How Harry Potter Costume Designer Jany Temime Created a World of Magic Through Clothing

Jany Temime

It would be impossible for me to quantify my attachment to the world of "Harry Potter," just as I recognize is the case for a great number of you reading this. It's been six years since the final film came out and 10 since the last book was released; come June 26, "Harry Potter" officially turns 20, a fact that ages me more than any number of birthday candles ever could.

When I meet Jany Temime, the costume designer who came on board for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and stayed for the remaining six movies, I lose any cool I normally inhabit during interviews. I partially expect for her to deliver a response bordering on ambivalence — can you imagine how many times a day she hears the same fan-backed fervor? — but instead, she smiles. "At the time, I didn't realize how important it was," she says. "Thank God, because if [I had] I would have been completely paralyzed and incapable of doing anything. It's now that I realize what a nerve it [hit]."

Temime grew up in Paris in the 1960s and 1970s and spent her Saturdays at the studio of her parents' ready-to-wear company, designing sweaters on the side for pocket cash. She never had an inclination to go into the family business, at least directly; costume design was the only profession she ever entertained and now has the award-laden resume to show for it. While "Harry Potter" — or simply "Potter," a very Malfoyian way of speaking — remains her calling card, she's headed up costumes for such Bond films as "Spectre" and "Skyfall," as well as "Gravity," where she reunited with Alfonso Cuarón, who brought her into the "Harry Potter" universe back in 2004. She's also an ambassador for professional art and drawing supplier Prismacolor, which she regularly uses to sketch her work, relying on the soft-core colored pencils and the bold color selection to bring her visions to life on paper.

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