by If you followed the world press tour for Dunne: Part Two, you know that there was some serious fashion going on. Zendaya in an archival Thierry Mugler robot suit? Anya Taylor-Joy in a sheer, hooded Dior veil? Timothée Chalamet in bright Haider Ackermann trousers, head-to-toe Prada leather, or a Givenchy suit with custom chrome trim? Fashion was fashionable, to say the least.
The same could be said of the epic space-opera sequence itself, in cinemas now, which is a masterclass in costume design. Jacqueline West returned for Part Two (this time, without the help of a co-designer), and brings back what she refers to as the film’s “mod-eval” blend of modern and medieval style. West, who holds two degrees from Berkeley in art history, described being “something of an Italian scholar” in her research for the great novelist Denis Villeneuve, drawing references from Dante’s Inferno to be “dismantled and recreated throughout 10,000 years in the future. .” Lucky for us, Part Two delves deeper into the Dunes Universe than Part One — and the costumes only get richer as we go along.
We caught up with West to get a closer look at how she’ll take us on a journey through the wardrobe—and what it’s like to dress some of Hollywood’s hottest fashionistas right now.
How was working on Dunne: Part Two different from Part One?
The difference is that the story really changes and therefore the wardrobe changes. In Part Two we are entering the world of the Emperor, we have new characters like Princess Irulan, played by Florence Pugh, and Lady Fenring, played by Léa Seydoux. There are many new characters, and the world is expanded.
A big change this time is that you worked solo, but for Part One you had a co-designer.
I didn’t call a co-designer on this one because I thought Part One would be so huge that it would require two of us. But for this one, I designed more or less alone, but with a great crew. My color came back, my armor came back, my specialty suits came back, and all my grinders. I had new Hungarian staplers and cutters [because we shot in Budapest]but almost everyone from Part One wanted to come back, which was great.
For many films, designers are able to source some or all of their costumes through shopping, vintage, working with brands, and so on. But for something like this, I imagine you have to build everything yourself. How much “stuff” did you have to create for this film?
I think we made about 4,000 pieces of clothing. We make masks, we made all kinds of jewelry, we dyed and hand painted all the fabrics, and we even had to rebuild the suits because they took such a beating in Part One. But we found a lot of pieces – I had shopkeepers in Istanbul and Morocco sending us things that we dismantled and recreated for 10,000 years into the future.
Last time we spoke, you referred to Dunne’s look as “mod-eval” – inspired by medieval costume, but reimagined for 10,000 years in the future. I assume that is still your thesis for Part Two. Where did that come from?
Well, I have two art history degrees from Berkeley, which is where I first read Dante. And with the expansion of the world antagonists Geidi Prime, for example, I looked to The Divine Comedy, and treat it like going through the different layers of hell. And Arrakis is like a sort of purgatory. I was completely immersed in medieval art – it is the future, but it is starting again. I also relied on ancient paintings, especially paintings of Arabs in Morocco and North Africa. My references to this film were quite ancient. The Fremen, for example, are really survivors in the desert, so I looked to ancient Islam. They did not accept the Islamic faith, but we see them dressed as a mixture of different religions.
How did Timothée Chalamet’s costumes change for Part Two?
The main difference from Part One is that we see him wearing a lot more cloaks. Although he wears his leisure suit for much of the film, there are different iterations of how he is dressed. In this film, he accepts the religion and philosophy of the Fremen, so I wanted to give him the sage, monk-like quality. I wanted to give him this ascetic look like something out of Dante. I mean, I couldn’t let him wear Haider Ackermann – could I?
The cast in this movie is so incredible, but I’m excited to see a lot more of Zendaya than we saw in Part One. How does it dress her?
She looks beautiful in anything you put her in. I kept her wardrobe very simple and diaphanous, so you can see her shape when she is backlit. That choice was to calm her down, and get her out of the stillsuits. She wears very simple clothes, and Denis and I talked about this a lot. The idea is that when you’re living under siege, you’d be wearing a lot of pajamas but still be able to slip into your leisure suit with a flash.
The other fashion star we see in this film is Anya Taylor-Joy.
I have never met her! That suit was made on the fly.
You never met her! So you just prepare a few things, and hope they work out?
It just worked, which was amazing. I had some notes about her, and the character, and I had read the novel, so I came up with something that I thought would fit in that world as a princess and a Bene Gesserit daughter as well.
Has that happened a lot in your career, that you create a costume without meeting the actor?
Maybe twice!
Is it still comfortable?
Yes, I think so! Only one actor complained about his armor – and I won’t say who! But no one was complaining about their clothes yet. Some actors indicated that they really worked. Although the suits themselves do not have a drinking water filtration system, as suggested in the story, people said they were never too hot in them. We used wicking fabrics inside, and these breathing areas are between the individual pieces of the suit, so with the wind in the desert, the sweat of the actors would evaporate and actually cool them down.
Was there anything the actors tried to stir up from the set?
We bought them all very expensive baseboards, which we had to keep replacing, because people kept throwing them home by accident! It’s a natural thing to do – throw your jacket on over the undershirt you’ve been wearing during the day. I didn’t use silks because I thought they would get too hot in the desert, so most of the time we ended up using Under Armour, because it beats.
Those performance base tiers can get expensive when you start multiplying it by a certain number of soldiers, shooting over a certain number of days!
It was not a low budget film!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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