‘Cruella’ Costume Designer Jenny Beavan On Using “Incredibly Simple” Methods To Create Incredibly Complex Dresses

Jenny Beavan had very detailed descriptions for the dresses she needed to create for Cruella, but the challenge was to make them believable. “I tried to give a reality to some of the dresses. So, that even though they were crazy, they did come out of some kind of reality, because I think if audiences can believe it to some extent, they actually enjoy it more. They connect more. It was a balance.”

Cruella follows a young woman named Estella (Emma Stone) who dreams of being a fashion designer. When she manages to land her dream job designing for the Baroness (Emma Thompson), Estella quickly becomes convinced that she deserves more in life. Taking on the persona of Cruella, she becomes a rival of the Baroness with a rebellious sense of fashion.

Below, Jenny Beavan talks about the inspiration and design for two of Cruella‘s iconic dresses.

Limo Dress

“One of my great memories of the late ‘60s, early ‘70s is the use of military jackets,” Beavan says. “Mine was a guard’s jacket and you wore it with jeans, or you wore it with a big skirt. I thought it’d be a great image, as she stepped onto the car, to use that mixture of a soft and flowing skirt versus that military jacket.

The skirt had to be just the right weight, so A, she could walk in it, and B, she could swish it, and it would land in the right place. So, there were logistics involved.

There’s a massive amount of man hours in the sewing, and the gluing, and sticking, and everything, particularly in [this dress]. It had the most ridiculous amount of petals all sewn on by hand.

But visually, I really wanted that image of the military versus the softness, and then we put her in Doc Martens boots. I remember having knee high Doc Martens which laced up and it’s just a great image. It felt right for someone trying to make a point, which she sure was.”

Dumpster Dress

“This is the third photo bomb when the dumpster truck backs up as the hapless Baroness is about to give her speech. In the original script, it says that it was the Baroness’ 1967 spring collection that [Cruella]’s managed to get hold of and attached to the train. That’s why it had spring colors or pale colors on it. And the newspaper because, obviously, she’s in a dumpster truck, so you want some rubbish. But she had to be able to step on the back of the truck and hold on.

The whole thing was put together by the wonderful Kirsten Fletcher, who’s an Australian cutter maker, who is known for doing spectacular clothes. We practiced it in our workroom, which was luckily very big, put one of our cutters in it and made her walk across the floor and see if it worked. And it did. So, it’s really, it’s actually incredibly simple. A lot of props and a lot of fabric attached to a very long piece of calico.”