Quills (2000)

For costume designer Jacqueline West, who previously collaborated with Philip Kaufman on "Henry and June" and "Rising Sun," QUILLS also was a chance to explore fashion's individual extremes. "The Marquis de Sade's era was an interesting time with many fashion changes taking place," she explains. "Wigs were on the way out, because too many of them wound up in decapitation baskets covered in blood. The dresses, which had been very ornate, became very free flowing. It was said that they became so skimpy, women started dying of pneumonia because they were wearing too little!"

But West relied less on historical veracity and more on the nature of Doug Wright's characters to forge her creations. She explains: "From the beginning Phil and I discussed this as being an anti-costume drama, the opposite of staid and proper. He wanted me to design the clothes from the inside of the characters out, to really express who they are and this was very exciting — especially because the characters are each so remarkable."

Although she began with extensive research into paintings and museums of the era, West also began to think about how each character would approach dressing in the morning. In the case of the Marquis de Sade, choice of course has been obliterated. He wears the same outfit he had on the day he was brought to Charenton, although in different variations, throughout the film.

"The Marquis was the biggest challenge because we wanted his clothes to look like they had aged 25 years yet to also express his flagrant personality. We needed them to be elegant yet also to be able to become as parchment for the scenes in which he writes on them," explains West.

Ultimately, West designed a suit that was the height of l8th century elegance — then utilized the services of a London artist who specializes in aging clothing to bash the beautiful suit into a wrinkled reminder of suave. Nevertheless, she says, once the suit was on Rush, it seemed transforming. "Geoffrey is already long, rangy and fluid but in the suit his body became even longer, straighter, taller — he became the Marquis."

For Madeleine, West worked closely with Kate Winslet, sharing her research about working class women in France. "I found a picture of a girl ironing, which became a kind of inspiration for Kate," notes West. "It's rare to find pictures of working class people doing things so it was quite a find." West and Winslet both agreed that although Madeleine is poor, she is profoundly individualistic. Unable to afford the latest fashions, she dresses in a slightly behind-the-times manner, with a corseted 18th century waist, instead of the more fashionable Empire waist. Yet Madeleine also bends the rules. "Instead of wearing her corset on the inside, she wears it on top of her frock," notes West, "and instead of wearing a cap she wraps her head in linens. She's different from the other servants and her dress is more compellingly romantic."

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