How Sandy Powell Gave the Nanny a Practically Perfect Makeover

Emily Blunt and Julie Andrews

Emily Blunt has said that she found fresh inspiration for her version of Mary Poppins in the P.L. Travers books that originally introduced the character, an eccentric and decidedly vain nanny. Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, The Young Victoria) also found a way to set Blunt’s Poppins apart from Julie Andrews’s wholesome incarnation—by making the 2018 Poppins a bit more stylish.

“We aimed to make her more elegant and definitely fashionable,” Powell said of her costumes for the Rob Marshall reboot Mary Poppins Returns, in theaters this week. “Mary’s definitely vain, so she would have made sure that she was very well-coordinated.” Powell’s Mary Poppins costumes reflect 1934, the year in which the film is set—polka dots, chevron patterns, chiffon, and stripes were in vogue—but they also have a dash Devil Wears Prada, thanks to a vibrant palette of ruby red, pink, and sapphire. “It was like doing a collection—designing different shirts, different ties, and different skirts that all sort of coordinated with each other,” the designer said.


Powell was also careful to include a few sartorial nods to the Julie Andrews film.

“In the original Mary Poppins, she always has a bow at her neck—on all her blouses,” said Powell, explaining that the bows became a recurring theme for Blunt’s costumes. Each of Blunt’s looks—even the Victorian swimsuit she wears in an underwater sequence—feature a bow. The only difference: Powell adjusted the ties this time around to make them “neater and chic-er.”

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