Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood is an American costume designer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDesigner
CountryUnited States of America
audience changed create creation feeling japanese key relate sensual starting took using western
What we wanted to create for the film was a sensual feeling using the traditional Japanese kimono as our key starting point. We took the creation of the kimono and changed it to make it something that the modern, Western audience would relate to.
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The exposure I have had to beautiful materials across the world, from Japan to Italy, enables me to pull design ideas together. This, combined with years of historical research, has created a great fountain of ideas for me.
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Costume design allows you to do a different type of research and create characters, whereas in fashion, you create an image and clothing for the masses.
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I can create clothes for so many different time periods. I've always tried to avoid being pigeonholed. Plus, everything I learn about design and costume from one movie somehow works its way into something else.
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I've been lucky in the things I've got to work on. I've been able to keep it fresh, always getting to do different kinds of things.
american-designer lambs silence
Sometimes a contemporary film like Silence of the Lambs is difficult. To make it look real but interesting is always a challenge.
assistant bought buyer clients department design early private saint side store worked
I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the '70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for.
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I grew up in a small town in Washington State, so I wasn't really aware of costume design as a career growing up, but I loved clothes. I remember I saved all my money, and the first thing that I bought was a white blazer, which was to the horror to my parents. But I have always had a strange connection with clothing.
costumes older people period periods scale technical work
One of the challenges with period costumes is, on a technical level, making the scale of different periods work on contemporary bodies. We're much bigger than what people were in older times.
both designing detail goes leather
I have always loved beautiful leather objects, especially the detail that goes into designing them both inside and out.
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While researching design, I was inspired globally, from Peru to Turkey to Africa to Japan-from the 5th century through to today.
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For contemporary fashion, I'm a huge fan of so many of the people out there. I think Azzedine Alaia holds up through three generations of very specific, beautiful design. I think Jean Paul Gaultier also is very interesting with a long span.
child high life painter phase work
I wanted to be a painter when I was a kid. And then, I had to make a living. I had a child when I was in high school, so I kind of had that work phase in my life.
exist future people walking wearing
It's fun conjuring what people will be wearing in the future. We exist in this world today, and yet there are people walking around who still look like they're in the '60s.