Cory Finley's debut movie "Thoroughbreds" is a thriller-slash-dark comedy that's been compared to "Heathers" — and, like in "Heathers," fashion plays a major role. The movie has a small cast of characters and a limited set; most of it takes place inside a single house (okay, mansion). At the center of the movie are two characters: Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke), two incredibly wealthy, incredibly bored teens living in Connecticut...
Costume designer Alex Bovaird — who previously dressed a very different group of teens in 2016's "American Honey" — used the two characters' costumes as a means of communicating each girl's personality and emotional state, and as a way to show how the two friends grow so close that they begin to take on each other's characteristics. Lily tends towards a style that could be described as "Blair Waldorf, but make it murder-y" — though Bovaird says she's never seen "Gossip Girl." She wanted Lily's style to be "prim and elegant" to show how controlled the character is, and she incorporated references to classic film noir, such as several blouses with bows.
Bovaird remarks: “I tried to pull as much as possible from the script at first. Both of them are not ordinary girls, so I tried to make sure the wardrobe wasn't ordinary. I don't think either of them ever wears jeans. And because the setting is so lush, in this ridiculous mansion, I wanted to make sure they looked like they came from that very wealthy world. But at the same time, they're teenagers, so they do wear these little shorts and little dresses. At that age, your limbs are flailing around. I wanted them to look fragile and young.
My approach is always based in reality, so I did a lot of looking around at what everybody wears in that kind of boarding school world. The direction has a nod to film noir, so I tried to ape some of that a little bit. Lily has lots of little bow blouses, and at one point she's wearing this light-blue coat that looks like it has a bit of a cape. I was trying to do a subtle Alfred Hitchcock-era vibe. They're not wearing clothes from that era, but I tried to make it seem like they were wearing elegant, prim, clothing — or at least Lily was. Lily thinks about her clothing a lot more than Amanda does. She's putting on armor and is presenting a mask of who she is.
Amanda's clothes are more haphazard. I tried to do some things that make her seem a little bit strange. At one point she wears a little black top with buckles, sort of like a straightjacket. Amanda is very awkward, and I wanted her clothes to be representative of that, so we had this idea that she doesn't take her coat off very much, because she isn't comfortable.”
“And then there are the colors. I tried — with Lily especially, because she's such a strong, confident character — to make color choices that were strong. She wears a little white bomber jacket, and she wears a lot of white in general. At the end she wears that white cricket sweater.”
