinn.
“What’s distinctive about Stefani is that she actually understands costume, hair, and make-up — and he or she understands character,” says Phillips, who took over as costume designer from Joker’s Mark Bridges (who acquired an Oscar nod for that movie).
The sequel is ready within the early Nineteen Eighties, and the costume aesthetic emphasizes a dirty, gritty realism. Phillips took inspiration from genuine sources, from ‘70s downtown New York Metropolis hallmarks to the golden age of Hollywood to Girl Gaga herself.
“She was actually sincere and really beneficiant with sharing a few of her personal private expertise that she felt associated to Lee, and that these had been actually morsels that I might soak up,” says Phillips. She retains the precise particulars near her vest, merely sharing: “You possibly can see it all through the entire movie.”
Forward, Phillips discusses Lee’s custom-designed wardrobe evolution by way of three totally different worlds: Arkham, the courtroom, and a fantastical wedding ceremony.
Lee’s “Cozy Sweaters” At Arkham State Hospital
As he awaits trial for mass homicide in high-risk block E of the corrupt Gotham psychiatric facility, Arthur ventures into the minimum-security B ward. The world slows down for a second when he spots Lee exterior a music class: Swaddled in an outsized marigold mohair cardigan over her hospital-issue white scrubs, she meets his eye and makes a finger gun gesture to her head.
Like many headline-grabbing mass murderers earlier than him, Arthur’s the topic of a TV film, which an enamored Lee has watched numerous occasions. “She’s this little avenue urchin,” says Phillips. “She actually made herself small as a way to get his consideration… That is actually a love story, and we needed to create a vulnerability along with her on this establishment.”
Lee’s “cozy sweaters” — her trusty mustard one, and a two-tone blue cardigan — set a backstory for the character, in keeping with the costume designer: “The thought is that perhaps she discovered it in a thrift retailer or it belonged to her father.” (For the Superman-level vision-enhanced viewer, Phillips additionally wove delicate, foreshadowing diamond patterns into each cardis.)
A candy, dainty bow on the neckline of Lee’s tank and her scruffy ballet slippers (a reference to Amy Winehouse — who sported a visibly worn-in pair on a couple of event — and director Todd Phillips’ concept) additionally convey vulnerability. And an origin story.
“There’s just a little infantilizing of her at first,” says Phillips. “She has this bravado — a fearlessness that you just actually expertise in a youngster — and you then see her as her willpower grows over time.”
Lee’s Downtown NYC-Influenced Courtroom Outfits
Out of Arkham, Lee regularly exhibits her help of (or fixation on?) Arthur and his Joker persona by transferring up the gallery to take a seat entrance row at his trial. Her courtroom attire bear a development, too, beginning with a floaty, mild blue floral mini earlier than evolving to a sheer black tunic with velvet diamond shapes and a navy, flower-print “church”-type costume with an exaggerated Peter Pan collar.
“[The early ‘80s] was the time when the East Village scene and CBGB on the Bowery had been beginning up,” says Phillips in regards to the inspiration for Lee’s supposedly thrifted, ‘70s “babydoll, [designer] Biba-esque attire” worn with discordant oversize cardigans and chunky punk rock outerwear. “She has a pretend fur jacket and a thrift retailer males’s sweater. She would have cobbled these appears to be like collectively, however, nonetheless, there’s a vulnerability and weird innocence — she’s this sycophant who’s obsessive about Joker. That blend, to me, exhibits that.”
On the ultimate day of Arthur’s trial, Lee strides into court docket in full Harley Quinn regalia: a pink blazer with raised diamond patterns and pleated ruffle cuffs, a theatrical corset and graphic tights.
“Together with [embracing] her willpower, she has taken on this persona impressed by Joker,” says Phillips. She imagines that Lee thrifted the pink jacket from an previous circus uniform, ripped the muslin and ruffle-trimmed corset off a interval costume robe, and perhaps copped the leather-based mini from the Gotham outpost of Trash and Vaudeville. “You see the diamond sample all through,” she provides.
Lee’s Showstopping Fantasy Appears to be like
Throughout a particularly tense trial second, Arthur dissociates into one among his most heightened musical sequences: a marriage.
Lee walks down the aisle towards Joker in a V-neck mini costume with a fragile diamond trapunto sample and gleaming ribbons streaming down the shoulders — “enjoying into what Arthur can be interested in,” says Phillips. “In her fantasy, and his fantasy, what would that appear like?”
Phillips referenced ‘60s icons like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the block-heel Mary Janes, plus Physician Zhivago-era Julie Christie and the late ‘60s/‘70s silhouettes of Ossie Clark and Biba. “[The dress is] fairly impressed by my aunt, who obtained married within the ‘70s,” she provides. “I used to be a flower woman.”
The nuptials transition right into a raucous jazz efficiency on the ill-fated (and ominously named) Pogo’s comedy membership. Lee smashes the keys on a child grand as she belts out a banger, sporting a silver steel mesh costume that sways along with her bombastic actions, bringing to thoughts…effectively, Girl Gaga.
Phillips — who’s designed six world excursions for Madonna — collaborated with Michael Schmidt (a go-to for the likes of Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo) on the sparkly stage-wear. “I made a diamond-shaped collar that simply gave a sure vitality to that scene,” she says.
The costume designer additionally labored with Girl Gaga’s sister, Natali Germanotta, and her atelier, Topo Studio, which constructed the white bias-cut robe for a rooftop dance quantity straight out of a silver display basic.
“Completely Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire,” says Phillips, “and [the dress inspiration] was within the script, so I leaned into that.”
She additionally sketched and designed the modern, fluid robe to permit for Gaga and Phoenix’s upbeat choreography. For one more bit, a putting marigold two-piece set with a smattering of delicate beading references Bob Mackie’s work for Cher.
“The great thing about this film is that there’s a lot realism,” she says, “but we get to be in Arthur’s thoughts, the place we blur actuality and fantasy.”
Joker: Folie à Deux is out in theaters on October 4.
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