There’s a particular kind of laid back cool that a Jim Jarmusch film is noted for. In his offbeat Vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch's film stars fashion’s reigning queen Tilda Swinton and her Internet boyfriend Tom Hiddleston. Jarmusch's vamps don’t conform to the stiff, brocade-wearing Hollywood undead we’ve all come to accept. Instead, we are introduced to two fashionable hipster vampires with a deep passion for music, history, art, experiences, travel, books and each other, naturally.
Swinton plays the older Eve, a worldly bohemian who lives in Tangiers and has adapted quite easily to the trappings of modern life, such as freezers (blood lollipops) and FaceTime. Hiddleston’s Adam, on the other hand, has been suicidal ever since he hung out with Lord Byron, and spends his days brooding in his crumbling Detroit mansion, composing avante-garde folk music, and collecting one of a kind guitars.
Throughout the movie, Eve is mostly dressed in white and light beige hues, exquisite Moroccan caftans and all-white leather outfits while her lover opts for darker tones, in black and brown with a dress sense that straddles a Regency dandy crossed with a depressed 70s rock god.
The result is a colour dichotomy that somewhat echoes their tastes and temperaments. Melancholy Adam indulges in music and science when light-hearted Eve revels in nature and literature. They nevertheless share the same delicate sensitivity as well as an unconditional love of silk – found on their dressing gowns – and leather – on their gloves and jackets.
Rather than the larger than life, grandiose vampire of Hollywood legend, Costume stylist, Bina Daigeler sets Adam and Eve to be lonely figures, who stick to the shadows, always keeping a low profile, away from the prying eyes of humans. They dress in contrasting colours of light and dark and layers of material to protect their pale skin while hiding behind dishevelled hair.
When we first meet our Only Lovers Left Alive, they have been pushed to opposite ends of the Earth. Adam conducts his brooding from an abandoned mansion-turned-music studio in Detroit,dismayed by the “zombies” that comprise humanity with their carelessness for the planet and each other, considers ending his existence.
Across the globe, rests the stunning Eve. After the couple converses via Adam’s homemade videophone, Eve senses her mate’s brooding has become more macabre than usual. She begins to pack her most precious possessions, her books, for the long journey to see him.
This bloodthirsty duo swapped the velvet of coffins for embroidered silk sheets, and wherever they reside, fashion sprawls to their surroundings. Not only their beddings (in which they spend so much time), but also the wallpapers, upholstery, curtains and rugs are tinged with a similar aura of crumbling splendour. Interestingly, their looks become much more detailed within the realm of their homes, where they can safely be themselves, than in the outside world, where they wish to remain unnoticed. Besides, their outdoor outfits respectively recall the whitewashed walls of Tangier and Detroit’s disused buildings.
Just as their other prized possessions, their garments are a mark of times passed and must bear the remnants of precious memories. Adam still sports a dressing gown from the early 19th century and Christopher Marlowe, won’t part with a jacket that was given to him in 1586.
Ultimately, the costumes breathe life into the undead duo. Fashion in Only Lovers Left Alive is just another part of the couple’s refined aesthetic universe, almost inconspicuous but no less meaningful.
Interview with costume designer, Bina Daigeler, originally from 'The Cut':
What sort of ideas did Jarmusch approach you with about the costumes — what did he want them to look like, what did he want to avoid?
I think he was looking for something [without a] specific period, with very simple and clean lines. At this moment, the vampires don’t really care about the clothes, you know? They lived [through] that in all other periods, so they [wear] something very simple but protective … On the other side, of course, they are like animals. They have their second skin with their clothes, and that was a little bit my idea — that it’s like the second skin they got during so many years of living. They’d already lived all the fantasies they could live … so it could be something very, very simple.
I know that there are references to the age of their clothes themselves. How did that affect what kind of textiles you used for the designs?
I like to use for them this very basic, natural leather — all of them, there’s something with leather they are wearing, and that they protect themselves also with the gloves. [The leather] is somehow a little bit like a second skin. The only one who is different — because she is lost — is the character [played by] Mia [Wasikowska].
When you’re designing costumes, how much of it is from scratch, versus finding things in vintage shops or things that the actors themselves want to use?
That depends, of course, on what kind of movie you’re doing, but with Adam and Eve — it was all made from scratch [for] this movie because we wanted to show that they are not contemporary, and are also not ancient. It’s just something I had to make because I wanted to have this simple, very specific look of leather jackets and pants. So that was all made for them.
How long is that process?
I didn’t have a lot of time. I think we met the first time two months before [shooting], and we had a meeting [with] Jim, [and Tom and Tilda], and hair and makeup, and the DOP and the production designer — we [came together for] a creative meeting.
[Since] I knew Jim already, I prepared a mood board and made it look really ancient, on old paper with written things on it, and I stitched that on, and it was like a painting. That was then my base, how I could explain how I see each character … I already had swatches of the fabrics so I could immediately start, since I knew where Jim wanted to go, because I knew him from the movie before, and that was very helpful. And I think [the mood board] was for the whole creative meeting, which was helpful — we had a base. We had a feeling, a little bit, where we could go. First I brought some vintage clothes, and that was like the base for our fittings. Then I started six weeks before, and it [was] just a very fast process where you just know: Okay, that is what we want. And we chose the fabric, and then we just started making the clothes.
Tilda is such a fashion icon. Can you talk about collaborating with her on her costume and developing it in terms of her character?
With Tilda, of course, [working with her] is a pleasure. It is really a pleasure because she is so, so inspiring and her nature is already so glamorous in a good way, you know? She is like a fantasy bird already, naturally.
At the beginning, Jim wanted to have something very, very simple and Tilda was looking for something perhaps a little bit more playful. But during the process, we realized that, yeah, simpler will be better because then it becomes … without any references to any type of period, you know?
It’s not that she doesn’t care, but it’s just that it’s her, and I didn’t want to have something to make people think, Oh, is it a designer? Where does it come from? What is she wearing? This is her, this a light image, and it is like yin and yang [between her and Adam]; he is dark, she is bright.
And then we had this old, very old [fabric] — I made a [sleeping] robe out of it, which I also liked because it was fabric from the 18th century. It’s nice to have [the fabric] really, like, old, you know? And it was hand-stitched. That was also something that I really enjoyed. We had this natural old fabric, and we could do her robes from that.
So when you were on location in Tangier, were you finding things as you went that you wanted to incorporate?
Both fabrics I had already. I went scouting already a little bit. When you see it, you take it because you just think, Wow, that could be great!
How much of Jarmusch’s own aesthetic and style worked their way into Adam’s costumes?
I think his own style is in all his movies — not only in Adam’s style — because Jim has a cool style. I think it is his style, like, in all his movies you see it, and even in Tilda’s outfits you see it. And I think that is essential for his movies, and also for the costume designer to capture that, you know? And to use it in a positive way. And as it is a style that I like, [it’s a good] coincidence and great to get this style and to use it for the movie. Not only for the part of Adam.
Would you also say the designs in the movie reflect your personal style? It’s more personal than, you know, when you get a more specific directive from a director to create a period piece or something similar.
No, no, it is his style, but I use it for his movies. I think, for me, it’s very inspiring, you know? It’s very inspiring, and it expresses something of his feelings and of his way to be, so that is important, and I am able to reflect it in the characters he wanted to show because of course all Jim Jarmusch movies are very, very personal. He writes them, he makes them; it is, for him, part of his life, his personal thoughts, his personal feelings. So of course I have to somehow capture that and re-create it in the costumes. And I think that is the reason why our collaboration works, because I am able to capture that.