Arianne Phillips designed the Academy Award nominated costumes for James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (2024). It was the sixth collaboration between the director and designer and marks Phillips’ 4th Oscar nomination.
Phillips was tasked with bringing Dylan’s distinctive style to life as it evolved with his own dramatic development and the times. The film takes place during the years 1961-65. Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, had 67 costume changes. On top of that, there were 120 speaking roles that needed wardrobe and Phillips and her team dressed 5,000+ extras during the shoot. She told The Art of Costume podcast that she “broke Bob’s transformation into three distinct beats: his arrival in New York (1961-62), the Freewheelin’ era (1963-64), and the slim, mod silhouette of 1965.” The Columbia records photo archives were an invaluable source of research for her.
The second era was encapsulated best on the cover of The Freewheelin’ (above). “His silhouette got slimmer, and he wears classic Levi’s 501s, sometimes with cowboy boots. I made versions of three different brown leather jackets I found in research. The Freewheelin’ one has beautiful scrimshaw bone buttons; then there is a snap-front tan suede motor jacket. The jackets look like they were made for him, maybe by a cobbler in Woodstock, who probably made his belts and shoes as well. And a fisherman-striped sweater is in all the pictures.” - Hollywood Reporter.
Phillips worked with Levi’s on recreating Dylan’s customized 501 jeans which he wore often including on The Freewheelin’ cover. These became available for sale in a capsule collection by Levi’s.
Arianne mentioned that she learned while reading Suze Rotolo’s memoir that Dylan really put a lot of intention into how he dressed. How he looks at the being of the movie (in Pendleton shirts, dungarees/painter pants, work boots, worn scarf and baker boy hat) was inspired by his hero Woody Guthrie and was entirely intentional on Dylan’s part.
It was also Suze who put the inserts into Dylan’s customized jeans so that he could wear them over boots.
“The last beat is 1965. After he has gone to London and met The Beatles, The Kinks and The Animals, he adopted the mod look: a peacoat with epaulets, stripey stovepipe trousers, Chelsea boots, angular sunglasses, his hair got longer. It was in tandem with him going electric and being in a band.”- The Hollywood Reporter.
Johnny Cash (played by Boyd Holbrook in the film) also had an influence on Bob’s style leaning darker in 1965 and the following years.
Elle Fanning’s Sylvie (based on Suze Rotolo) was given a post-beatnik New York cool girl look that had an aesthetic kinship with Bob’s style. Also revealed in Suze’s memoir is that the Afghan coat she is seen wearing in some photographs was given to her by Bob. Arianne sourced a dupe for this coat on Etsy.
The costumes worn by the main cast during scenes where they are recreating historical events like Newport Folk Festival '65 were faithful interpretations of what the real musicians actually wore.
There are well known photos of Bob wearing a polka dot shirt during soundcheck for Newport in 1965. Mangold wrote it into the script that the band go shopping for new clothes before the show in order to present a cohesive look and this shirt is one of the items bought, by Al Kooper, and Dylan comments that he looks like a clown in it. The scene in the morning in which Dylan puts on the shirt in the bedroom was improvised by Chalamet. The “clown shirt” subtly foreshadows the chaos of the oncoming performance. It also mirrors the lyrics of Like a Rolling Stone, which was performed that day: “Ah, you never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you”. Polka dots later became a staple in Dylan’s wardrobe.
One of the standout pieces worn by the female cast was a vinyl coat Monica Barbaro wore as Joan Baez in her last scene, leaving Newport Folk Festival. Baez’s style was modest in general but this coat was something different and it turned out that it was a Mary Quant design. Phillips recreated it for the movie in a taupe colour with an orange lining.
Vintage clothing was sourced from all over including Phillips’ go-to LA shops Mothfood, The Way We Wore, Melet and Old Focals. Anto created custom shirts and Mauricio Osorio of Western costume recreated Dylan’s Chelsea boots. Mauricio sadly passed away in late 2023. New York knitters Mary Pat Klein and Maria Ficalora were enlisted to create sweaters for Chalamet and Ed Norton, who played Pete Seeger.
It’s clear the attention to detail on these costumes was immense and really tells a cohesive story. It’s a real treat, so get out to watch the film if you haven’t yet!
We had some fun styling looks inspired by the movie over on Instagram. You can check that out here:
Arianne has had a prolific career with 48 designer credits currently listed on her imdb. Her previous work includes Don’t Worry Darling, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, A Single Man and Walk the Line.