Sixties-Inspired Fashion Makes 'Last Night in Soho' the Year's Most Stylish Horror Movie
Odile Dicks-Mireaux speaks with L'OFFICIEL about the retro references and Swinging '60s costumes in Edgar Wright's fashion-forward psychological horror.
A year ago, Anya Taylor-Joy captivated audiences in The Queen’s Gambit as a savant teen chess player in the 1960s. The actress takes on the period again in Edgar Wright’s new style-centric horror flick Last Night in Soho, in theaters today. Taylor-Joy appears as the glamorous singer Sandie—who comes to life in the dreams of Eloise (played by Thomasin McKenzie), a present-day fashion student who moves to London for university. Infatuated with the music and culture of the city in the ‘60s, Eloise seems to transport herself there each night as she follows Sandie’s attempts to become a famous night club singer. Soon, dreams and reality, past and present, fact and fiction begin to blur as Eloise delves deeper into her fixation on Sandie.
Decked out in vintage pieces, retro recreations, and custom looks from costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux, the Swinging ‘60s, and its lasting sartorial influence come to life on-screen. Fashion, in fact, is used as a connective element between the two time periods in the film. Sandie’s first pink, swishy chiffon dress inspires Eloise’s end-of-term fashion collection for school. Eloise also transforms her own look, dyeing her hair blonde, getting fringe, and investing in a vintage white Mac coat that resembles one we see on Sandie. While Dicks-Mireaux steered away from direct references to fashion icons of the era for Sandie’s character, she did find inspiration in B-movies from the ‘60s. The director had shared a list of 15 films to watch for research, and the costume designer was particularly taken with the 1965 movie Darling, starring Julie Christie, who appears in a white trench coat.
As Eloise begins to unravel, haunted by her obsession with the truth of Sandie’s life, the movie takes a sharp turn towards horror. “By that point, I hope people aren’t thinking too much about the costumes, they’re just going along with the film,” Dicks-Mireaux tells L’OFFICIEL. Even so, the clothes continue to help tell the story—all the way up to the final scene, which, of course, involves a runway show.
Here, the costume designer shares more on creating the ‘60s fashion and what it was like working with Taylor-Joy and McKenzie.
L'OFFICIEL: How did you navigate creating costumes for Sandie and Eloise that would complement each other?
ODILE DICKS-MIREAUX: The first dress of Sandie’s needed to be quite sophisticated. You don’t know where the story is going to go, and also it had to be a dress that would inspire Eloise to be able to create the fashion show at the end. Those are the two harder things to solve for a design challenge, because they had served several purposes and they had to be true to the character as well. Sandie obviously would never have been able to buy a really expensive dress out of Dior or something, so I referenced paper patterns. It’s not a very difficult period in the ‘60s to make your own clothes. It's all about the shapes, it’s all about the fabric. I created that tank dress to give us more options to create further down the line for the fashion show. I was thinking about how it inspired [Eloise’s designs]. I’d like everyone to believe that she could have done that, that she created that fashion show at the end.
L'O: How did you want to reflect Sandie's evolution, and obsession with the '60s, through the costumes?
ODM: I love doing journeys and also I like referencing back, so I was referencing Sandie as well on Eloise’s clothes. When she transforms into the blonde hairdo, I then thought very much about Brigitte Bardot as a reference point, which reflects a little bit of Sandie (but I never thought about Brigitte Bardot when I was doing Sandie's costumes). The lacey blouse, the baggy jumper are all things Brigitte Bardot might have worn in the ‘60s. Then the lace top at the end is supposed to reflect the black lace dress that Sandie wore singing “Downtown,” so it’s to keep a feeling.
L'O: Anya Taylor-Joy has become someone to watch in the fashion world, from her red carpet dresses to becoming Dior's newest ambassador. What was it like working with her? Did she have any input on her costumes?
ODM: Both [Thomasin and Anya] love clothes, both of them really enjoy dressing up, so they were a dream. They both work with their clothes really well and Anya was particularly good with the ‘60s and understood the vintage period stuff. She had a rehearsal in the [pink] dress and the way she walked with herself down the steps was quite unexpected. She just did that as a take and everyone thought it was brilliant, lifting the dress up.
L'O: You've worked on other period films like Brooklyn and An Education—Do you have a favorite period to design for?
ODM: I've done the '50s, '60s, and '70s. But I think it is the script that counts, you know what I mean? It's not the period, it's the script and the director you're working with, the team you're working with, because all you really want to do is good work. Then you learn things on each film, everything is different. I've done a few '60s films but they've all been different challenges for different reasons; like An Education was '61, [Last Night in Soho] was '65, High-Rise was '75. You're always trying to serve the script and that's what's interesting. With '65, it was kind of the end of the early period and then it's funny how in the mid-decade there starts to become a change, and it has to do with the politics and the economics of what's going on. The '60s have that very sophisticated kind of shifting with hems hitting the knee, much higher heels. So then you're going '65 to '68, and suddenly it's all changing. It's going shorter, it's much more lively, more fun, and then it gets really short, the mini look, right in '68 which we played on.
L'O: You sourced some vintage pieces for the movie. Do you have a favorite vintage shop in London?
ODM: There is this vintage shop that I’ve been to lots called Blackout 2 that's next to a fish and chips shop, and it was incredibly helpful ‘cause we bought a lot of men's suits from there, and one of the dresses there.
