Directed by Edgar Wright, Last Night in Soho was a psychological thriller movie released October 2021 starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin Mackenzie. It revolves around the 1960’s starlet and the story follows a young fashion designer who can travel back to 1960s mysteriously who moves from England’s countryside to the city centre to attend London College of Fashion as she pursues her fashion dream. With its dark and nail-biting storyline, the movie managed to grab the full attention of the watcher. It’s not just the story or its visuals, but the costumes are also interesting to look at. Let’s look into the brilliant works of the costume designer in this movie!

“But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.”

The British costume designer who previously won the Emmy for Lost Prince Odile Dicks-Mireaux was behind the sensational costumes throughout the movie. As the story follows Eloise the designer who transports to the 1960 every night when she falls asleep, Dicks-Mireaux took a lot of inspiration from modern fashion students and the Director’s mood reels for this main character. She also did research on the 60s muses like Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot, Cilla Black and Jean Shrimpton to liven up the mood in the film. What was more interesting is that Dicks-Mireaux even got into an Art School with her made-up niece – which apparently was one of her Buyer teams – to look into how students are dressing at school. For this movie she also worked with designer and consultant Phoebe English to create a fictional student fashion show, simply to make herself think like an Art student and what student would create for a show while making enough ‘wow’ worth for the film.

Dicks-Mireaux said in an interview that she had a maker to make all the bespoke costumes resulting in swoon-worthy pieces perfect for the narratives. Although the storyline was situated in the 1960, she didn’t want to stock into the straight shift dresses from the period. She aimed for something more dramatic with each of the looks. For the costumes, she went all out with getting it custom made, getting pieces from Paris & London costume house, to getting couple of pieces from vintage shops.

“We went for something more open that allowed her to move…. I wanted something chiffon-y that moved beautifully.” – said Odile Dicks-Mireaux.

One standout looks in the movie would be the peach chiffon tent dress worn by Sandie channeling the swinging ‘60s vibe. The whole look was superb with the blonde hairstyle inspired by Brigitte Bardot’s hairstyle back in the 1960s. The tent dress is actually cut in a simple shape and a spin on Twiggy model’s actual outfit in a photograph that was famous during the period.

Sandie’s blonde hairstyle inspired by Brigitte Bardot’s (1960s)

 

“It wasn’t high fashion, but it needed to look sophisticated enough to enter the Café de Paris. It is a very beautiful colour … and it goes well with blonde hair.”