Creating the 1950s style for the stars of Carol

If every picture tells a story, every hairstyle and shade of lipstick does too. In director Todd Haynes’ new film Carol, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara play two women who, before they even speak, are already understood by the audience: Carol’s glamorous blonde, brushed-under bob makes a statement of wealth and privilege while Therese’s simple pageboy suggests someone quiet and unassuming.

Haynes’ extensive research into the early 1950s enabled his Emmy-nominated team of hair designer Jerry DeCarlo and head make-up artist Patricia Regan to create distinctive looks for Carol and Therese that change as their relationship evolves.

New York City in 1952 was pivotal for fashion, hair and beauty trends, and was an important turning point in this incandescent love story based on Patricia Highsmith’s second novel.

America was emerging from wartime austerity, and a sense of optimism was pervasive. Breakthroughs in make-up and hair technology brought new looks to American women as documented by fashion and street photographers such as Ruth Orkin, Esther Bubley, Helen Levitt, Vivian Maier and the legendary Saul Leiter, which documented the real life of the city.

To capture this effectively, Haynes embarked on “a fairly ambitious process of culling images and references, from photography, painting and largely other films that help to specify the look that I’m going for... it’s a painstaking process I tend to get a little nerdy about. But it helps me… That’s really what all the creative departments are looking for: specificity.”

In the 1950s, the emphasis was on elegance. There was a new interest in wealth, fashion and celebrity, influenced by movie stars such as Grace Kelly, Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn...

“Film is a visual medium and people start putting together the psychology of a character before they open their mouths, and so the look of Carol was very important… But I didn’t want to become too wound up in looking so-called ‘beautiful’.”

Haynes believes that authenticity is part of effective storytelling. “Carol is a low-budget film, a period film, where every detail mattered intensely to the narrative, but also to the development of character.”

It is this attention to detail that makes Carol one of the most exciting and intense romances ever filmed.

On Fashion in “Carol”