In ‘Mother Mary’, fashion answers every burning plot question you have

When you make purchases through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commissions.

This story contains extensive spoilers mother Mary.

At surface level, mother Mary It’s a movie about a pop diva who needs a dress. On the eve of his comeback performance, a ridiculous-appointment-mother of jesus Music Phenom (Anne Hathaway) asks her estranged best friend and colleague, now a famous designer with her own fashion house (Michaela Coel), for a custom look. Except David Lowery’s new A24-distributed melodrama – which is written and produced by Hathaway in between performances of synth-y stadium bops. charlie xcx, jack antonoffAnd fka twigsTo have intense one-on-one time in a barn that Sam (Cole) renovated as his atelier – something much more complex and intoxicating than that.

The film’s poster reads, “This is no ghost story,” and yet it hinges on the concept of being haunted – the performance becomes possession, the wounds of broken friendships never fully healing. There are also more explicitly supernatural moments: a Ouija board, a séance with scissors, and the final exorcism of Mother Mary, where an otherworldly spirit, represented as a sheet of dark red cloth, emerges from Hathaway’s body.

Sam eventually makes a new dress from that cloth-ghost of the titular pop star. But as costume designer Bina Degeler explains over Zoom, the fashion-focused storyline favors a more relationship-driven narrative, where a performer grows tired of selling her soul on stage and turns to the only person who can help her. “It’s really a psychological story told through costume design,” says Degeler. “The journey in the film is so intense and beautiful, with Mother Mary wanting to find herself again, and fashion needing to capture David’s point of view.”

Beyond the immediate grandeur of Degeler’s work, the costumes are incredibly effective at grounding abstract, sometimes esoteric, imagery. (Lowie admits this outright: “These metaphors are exhausting,” Hathaway tells Cole twenty minutes later.) thigh high boots And jeweled bodysuits translate the image of a Taylor Swift-esque pop star. (Lowery told Empire that of swift Prestige concert film The halo headpiece and Joan of Arc-inspired armor established Mother Mary as an angelic martyr. In fact, the film’s costumes become the key to understanding its surrealism.

Ahead of mother MaryLimited United States theatrical release on April 17 and nationwide expansion on April 24, marie claire spoke to Degeler to uncover all the fashion implications of the film. Here, we’ll take a deeper look at Mother Mary’s stage costume, Sam’s fictional atelier, and the symbolism behind it. He Final outfit.

Marie Claire: Let’s start with Mother Mary’s concert outfit. How did you design them?

Had a lot of influence on me: Taylor Swift, obviously, dua lipaAnd Beyonce. But mostly I wanted what she wore on stage to reflect the lyrics of the song and what that moment in her life was like in the film. When she performs “Dark Cradle”, she is dressed entirely in black. In the scene of “Holy Spirit”, she has a completely different expression, with light clothes, glitter and embroidery.

Hallows are also the signature of Mother Mary’s stage persona. How did you design the headpiece to fit in with her career progression?

I took a lot of inspiration from period paintings and medieval artwork, which are very divine and spiritual. Halo started out very simply. You actually see Mary’s first headpiece, an edgy, punk-style one, in a brief scene in Sam’s studio when (she) finds an old photo of the two of them. That’s when his Halo era began – when he started out as an artist, really – and it all came from Sam.

As Mary’s career progressed, the halo evolved and became more designed. We added a lot of glamour, glamour, swarovski crystalAnd the stars insist that they became his costume. They were a challenge because Anne (Hathaway) dances a lot, so we needed to make sure she could really dance in them.

Then, there’s the final halo in her final performance, and that scene is actually about the headpiece. Mary really wants to get rid of her fairy-like image, so that she can find herself again. She is able to tear off her dress, but the headpiece is almost impossible to remove. It’s uncomfortable, and it sticks to her hair. But then she does it.

How did you create a completely detailed but imaginary fashion house for Sam?

That was a big challenge. I was really nervous about it because I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to make all these pop star outfits, and on top of that, I have to create a brand for a fashion designer!’ I did a lot of research about Black designers – there aren’t that many in luxury fashion, which is frustrating, and made the research harder – as well as about African fashion. I read magazines and books about the journey of Black designers, like The New Black Vanguard. British fashion designer, Dilara FindikogluThere was another context to which I returned.

I also worked closely with Michaela Cole and we agreed that (Sam) would create pieces with a lot of color and that they would be quite dramatic. We actually created enough pieces for a full collection and shot a scene of her fashion show, which was ultimately cut, but the process helped me understand what Sam’s fashion house would look like.

Mary’s last dress, which is real iris van herpen The dress is based entirely on pleats, so we knew to incorporate pleats as a theme for Sam. David, Michaela and I are also obsessed with the plié process, so we wanted to show Sam sewing the red fabric before the final dress was made.

Speaking of: Tell me about teaming up with Iris Van Herpen and why you chose that specific outfit.

B.D:David had (IVH) in mind when he was writing the story, because he is fascinated by her career, what she has achieved, and what she does. When I came on board, I was absolutely thrilled because I’d always wanted to do something with him and see his process. David and I went to Amsterdam to meet Iris and she prepared several different ideas for us. We chose that final dress, a beautiful, deep red dress that draped in waves around the body, because we knew it was perfect for our project.

Mother Mary doesn’t want another stage costume, that’s all Dress. She wants something intimate that is about her and reflects her inner side and feelings. We didn’t choose the fanciest dress; We chose one that was symmetrical and centered, that underlined all the beauty of Mother Mary, showing her career and the development of her character, because this is the important part. That dress gives her clarity, humanity and allows her to be who she is. You look at the person, not this big dress.

Basically, Mary tells Sam that she wants her dress to be “any color except red”. What is the significance of the last dress being red?

I didn’t actually adopt (red) as a theme in fashion; It was more an emotional element. Red is blood and flesh, and it is a very spiritual, powerful color. It was more about that, because, again, our idea was that the dress needed to show the emotion, the passion behind the soul. This outside is his inner self.

What was your favorite aspect of working? mother Mary‘s costumes?

Collaboration. To achieve everything we wanted, the costumes required a lot of intense teamwork. I worked closely with David and we had a very intense, creative working relationship and a beautiful process. We both had a deep understanding of where we wanted to take fashion and what we wanted to do together. Anne (Hathaway) and I used to talk all the time; She was always very excited to come to fittings and see what her new stage costumes would be. They also had to have a lot of dancing and movement in them, so we needed to collaborate with the choreographer and the stage and production design team. Everything felt very personal. Sometimes I really felt like I was Sam: I was making something really special for Annie.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.