Acclaimed costume designer Jenny Beavan stepped outside her wheelhouse in taking on Mad Max: Fury Road, and in doing so played a pivotal role in building one of 2015’s most immersive, striking cinematic worlds. Tonight, she’ll find out whether she’s won another Costume Designer’s Guild Award, and later this week, her second Oscar. We spoke with Beavan about the challenges of costuming in extreme weather and the joy of new challenges. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

 

Mad Max: Fury Road is a bit of departure for you. What drew you to the project?

I had harboured a secret ambition to do something futuristic for some time. Not that I don’t love my work in historic period films, but I had a feeling I should try and break out of what was perceived as becoming my comfort zone.
When I saw the first Mad Max film, I felt George had perfectly depicted the tipping point of civilization. But, then, he had also made one of my favourite films — Babe — so I thought Mad Max, Babe; Merchant Ivory [Ed.: an English production company Beavan is known for working with], Mad Max — it could work!

 

Could you tell me a bit about the team you worked with? How large was it? What sorts of unique expertise did you need to draw on for this project?

My team was full of diversity! We were based in Swakopmund, Namibia, so I brought in some heads of departments from Australia, South Africa, and the U.K., but the core of our team were local Namibians of all colors. We must have been about 75 at full strength, as we made everything you see on the screen. I had metal workers, mould makers, leather workers and a sewing team, distressers — costume breakdown artists — and dyers. Then there was a big team on set to look after the actors and the stunt troupe. This team not only has to care for the actors — a tremendous help to me as they sort out the day to day little problems of comfort and safety — but they also have to care for the clothes. Clean and mend them and then re-distress them once they have been cleaned.

My local team of craftspersons were all very clever, but had little experience of film — that it has to fit, that the person wearing it has to be able to see out of it. And we probably need it tomorrow, and in multiples, and yes, all identical! They got the hang of it really quickly and were a magical team. I think we got the organic look I was after with this local team, which I would have struggled to achieve in Australia or the U.K.

 

Filming in the desert introduces no shortage of practical complications — what were the biggest issues, and how did the solutions show up in the costumes?

Sand! Oh, and the weather, which is phenomenally changeable in Namibia, from boiling hot to damply cold in a few minutes.

Sand was the thing we combatted daily, especially when they were driving fast and the sand was whipping up onto the vehicles. Most of the stunts were totally exposed. Keeping the actors warm one minute and cool and protected from the sun the next was a constant challenge.

Goggles that fit, that protect the eyes but give good peripheral vision and yet look post apocalyptic became our constant nightmare. I don’t think we had fully understood the sand impact until the first time the armada of trucks set off at Blanky Flats. Thinking back, I can see all sorts of remedies I should have taken, but it’s so easy in hindsight and we were all learning on a daily basis.

Hiding harnesses or incorporating them into the costume was another interesting challenge. In fact, the whole safety aspect of each costume was an important part of the design — to hide whatever the harness or safety feature was without compromising the look.

 

I found the film actually quite frightening. I thought it tapped into some real fears surrounding climate change, the possibility of pandemic, etc. How did you express these anxieties through the costuming?

Having lived through some recent riots in London, I think it is all too horribly possible. The fragility of our civilization and the tipping point when we as humans descend into chaos is frightening. I don’t think the costumes reflect the people wearing them, really, other than that many of them are wearing apparati to help them breathe or disguising their rotting bodies.

 

Well, the basis of the job is exactly the same — we are storytellers who tell our stories through clothes, and whether we were doing that in the 1920s, or 30s, or now in the 2000s, it’s the same job. What has changed is the access to information for research, to find out what your actor looks like or what your director has done previously. This instant information access has its downside, too, as it means the production can change anything at any moment and we’re expected to be plugged in to our cyberspace contraptions at all times.

 

The studio system seems to be characterized by endless sequels today — we’ve had the sprawling Marvel Universe for awhile, and now a new Star Wars film every year for the foreseeable future. How do you feel about this, as a both a costume designer and as a fan of film?

I’m not sure, really — those Star Wars type films obviously give a lot of pleasure to many people but I find them quite boring. I like a good story with real characters who I can engage with, and all the visual effects in the world leave me a bit cold.

For costume designers, it must be a bit uncreative to be doing sequels. I’m doing myself out of a job here, but I love the challenge of the new, even if it is a low-budget indie film.

 

Outside the film world, do you have any favoured sources of inspiration? Places or things you can count on for a creative spark?

I’m a people watcher, so I love wandering around cities and just observing people. I love the V&A and the British Museum — very obvious places, really. And real book shops!

The 18th Costume Designers Guild Awards take place on February 23rd at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Jenny is nominated for her work on Mad Mad: Fury Road.

 

Q&A by Adam Wray, Curator of FashionREDEF. You can follow Adam on REDEF and Twitter (@FashionREDEF, @Terminalave), or reach him at adam.wray@redefgroup.com