“I just like challenges & I like to do different things. It would be awful if I only did one thing. It would be so dull” Michele Clapton
Michele Clapton is one of the most popular costume designers from Britain. She has been awarded several times for her unique & aesthetic designs. At BAFTA AWARDS, she has been selected for best costume designs in four-part television series namely THE DEVIL’S WHORE. Moreover, she has been given EMMY AWARD for her unique costume designs in HBO’s hit show GAME OF THRONES in 2012, 2014 & 2016 respectively. Michele Clapton initially worked on her own fashion lines and was particularly a stylist for musicians before she began a successful career in costume designing for television.
Michele Clapton initially worked on her own fashion lines and was particularly a stylist for musicians including Cold play, Suede, Boy George, Garbage, George Michael, Spice girls and many others before she began a successful career in costume designing for television shows. Clapton specifically enjoys designing costumes for the fantasy characters.
“Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story” Mason Cooley
We are evaluating some of Clapton’s extraordinary works below:
LAVISHING ROYAL COSTUME DESIGNS FOR “THE CROWN”:
“Costume design is so important and really helpful and I really love that aspect of character development” quote by Katherine Waterson
Michele Clapton presented her extensive costume designing in historical drama series “THE CROWN”, where she designed costumes for a young Queen Elizabeth II. Michele Clapton precisely did a lot of research by taking out historical photographs & records to produce overwhelming combinations. Her hard work is clear from the fact that she studied designers of the era, including Dior, Hardy Amies for male suiting & Norman Hartnell, who designed the Princess’s Elizabeth wedding dress. Michele Clapton took up the challenge to recreate intricately beaded wedding gown to fit on Foy playing Elizabeth.
“I actually think the train is about three inches narrower than it should be. The train alone took six weeks to embellish with a team of students and embroiderers on rotation, while the bodice, the skirting and the applique’ all crafted at the same time at separate locations”. Michele Clapton
Clapton has proven her ability to match costumes with the original characters & trends of those times. Moreover, recreating royal costumes was not an easy task as the princess was also a great ambassador of British fashion. Elizabeth’s costumes designed by Clapton also reflected a sharp contrast between a responsible conservative queen & her fun-loving sister Princess Margaret. The Crown’s costume team was as large as 200 persons including dyers, pattern cutters & embroiders. Hence the task was completed within five months. Michele Clapton expressed her views about Elizabeth’s clothing in a post-world war II era:
“We decided to put her in something which is almost a uniform, so it was the equivalent of a man’s suit. It was like an armor and she could hide behind this incredibly formal dress. It isn’t particularly feminine. It’s very high buttoning and even the buttons are covered”
According to Clapton, costumes play a primary role in enhancing the characters & she spends most of the time with artists to discuss their costumes, who play a central role in a film or series. Clapton further explained the task of designing bridesmaid’s dresses as a very time-consuming. They were hand-stitched & their headpieces were constructed individually by using wax. Much has been made of the high budget for the series, with Michele Clapton contribution of fascinating frocks & gowns. Her costumes were designed by astounding array of decorative materials. The film director Stephen Daldry repeatedly said that Michele Clapton was his only choice as a customer.
“I had to have Michele. She’s brilliant. If clothes aren’t right, I can't shoot them”.
DUST DEVIL (1993) & THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ (2000):
Michele Clapton started her initial designing works in Dust devil & the nine lives of Tomas Katz. She explained the hard work for her first filmography when fabrics were dyed & patterns were designed to display an overwhelming outfit for the characters. She gave the characters a glamorous topping thus giving them a fresher look. If we say that Clapton’s designing has influenced the fashion industry, so it won’t be wrong.
BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP; BEST DESIGNER MICHEAL CLAPTON:
Clapton was awarded several times for her fabulously designed costumes. Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) & Ben (Colin Firth) were dressed according to the appearance presented in the original novel. Clapton rightly depicted amnesia patient Christine with casual & modern clothing representing a strong character. Ben was also dressed by Clapton, giving him a more sophisticated look with a slight flirt personality. The marvelous costume designer worked day and night to match the outfits with the characters by preventing any odd appearance. Colin’s character was quite smart & tight, so everything was just perfectly considered. Dr. Nasch wardrobe was stronger than Ben’s wardrobe to give him a softer & casual touch. Michele Clapton showed the effect of costumes on different characters, from khaki jackets to cargo polished pants, everything was just perfect!
“In contemporary films, the clothes are so often not noticed. That’s almost the beauty of them- they have to tell the story without being celebrated. Sometimes that is the hardest to do because everyone thinks they know clothes.” Michele Clapton (views for Before I go to Sleep)
DRESS DESIGNS FOR MIRANDA (2002):
Michele Clapton also provided her dress designing services for Miranda, a British romantic & thriller film in 2002. She perfectly collaborated her collection of dresses for Christine Ricci, John Sim & others. Michele gave Christine a versatile look in her glamorous & flirtatious pieces. She was adored for her eye-popping dresses in the film. Clapton has been always incredible in the world of Fashion Industry.
CHICA DI RIO (2001):
Chica Di Rio’s pieces gave the opportunity to Michele Clapton for brushing up her skills and making her successful for the spotlights. Hard work of Clapton has also witnessed junior artists rising to the top just because of their fabulously designed dresses. There was a time when audience celebrated the success of their hairstylist & makeup artists but now the dress designing has taken the turn. Michele Clapton, in fact, revolutionized the concept & importance of dress designing in movies.
“What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen, he’s become a different person” Edith Head
ALI & NINO (2016), A MASTEPIECE OF CLAPTON’S COLLECTION:
Ali & Nino is a super hit of 2016 that is also based on a novel. Clapton designed clothes for Ali & Nino by keeping in view the religious customs presented in the novel. We saw the inspiring Khakis everywhere in the movie which changed the concept of Khakis among people. Now more people are incorporating Khakis in their wardrobe after seeing its trend in super hit movies.
QUEEN OF THE DESERT (2015), PERFECT COSTUME DESIGNING BY MICHELE CLAPTON:
Michele Clapton produced incredible costumes for the movie “Queen of the desert”. As the movie was a representation of the life of Gertrude Bell, Clapton researched a lot about her personal appearance & produced right costumes for the leading artist Nicole Kidman in the movie. The movie was shot in Morocco, England & Jordan; hence the costumes were all related to their respective environments.
“She’ll go on to winning more than Emmys, I predict” Nicole Kidman views for Michele Clapton at Vogue
MICHELE CLAPTON’S MORE FILMOGRAPY:
Clapton as a fashion designer has offered her valuable services for many movies & series. Some of her masterpiece works are:
• Blood (2012)
• Love & other disasters (2006)
• Simon Magus (1999)
• Women Talking Dirty (1999)
• Chromophobia (2005)
• Separate Lies (2005)
Michele Clapton has shown diversity in designing for all her movies. Every character seems to be transformed to an entirely new look. The most interesting part of Michele Clapton’s fashion designing is that she brings back the old vintage fashion of 50’s & 60’s into the latest trends that reflect zeitgeist perfectly. Michele Clapton’s designed dresses keep on occupying street fashion to a great extent.
GAME OF THRONES: A REMARKABLE SUCCESS FOR CLAPTON’S COSTUMES:
Michele Clapton’s costumes for The Game of Thrones aided her popularity to a great extent. Clapton has repeatedly highlighted challenges she faced during the series. She thinks that a written description of a costume is not easy to translate well on live characters. For this purpose, she does research by looking at the people of historic times to judge their dressing according to their environment.
Michele Clapton also took inspirations from Lascaux cave paintings in France to visualize fascinating animal paintings into costumes. Clapton distinguished her costume designs by giving the characters different cuts & colors in THE GAME OF THRONES. She achieved many awards for her hard-edged armor costumes & lavishing gowns. She even teamed up with the sculptors to create some unique pieces for Emilia Clarke. Clapton also describes the task of costume’s construction in a vast studio space where the armors department broke down the costumes & collaborated them with different patterns and worn out materials.
When Sansa (Sophie Turner) was seen first, she was dressed in a stark way displaying a homespun cloth, but gradually her appearance changed when she entered King’s Landing. Her costume was then inspired by Cersei (Lena Headey). Sansa’s incredible heavily symbolic costumes reflected her complex personality & her stark dresses then brought a revolution in fashion industry.
“If they rip costumes off people we’ll have two of those. As one has been ripped we’ll be stitching it back up while the other one is being used, and then it goes back and forth & we swap them in and out. Poor Sansa gets her stuff ripped off all the time.” Fascinating wardrobe secrets explained by Clapton
Similarly, the costumes of Little finger (Aidan Gillen) first depicted his organized personality, but he then stopped wearing a mantle, ran brothels & his costumes became a little richer. In season 2 of THE GAME OF THRONES, Clapton’s stunning costume designs brought a revolution in the fashion industry. The dressing of Greyjoys brought her the Emmy Award. His fabulous organic & crunchy costumes won the hearts of an entire industry.
“For the Greyjoys, the Iron Islands clan, We used fish oil & wax on top. We liked the idea that they’d smell, The Lannisters and Baratheons have more ornate armor because In King’s Landing there are street of armorer, so there’s competition” Explained by Clapton
THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING CLAPTON’S INCREDBILE COLLECTION
Clapton always gives a realistic look to characters by designing aged costumes. For this purpose, she is accompanied with ten people including painters & textile artists.
Michele Clapton first visualizes rules of each area to make sketches, does a lot of research and then reaches to a conclusion by keeping in consideration the availability of materials & transport. She also works collaboratively with the production designers to understand the real architecture.
“I love the freedom of Game of Thrones. Developing the visual sense of the character-that’s the essence of all costume designs” Michele Clapton
Game of Thrones season 6 was a joint venture of Michele Clapton and April Ferry’s costume designing, as Clapton took a leave of absence for this season but both managed to secure best costume designer title for the 19th Costume Designer Guild Award. Their joint work was appreciated by everyone on the spotlights.
It is clear from Michele Clapton’s success that if you want to be somebody in life you have to work hard for it. People will definitely recognize your talent. Moreover, the art of fashion designing needs determination, consistency & a lot of research.
You too can become Michele Clapton as the fashion industry is an interesting and creative career option!
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