You can use many techniques to help build your world, ground your setting, or give dimensions to your characters. You can use music, you can create elaborate sets, but one of the best ways is the costumes you make.

People instantly judge a character within moments on the screen, and the outfits are an essential part of that first impression. More than this, you can also use costumes as a way of storytelling. What do they say about this world, what do they say about how a character is progressing. 

Costumes can build worlds, tell us details we can only see, but also they can make us say ‘hot damn’ look at that beading on that dress, that must have taken hours to do. So without further ado, these are the costumes that made us say ‘hot damn’ in 2021. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead for the films in question. Also, please click on the titles to be taken to the full review.     

Dune

‘Grand Feudal empires in the deep future’ is a particular look that Dune nails  

Directed by – Denis Villeneuve
Costume Design by – Robert Morgan & Jacqueline West

Judas and the Black Messiah

Costumes link us to a time and place, difficult to watch but need to understand today.     

Directed by – Shaka King
Costume Design by – Charlese Antoinette Jones

Last Night in Soho

When you tell the story of the dangers of nostalgia, it does not hurt to get all those small touches just right.  

Directed by – Edgar Wright
Costume Design by – Odile Dicks-Mireaux

The Matrix Resurrections

Leather, sunglasses, elaborate hairstyles, and exquisite tailoring, oh my

Directed by – Lana Wachowski
Costume Design by – Lindsay Pugh

The Green Knight

They are taking us back in time with one outfit after another.      

Directed by – David Lowery
Costume Design by – Malgosia Turzanska

And the Winner is!!!!! – Last Night in Soho

Last Night in Soho is a film weaving between two different timelines, adding double the work on the costume designers to make sure every bit fits. Add to this, the main lead is going to school to study fashion, and you have added another level of difficulty on top of that as well. But what tips Last Night in Soho just over The Green Knight is how the costumes are woven into its story about nostalgia. They blend from one timeline and are almost a symptom of a collapsing phycological framework.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

What are your favourite cinematic moments from 2021?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images used were created by the respective studio and artist of each film