One of Jane Petrie's designs for Meryl Streep 

The early 20th century suffragettes were many things — determined, brave, committed. But they were also brilliant marketers with a highly particular visual look in their sashes, badges, hats and medals — even down to the colors for the women in the U.K. (purple, white and green) versus the American women (purple, white and gold). And, they were bold and aggressive, even by today's standards, let alone the turn of the 20th century.

"You're so right on that," says Jane Petrie, costume designer for "Suffragette," Focus Feature's October release about the movement to gain the vote for women, which is told from the viewpoint of working women. Written, directed and produced by women with a female-heavy cast and crew, it centers on 24-year old East End working-class laundress Maude Watts, played by Carey Mulligan, whose extreme poverty gives rise to her joining the cause.

"I read they were the first branded visually marketed social movement," says Petrie. "They were tough and smart. And this made it fun to research and try to get right costume-wise."

Would the costumes have been different had "Suffragette" been produced/written/directed by men? Was it different working with all women?

No, I don't think so, not with this story and what we were going for. I've worked with women producers and directors before. What was so different was normally I'd have to dress 17 speaking roles in a film and sometimes only two would be women. Now, I'm dressing 17 speaking roles and they're all women! These were 17 clearly defined characters and they're not men. That was a great and fun challenge for me.

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