Our final Oscar Costume Design nominee feature of the season!
German costume designer Lisy Christl is nominated for an Academy Award this Sunday for her work on Edward Berger’s political thriller Conclave (2024). She previously worked with Berger on his Oscar winning All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and received a previous Academy nomination for Anonymous (2011).
Christl dressed the Catholic cardinal characters of the film in heavier wool vestments than what is used in reality and in a darker shade of red to make it easier on the eyes and to read better on camera.
She told The wrap that she “looked at liturgical wardrobe from the 15th and 16th century, in Renaissance paintings, where the red was darker. And we chose that colour for the cardinals.”
The robes are richly decorated and multi layered. They were all made from scratch- nothing was bought or rented. She told MotionPictures.org: “We had our in-house workshop in Rome and the Cinecittà Studios, as well as two external workshops in Rome and Florence. We had 20-25 people in-house, including two cutters and three or four seamstresses. The other workshops were about the same size. The fabric is woven and dyed in factories in an Italian town called Prato. We had around 3,500 yards of fabric, so it wasn’t something we could do in-house. We made all the crosses, hats, and belts too.”
The crosses the cardinals wore reflected their political leanings. The more liberal characters had simple silver crosses while the more conservative ones wore ornate gold crosses. In reality, liberal cardinals often wear wooden crosses, which Christl didn’t think would work for the screen.
Other individualized pieces included spectacles, shoes and rings. She used a goldsmith out of Florence to make all the jewellery. This family run business had been working with clergy for years, so knew exactly how to do it. Gino Giovannetti of Rome made all of the headwear.
A mistake turned out to be one of the best costumes in the movie. “There was a misunderstanding with the tailor about Cardinal Bellini’s coat,” Christl recalls. ‘He thought it was supposed to be a cassock, but it was supposed to be a coat. When I saw it, I thought that yes, everything happens for a reason, and when Stanley (Tucci) tried it on, it all made sense and he represents Bellini as a modern cleric.” (Fromtailorswithlove.co.uk)
Lisy won the Costume Designers guild award for Excellence in Contemporary Film earlier this month. Best of luck to her and the other nominees at the awards Sunday night!
