Oscar-nominated costume designer for ‘Frankenstein’ on working with Guillermo del Toro and crafting colourful characters

Behind every auteur is a company of artists, technicians and specialists bringing his or her vision to the big screen. Guillermo del Toro is one such director who, over the course of a 30-year career, has become synonymous with a hyper-stylised neo-gothic aesthetic, bridging both the historical and futuristic in most of his works. One of the artists helping to usher in his vision is Kate Hawley, the costume designer behind the blood-red corsets and bedraggled fur capes of Del Toro’s Frankenstein. 

After winning a slew of awards for her work on the film, including at the BAFTAs and Critics Choice Awards, she is a front-runner to take home an Oscar from Sunday night’s ceremony. Hawley joined Monocle Radio’s Lily Austin on Monocle on Fashion to reflect on the process of bringing the monster to life. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

How did you come to work on this project? 
I was very familiar with the novel and revisited it when Guillermo told me that we were making his version of it. The start of everything always comes from the script and your director’s vision, including themes of nature and theology. Creating the designs was a matter of working with all the other departments and then building on that language, finding and discovering ways to interpret it. With nature and religion there are certain shapes and imagery that were echoed in the set, and Guillermo asked me to reflect the set. He always talks about how the costume is the architecture, the architecture is the lighting. We all work very closely as departments. It all came from trying to find a mood and a tone on this operatic scale that Guillermo was building. He talks about his banquet table, and it’s a bloody big one. We were all invited, as different departments, to sit at this table and collaborate.

Del Toro’s films are always cohesive. But everything really works together in this one in particular. So I wasn’t surprised when I read that you’re also a set designer. Does that help you to create a co-ordinated look and feel for a film?
Yeah, I think so. Because you’re always dealing with character within a landscape, whether that landscape is artificial or real; it’s the world you’re building in the tones. I did a bit of scenic painting at the English National Opera and I learned about colour. And so all of those things have informed how I work with Guillermo and the rest of the team. We’re always echoing each other’s work and painting across our different departments. 

I was really struck by the use of colour in the film. This is a period piece but it felt quite modern. Were you consciously trying to achieve that blend? 
When Guillermo and I were talking about Frankenstein he was very insistent that we didn’t get locked in an old world. He wanted a contemporary, modern feel. That was a directive in terms of the wardrobe: that it doesn’t sit in a Dickensian world. The red veil is a classic way for Guillermo to open a story. You establish the operatic language right from the beginning, and then that becomes the throughline. That red veil becomes the stained, bloodied hand on young Victor Frankenstein, it becomes the glove. So you have a throughline that Guillermo is establishing with the colour red, and we go in a circle with that.

You collaborated with Tiffany & Co for the film. Will you tell us a bit about that?
When we told the crew they were so thrilled, and it meant that there’s a certain shared love of craftsmanship and appreciation for what the other was bringing. It never felt as if things were being imposed on us. It was the language of what they had in the archives. The biggest moment for me was looking at the archives and seeing all the things that I was not familiar with: the art glass and the jewellery. It fitted Guillermo’s language so perfectly and supported the story and the character of Elizabeth. Sometimes things just open the door and they keep presenting more and more wonderful possibilities.

Want to hear from another award-winning costume designer?
– Interview: Catherine Martin on the riviera glamour and ‘barefoot luxury’ of her Miu Miu collection