Sofia Coppola is getting a little creepy. That isn’t a slight—it’s a serious compliment. Watch the two-minute trailer for her new film The Beguiled, and right off the bat, you’re swept up in the mad fury of an eerily lovely, convoluted Civil War–era mystery. It’s a cinematic kind of sinister, and it’s sure to hit it big at the box office when it opens in June (the buzz has certainly been building, especially after yesterday’s premiere at Cannes). The story was adapted from a 1966 Southern Gothic novel of the same name, which happens to have been made into a film back in 1971, starring Clint Eastwood. What’s different about Coppola’s iteration is the enigmatic group of females at the center of the story. In 2017, The Beguiled is a tale told from the perspective of these women. Starring Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Kirsten Dunst, the narrative revolves around a handsome Civil War soldier, played by Colin Farrell, who finds himself seriously injured and in desperate need of help. The women, who live in a nearby seminary, reluctantly take him in and offer to keep him safe from harm. Dark deeds done in dark corners of the old plantation house ensue, leading to drama and—voilà!—that mesmerizing Coppola creepiness really starts to set in.
Beyond the stellar casting, the director is once again luring viewers into the narrative with stunning set design and, of course, incredible fashion. Coppola’s longtime friend and collaborator Stacey Battat served as the costume designer for The Beguiled. (She also worked on The Bling Ring and Somewhere.) Battat has seen the original film from 1971 and says bluntly, “It’s pretty good—but ours is better.” Her vision for the costumes first began to take shape after the initial meeting with Coppola, production designer Anne Ross, and director of photography Philippe Le Sourd. “Sofia is so good at really creating a whole picture, a whole world in a film,” Battat explains. “We all sat down and talked about the world that we were going to create and knew we wanted one that was very ethereal and diaphanous, with pastels and light pouring through moss trees and big windows.”
During the Civil War, many women wore black as a mourning color after their husbands and sons and brothers were killed on the battlefields. The fact that Battat chose to put the leading ladies in ivories, whites, floral prints, and soft pastels suggests, at least in some small way, a rather progressive group of females for that time. But as angelic as they may seem, there’s a deviousness and strictness there, too. “Nicole Kidman’s character Miss Martha is the head of the household, so we wanted her to be dressed in a way that spoke to her being in charge,” Battat says. “We gave her a high neckline, and the dress she wears in much of the film looks as though it’s made with a vest on top. It’s very masculine for that era.” If this were actually the 1860s, Miss Martha definitely would not be head of the household. No woman would. Women would never have worn their hair down, either, not even for bed, but Fanning’s character, Alicia, has locks that are always loose. For several scenes, Battat also styled her buttons to be undone just so at the chest.
“She’s a bit wilder than the rest,” Battat says of Alicia. “Kirsten’s Edwina is from the city, so her looks were all a bit more sophisticated and more romantic, with decorated sleeves and more jewelry than the other girls.” Battat called upon Ten Thousand Things in New York to make Edwina’s bracelets, and Miss Martha does wear a Eugenia Kim hat, but the majority of the costumes were specially made based off of Battat’s sketches. “I started by going to the Metropolitan Museum and looking at all of these fabric swatches from the textile department,” she recalls. “I looked at the era in which The Beguiled is set, but I also found inspiration in fabrics and colors and textures from years before and after that time. I’m sure we are going to get abused by Civil War reenactors,” Battat adds with a laugh.
She also took design notes from paintings by the French neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, though only in terms of the lines and silhouettes. By far, Battat’s biggest inspiration was her collaboration with Coppola and the rest of the team responsible for concocting the modern take of The Beguiled. In their voluminous light pink gowns and lacy, airy heirloom frocks, the stars of the movie are delicate and ladylike, yet badass and a little creepy-cool, too. Just call them the nasty women of a bygone era.
