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

People instantly judge a character within moments on the screen, and the outfits are essential to 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 and 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 costumes made us say ‘hot damn’ in 2022. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers for the films in question.

The Nominees Are –

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Afrofuturism at its finest, with every detail speaking back to the past but also to the future.

Cyrano

All pomp and quite a bit of circumstance, but then that is what makes this movie shine.

Elvis

Glitz and glamour hold but a bar to Elvis as he takes the rhinestone to places it has never been before and never will go again.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

There is a level of detail here that is almost outmatched, one I can say from personal experience holds up to close inspection as well as it does on the big screen.

RRR

If you ever what an example of precision and craftsmanship, this is where to go, and that’s even before they do a complete revamp in the third act.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

If I could use one word to describe the costumes on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it would be Lush.

The Woman King

You could tell the story of every character in this film from the moment you saw them because the costume is just that good.

And the Winner is!!!!! – The Woman King

Directed by – Gina Prince-Bythewood
Costume Design by – Gersha Phillips

The Woman King is Gersha Phillips’ magnum opus. We get clothes full of colour, texture, and patterns with a variety and care that you know a lot of research went into the production. Different peoples have different styles and colour pallets, as you would expect in the real world. You capture everything about a character in their clothes in one moment because it becomes a part of them. It embodies all they are, which is the power of costumes in cinema.   
   

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 2022?, 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