‘The Gentlemen’ costume designer Loulou Bontemps on the Elton John-inspired chicken suit and many looks of Susie Glass [Exclusive Video Interview]
“That was a whole journey, that costume, from start to finish,” says “The Gentlemen” costume designer Loulou Bontemps while discussing Freddy’s chicken suit in the Netflix comedy series. “Whenever I get a new script, I’ll go through it again and again and again, and I’ll pick things out that really jump out at me. So, there is a line where Tommy Dixon says to Susie Glass, ‘I want Freddy to admit that he is a cock.’ And then he continues to say, ‘I want him to do this video and I want him to put on a chicken suit.’ I took that one line and I thought, ‘I want to do something a little bit far out, a little bit different, or something that people aren’t going to be expecting.” Watch our full video interview above.
Bontemps quickly found herself researching cockerels, or young roosters. “I found this amazing painting of a beautiful, super colorful cockerel, and I took that to Guy [Ritchie] and I said, ‘Listen, I really want to be kind of outrageous. An Elton John-inspired costume for the humor, because we all know that when we get to shoot that scene, it’s going to be intense, it’s going to be dramatic, but it’s also got to be funny.’ And Guy absolutely loved it, he thought it was brilliant.”
SEE Kaya Scodelario (‘The Gentlemen’) on playing ‘a real boss bitch’ not defined by her sexuality
On the other end of the spectrum, Bontemps got to design many chic and elegant designs for the fierce Susie Glass, played by Kaya Scodelario. “I just wanted to celebrate London fashion,” the costumer says. “And by doing that, we brought in lots of luxury brands, some independent British brands, a lot of vintage clothes, and it was important to me that every look, you can’t just go to a shop and buy the whole look. I wanted it to be really unique to her.”
“And then, when Kaya came to the fitting and she was cast, we just had a wild time,” Bontemps continues. “It was just all styling, putting all these different looks together, always making sure there was element of vintage and outrageously expensive designer luxury brands in there too. And then, just putting it together and styling it and making her feel as confident, assertive, and powerful as possible. And Kaya owned it, absolutely. It’s always about the woman in the clothes, not necessarily the clothes themselves.”
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