{"id":548,"date":"2021-07-22T15:39:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/?p=548"},"modified":"2021-07-22T15:39:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T15:39:39","slug":"super-suits-fashion-michael-wilkinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/super-suits-fashion-michael-wilkinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Suits and High Fashion: Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, November 16th,\u00a0Austin Film Society<\/strong>\u00a0welcomed acclaimed\u00a0costume designer Michael Wilkinson<\/strong>\u00a0for an Artist Spotlight event at The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. The evening featured a beautiful reception, with a chance to chat with Michael, as well as view costumes and never before released\u00a0costume illustrations. The feature of the night was a conversation with Wilkinson about his wonderfully complex and jet-propelled career, moderated by \u201cMs. Costume 411\u201d herself, the brilliant\u00a0Bobi Garland.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Michael Wilkinson and Bobi Garland, Artist Spotlight, Harry Ransom Center.<\/p>\n

Michael first caught the broad attention of the costume design and entertainment community in 2006 with his designs for the Zack Snyder directed film\u00a0300<\/em>.\u00a0 Wilkinson took the graphic novel source material, combined it with elements of historic authenticity and a near operatic scale to make it a feast for the eyes, appealing to a much wider audience. He followed up that success with the masterful costumes of\u00a0Watchmen<\/em>, moving seamlessly from the 1940s to 1980s with period costumes that grounded the superhero genre in a new way, and high-tech sculptural suits that added complex dimension to the art of the super-suit.<\/p>\n

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300<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

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Watchmen<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

With a track record like that, Wilkinson was tasked with designing the costumes for other stylized futuristic and comic book favorites such as\u00a0Terminator Salvation<\/em>,\u00a0Jonah Hex\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Sucker Punch<\/em>. But it was 2010\u2019s\u00a0TRON: Legacy<\/em>\u00a0that really solidified Wilkinson\u2019s place as a leader and innovator. The light suits of\u00a0TRON: Legacy<\/em>\u00a0integrated sculpted suits and interior practical lighting in a way that no film had done before, and to remarkable effect. Instead of relying on CGI and postproduction effects, the glowing suits helped ground the film and the actors\u2019 movement with a sense of reality in an otherwise fantastical world.<\/p>\n

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Tron: Legacy<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

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Tron: Legacy, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

But it was the 2013 releases of\u00a0Man of Steel<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0American Hustle<\/em>\u00a0that brought acknowledgment of Wilkinson\u2019s design dexterity to a mass market, being featured prominently in Entertainment Weekly, Elle, In Style, and GQ among others. This spectacular year of films saw Michael expertly move from dramatically redesigning one of the most iconic characters in Western culture, to inspiring todays fashion trends through jaw-dropping vintage styles, dressing two of the most beautiful and talented women in Hollywood. Wilkinson advanced the development of complex, otherworldly costumes through a process that included body scanning, digital sculpting, layers of custom printed fabrics, and 3D printing only to turn around and flawlessly recreate the world of the 1970s, complete with flirty wrap dresses and delicate, yet daring, hope-the-wind-doesn\u2019t-pick-up blouses. This ability to not only design in multiple genres, but to truly excel in each has made him one of the most sought after designers in the industry. It also didn\u2019t hurt to pick up an Academy Award nomination along the way.<\/p>\n

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Man of Steel<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

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American Hustle<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

His work on this year\u2019s\u00a0Noah<\/em>\u00a0highlighted his expertise and vision in leading a team of highly accomplished artisans, pushing them to advance their own craft. This time it came in the way of absolutely stunning textiles, created in collaboration with textile artist Matt Reitsma. From layered, bonded fabrics, to garments knit with plastic straws and cassette tapes, Wilkinson created never before seen textiles, perfect for an ancient world meets post-apocalyptic tale of Biblical proportions.<\/p>\n

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Noah,<\/em>\u00a0costume designer Michael WIlkinson.<\/p>\n

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Never before released\u00a0costume illustrations for\u00a0Noah<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

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Never before released costume illustrations for Noah, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

Austin Film Society\u2019s event came at the perfect time, as Wilkinson\u2019s star is poised to shoot further and faster than ever before. Already 130 days into a 140 day shoot for the highly anticipated\u00a0Batman v Superman<\/em>, this event found Michael just after a two week shoot in Chicago and on his way to costuming 60 extras in New Mexico for one of the many scenes set in various international locations, in a film that includes over 10,000 extras, 250 speaking roles, and represents 18 months of design time. Not one for slowing down- after wrapping, Wilkinson will jump immediately into\u00a0Joy<\/em>, collaborating again with director David O. Russel.<\/p>\n

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Batman v. Superman<\/em>, costume designer Michael Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

While his designs for a wide array of characters and genres have him actively advancing the field, it is his branding and merchandising partnerships that may leave the biggest mark on the future of costume design. Wilkinson joins a prestigious group of costume designers whose work has inspired creative collaborations with major brands; designers like Trish Summerville (H&M), Lyn Paolo (The Limited), and Janie Bryant (Brooks Brothers, Banana Republic), et al. \u2013 not to mention a long history of designers such as Bernard Newman (Bergdorf Goodman), Adrian (Macy\u2019s), and Edith Head (Vogue Pattern Company) whose fashion partnerships dressed the women of America from the 1930s to \u201870s. Currently in talks with high-end designer brands, such as Prada and Gucci, about potential future collaborations, Wilkinson is poised to enhance costume designers’ identity as global fashion leaders.<\/p>\n

A huge thank you to Michael Wilkinson, Bobi Garland, The Harry Ransom Center, and Austin Film Society for a truly wonderful evening. Check out more of Michael\u2019s work at\u00a0Michael Wilkinson Design<\/a>\u00a0and find out about upcoming events at\u00a0The Harry Ransom Center<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Austin Film Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, November 16th,\u00a0Austin Film Society\u00a0welcomed acclaimed\u00a0costume designer Michael Wilkinson\u00a0for an Artist Spotlight event at The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. The evening featured a beautiful reception, with a chance to chat with Michael, as well as view costumes and never before released\u00a0costume illustrations. The feature of the night was a conversation with Wilkinson … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyrannyofstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}