Sandy Powell’s Award-Winning Costume Design is Celebrated at SCAD FASH

On view through March 16, 2025, at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta is “Sandy Powell: Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film.” Curated by the creative director of SCAD FASH museums, Rafael Gomes, the presentation marks the award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell’s first comprehensive exhibition, revealing over 120 costumes from an array of films throughout her 39-year career. “Celebrating Sandy Powell’s immense contributions to film design and history, this exhibition will transport our viewers to the cinema,” Gomes told Whitewall. “She is one of the greatest artisans working in film and her devotion to costume history, coupled with her visionary approach, has elevated some of the most unforgettable films over the past three decades.” 

The show opens with a mannequin dressed in the first costume design Powell created for a film—an opulent period ensemble for the 1986 film Caravaggio, directed by Derek Jarman—and snakes around the museum’s expansive space, dotted with glowing vignettes that host casts of characters in Powell’s garments. Nearly all handmade, tailored to both the film’s scope and actor’s body, each costume reveals Powell’s layered approach to visual storytelling, which has garnered numerous awards and nominations, including three BAFTAs for Velvet Goldmine, The Young Victoria, and The Favourite; three Academy Awards for Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, and The Young Victoria; and the Costume Designers Guild Career Achievement Award. Powell was also honored with the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2011.

Costumes for additional films like The Wolf of Wall Street, Orlando, Cinderella, Gangs of New York, Interview with a Vampire, and Mary Poppins Returns are also on view, joining a sizzle reel of Powell’s films projected on a wall, and a cabinet of curiosities filled with memorabilia from her time working on set.

On the heels of finishing her last bout of costumes for The Bride—a film about the bride of Frankenstein, set in the 1930s—Powell walked Whitewall through her show in Atlanta for an up-close look at her legacy on screen.  

WHITEWALL: We’re seeing such a large breadth of your work in one place for the very first time. What does that feel like for you?

SANDY POWELL: Strange, actually. It’s the first time I’ve seen everything out in one place. I was talking with my partner, Alfie, saying it’s like seeing our lives flash before our eyes. The only one he didn’t know me on was Caravaggio, which was my very first one. We met on Crying Game, which was early. So, everything from Orlando on. This is our life, in fashion, before us. It reminds you of where you were at the time and what was going on in your life during your life at the time—but all in one space. It’s like, “My God, that much work?” And this isn’t all of it! Imagine if this was everything. 

WW: Your first costume was created for Caravaggio, under the direction of Derek Jarman. How did working with him early on shape your career? 

SP: He was an extraordinary person who took huge risks. It was pretty much the first film I had ever done—and first film experience. Most of the crew was under 25, and we just muddled our way through. And under the guidance of Derek, he showed us the ropes, but he also gave us a great amount of freedom. I realized soon after, working with other directors on other films, that filmmaking was actually not like Derek Jarman films. It was a completely different experience.

WW: In the nearly four decades since your start, your work has primarily consisted of costumes for period films. Where did your interest in this genre come from? Why not contemporary films?

SP: I don’t know. I guess they’re the films I’ve always enjoyed watching when I think about the films I saw as a teenager. My favorite film is Death in Venice, and the costume designer, Piero Tosi, is the master. He’s the costume designer’s costume designer to look up to. He did Visconti films, a lot of Fellini films, and it’s just gorgeous. I fell in love with that. When I started working in theater and film, I gravitated toward that. I found it more interesting. I love contemporary clothes and fashion, but in terms of my film work, I’d much rather be doing a period thing than a contemporary thing. I think contemporary is very, very difficult. 

“I love contemporary clothes and fashion, but in terms of my film work, I’d much rather be doing a period thing than a contemporary thing,”

Sandy Powell

Sandy Powell’s Ever-Evolving Creativity and Collaboration

WW: A prized installation in your exhibition is a crystal shoe you crafted in collaboration with Swarovski for Cinderella. Gomes mentioned that you saw a tiny pair of 18th-century shoes in a museum and that the brand was able to get them privately scanned for prototypes before they were cut and carved in collaboration with you. What went into making that? 

SP: With Swarovski, they worked to my design. I worked very closely with the creative director, Nadia, prior to Giovanna, who sponsored so much stuff. My relationship began by them coming to me saying, “If you need crystals for anything, come! You can have them.” We used their crystals to put on most of the costumes—all the costumes with sparkles. So, with Cinderella, having to design a glass shoe, I said, “How the hell do I do that?” I looked into other ways of doing it, but I thought, “It’s crystal. It should be Swarovski.” So I approached them and asked if they wanted to collaborate. It was a challenge, and they didn’t know if it was going to work, because they’ve done crystal sculptures and figurines, but this one was hollow. It was quite a bit of work with their technical teams to figure out how to do it—but we made it happen.

WW: This alludes to a question about budget. You mentioned earlier that you’ve had to stretch your creativity to craft high-quality pieces for low-budget films. You’ve had sky-high budgets, like two million dollars for The Aviator, and lower budgets, such as that on The Favourite, which you won an Oscar for, filled with prints on denim, laser-cut fabric to mimic lace, and cotton cosplaying as fur. How does budget impact your creativity? 

SP: Quite often, when you’ve got a low budget, it pushes you to be more creative. I don’t like saying that too often, because then producers say, “Don’t give her any money because she can create much better work!” It forces you into thinking of another way of doing something. If I had millions to do The Favourite, it probably wouldn’t look like this. We also had a very short prep time—six weeks or something, which is no time at all. Usually, a big budget comes with a big production time. The two go hand in hand. Strangely, even if you have millions in your budget, you’re still struggling. Everything that’s being required to produce, there’s more of. And it keeps growing. It’s always the same challenges: There’s never enough time. There’s never enough money.

“Quite often, when you’ve got a low budget, it pushes you to be more creative,”

Sandy Powell

For The Favourite, we dressed every single extra, too—about four hundred. Normally, you’d rely on rentals for those, but because it was such a specific palette, I couldn’t have the principal looking one way and then the extras in various colors, velvet—old period costumes. It would have looked ugly. So we had to build the whole thing. The question was: What’s the quickest, most efficient way of doing it, and so that it looks good?