Spoilers for Materialists forward.
Towards the top of Materialists, Celine Music’s exploration of the contradictions of relationship and trendy love, pragmatic skilled matchmaker Lucy (Dakota Johnson) reaches an epiphany.
“Once you love somebody, it’ll be straightforward,” she says. “There’s no math.”
Till then, Lucy relied on a quantitative method in figuring out matches for her purchasers — and herself. Her data-driven methodology additionally comes by way of in her skilled aesthetic, filled with straight traces and formulation of strong neutrals, as crafted by costume designer Katina Danabassis. However, as Lucy permits love into the equation, her wardrobe begins to bloom, typically actually with florals.
Lucy’s stylish, easy lineup of go well with separates and traditional, fine-knit cardigans is partially knowledgeable by Music’s personal expertise working as a matchmaker in New York Metropolis — a enjoyable incontrovertible fact that provides depth to the character’s type.
“It was necessary to convey that [Lucy] wasn’t stealing anybody’s shine when it got here to her purchasers. It must be skilled, and enchantment to a high-end clientele,” Danabassis, who led costume design for Music’s final (and really totally different) love-triangle movie, Previous Lives. “Once you’re millionaire matchmaking, it’s a must to look the half. But in addition not come throughout as somebody who’s essentially out there.”
Lucy finally permits herself to be out there when confronted with two choices: the seemingly-perfect financier Harry (Pedro Pascal) and her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor who nonetheless lives with roommates.
Forward, Danabassis takes us by way of how Lucy’s love story unfolds by way of her wardrobe.
Lucy’s Energy Go well with
All the time centered, Lucy targets new purchasers as she commutes to work — and her outfits assist the pitch. Within the opening scenes, she confidently strides in a strong-shouldered Aritzia blazer and knee-high Paris Texas boots, practically inflicting finance bro Robert (Eddie Cahill) to have whiplash as he walks in the other way.
“I used to be actually within the thought of placing her in an influence go well with,” says Danabassis. “Not solely as a result of it’s just a little bit contemporary, but in addition it appears to be one thing of a bygone period.”
Reflecting a NYC, always-on-the-move sense of dressing, the costume designer teamed the navy pinstripe blazer with a black, wide-striped mini skirt from a Versace go well with and a white satin Banana Republic shirt. ”It simply felt very New York; timeless, however highly effective, trendy, however throwback — and iconic,” says Danabassis, referencing a standout reminiscence of a girl in a skirt go well with and Dries van Noten-esque thigh-high boots strutting throughout Bowery Road in Manhattan.
Danabassis additionally dropped in an Easter egg.“It’s additionally a nod to Working Lady,” she says, referring to the 1988 traditional starring Johnson’s mother, Melanie Griffith, whose character famously wore sneakers with skirt fits to the workplace.
Lucy’s Blue Robe
Lucy’s a high performer at work — with 9 marriages to her credit score. She’s even invited to the most recent nuptials of two high-net-worth (and high-maintenance) people. Lucy opts for a strapless, draped Proenza Schouler costume in a placing peacock blue that draws the attention of the viewer and Harry, the wealthy, swoon-worthy brother of the groom.
“We want one thing that pops. However concurrently, it shouldn’t be one thing that’s going to steal any shine from the bride,” says Danabassis of her considering, which led to the pairing of the “origami-style costume” with silver Bottega Veneta heels. “Additionally, the costume is just not too fussy. In actuality, sure, it was a fussy costume. We needed to be sure that it was tied completely [at the back]. However it was actually easy. Like, you possibly can perform in it.”
Lucy multitasks like a professional: disaster managing the bride’s chilly toes, charming potential new purchasers, and slipping out of the opulent ballroom to reconnect with John, a cater-waiter on the reception. She additionally agrees to a steamy dance with Harry, in change for him agreeing to name her company.
“It’s a piece perform, mainly. She’s there to assist, however not be a wallflower completely,” says Danabassis. “As a result of she’s nonetheless a girl in New York and doing her factor.”
Lucy’s Date-Night time Seems to be
She finally agrees to think about Harry — “a unicorn, an inconceivable fantasy,” as Lucy describes him — as a prospect for herself, and never her loyal purchasers. Over a collection of dinner dates (the place they strategically assess one another by way of their methodical view of relationships), Lucy wears refined, uncomplicated items, like a darkish St. John blazer over a Leset tank and a strappy black halter costume from Laundry by Shelly Segal.
“She’s interesting to his sensibilities, which is simply traditional, stylish, upscale, and just a little bit minimal,” says Danabassis.
When a beforehand skeptical Lucy agrees to go all-in with Harry, she elevates her signature black monochrome with a sheer Simkhai high, layered over an Solely Hearts bra, and a classic double-breasted blazer. Her knee-length One other Tomorrow skirt, with dynamic tasseled fringe (a extra enjoyable tackle the business-like skirt she wears earlier within the movie), takes on a lifetime of its personal as she and Harry do a dance of kinds by way of the hallways of his sprawling $12 million Tribeca penthouse.
“We theorized that it ought to [evolve from] her not making an attempt too, too arduous to ramping as much as, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do some bit extra right here.’ However hold it very New York, stylish, [and] clear,” says Danabassis. “That black outfit popped in opposition to the heat of his residence, and the Gucci footwear had been superb due to the shine and the metallic chain on the again.”
Lucy’s Flashback Florals
A flashback reveals Lucy and John’s emotional breakup, occurring after they had been each cash-strapped actors however chasing divergent targets and life. Lucy’s delicately ruffled floral Dôen high, Nili Lotan straight-leg denims, and Loeffler Randall mules really feel sentimental and hopeful.
“It’s that cute look that you just put collectively for going out in your anniversary,” says Danabassis. “That’s not making an attempt too arduous or making an attempt to match the identical degree because the man. It’s actually simply her.”
Lucy additionally wears a candy, thrift-store-bought coronary heart necklace that displays a differing mindset from her present-day modern Spinelli Kilcollin rolo chain that telegraphs geometry.
“When she’s relationship Harry, she’s on this metropolis mode,” says Danabassis. “When it’s John, it’s extra naturalistic, grounded, floral, and ethereal.”
Lucy’s “Reveal” Outfit
John lastly lands a task in an off-off-Broadway play and invitations Lucy, who brings her now-boyfriend Harry. Her outfit — a protracted ‘90s-style black leather-based jacket by Coach, white MNG cami, and Zara high-waisted, wide-leg denims — matches the venue and post-show dive bar drinks.
“She is aware of what world she’s coming into into, like a dingy Brooklyn playhouse factor. However Harry doesn’t know the place he’s going. So he wears his ‘Oh, that is my nation blazer,’” says Danabassis, about Harry’s ‘match: a tweedy Ralph Lauren jacket, caramel-brown Zegna button-down, Hermès darkish denims, and Bottega Veneta oxfords.
However the casual-cool ensemble additionally looks like a slight reveal of her long-suppressed emotions for John — and harbinger of an impending divide with Harry.
Lucy’s Wedding ceremony-Crasher Costume
A traumatic occasion pushes Lucy to just accept and observe her emotions, as an alternative of crunching the numbers. She exhibits up on John’s doorstep with baggage packed for a now-canceled Iceland jaunt with Harry. Lucy and John then take a spontaneous drive upstate to crash a country wedding ceremony. Fortunately, John retains a cater-waiter go well with within the trunk of his beat-up automotive. Lucy presumably plucks a floaty, buttercream yellow Dôen costume out of her suitcase and doesn’t change out of her black Nike sneakers. Though the costume — with a curved empire waistline, watercolor florals, fluttery ruffles, and floral appliqués — evokes nation wedding ceremony greater than the posh trip she was on her approach to take.
“I imply, certain, she might have packed that for Iceland. Like, [Lucy and Harry] had been happening a date someplace, and he or she’s making an attempt to do her particular factor and get extra in tune with herself. That’s the thought there,” explains Danabassis. “Actually, it’s only a romantic costume that hits the hidden theme of flowers as an emblem of affection that was carried all through the film.”
Sort of like finishing a fancy math calculation by sustaining all of the variables alongside the way in which.
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