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 many ways, and often the first way, 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!
Our Highly Commended Films in 2025 are: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, KPop Demon Hunters, Nosferatu, Wake Up Dead Man & Wicked: For Good
Our Highly Commended TV in 2025 are: The Diplomat, Foundation, The Residence, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds & Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
So, without further ado, these costumes made us say ‘hot damn’ in 2025. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead.
Andor
If there is one thing Star Wars properties like to do, it is go all out on the costumes. Even the supposedly gritty and more grounded Andor was filled to the brim with pomp and circumstance, though a wedding will help you do that. It is one of the many different ways that character is built and rebellions are found. See Mon Mothma’s wedding outfit.
There is a stylish decadence to every costume in Black Bag. Everything is tailored, everything fits, and everything tells you more about the characters than what they will openly say themselves. Costumes are a way to break into this world of lies and secrets, and they use them well. See anything Cate Blanchett is wearing.
This is a movie where costumes are more important than usual, because nearly everybody is wearing the same thing. However, this is not the case of quantity over quality, because it means that all the subtle changes become that much more critical in a world where choosing the next Pope could have dramatic consequences. See the moment the cardinals arrive.
Frankenstein is a film full of lusciousness in every regard, including the costumes. The gowns that Mia Goth wears throughout the film are exquisite, the opening red gown exploding across the screen like a flag marking its place in the world. It brings much-needed scope to a story that has been told many times before. See Mia Goth’s first giant red dress.
Wes Anderson films are known for a certain amount of precision that you can see in every frame. This precision extends to the costumes, which are the final bows used to create the wildly eccentric characters you can find throughout the film, like the final drop of magic that makes them come alive. See Michael Cera’s costume change.
Sinners
Sinners is a film that is entirely about setting you in a place and time, with a care that extends down to items like the type of Chinese dialect that some of the characters speak to each other. This also extends to the costumes that are doing more than just letting you know which twin is which. They are bringing you into a world and telling you who lives there. See everyone in the rave.
The Best Costumes in Television or Film 2025 is: Conclave
Directed by – Edward Berger
Costume Design by – Lisy Christl
Conclave is a film that exists in the juxtaposition between bombast and subtlety. Between politeness and open war. Between faith and politics. Between all of those different axis lands, the costumes that help bridge the gaps. In a sea of red, everything matters. The type of red, how they are worn, what they are juxtaposed against, and what small details differentiate a group of people wearing basically the same thing. It is one of the core foundations of the film, and one of the main reasons everything pops the way it does.
What are your favourite costumes from 2025 that exploded onto the screen? Let us know what you would have chosen as your number one in the comments below.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
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Credits – All images used were created by the respective studios and artist of each film
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