Draping up Hollywood in fabrics of India

What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not — said the legendary costume designer, Edith Head. Though they are largely responsible for the way an actor is seen on screen throughout a film, most often, the costume designers’ toiling and sweat don’t get noticed beyond the backstage.

With her designs for films like The Legend of Hercules, Gangs of New York, The American, When In Rome, and now for the latest and the fifth season of the television series Prison Break, Sonu Mishra, an Indian costume designer based in Rome, is taking inspiration from the bright colours and fabrics of India, across Hollywood. “I had studied fashion design, but stumbled into the world of costumes. A friend that I met while taking classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, asked me if I could sub for her on a Broadway show, while she was away travelling. I fell in love with the theatre world and continued that path. When I moved to Rome, I found out that there wasn’t much theatre work, but film was thriving. So, I went with the flow and started working on films and commercials,” Sonu shares her journey.  Each project is unique and the challenges vary. The filming location is an important factor — one has to consider what resources will be available — whether there are good costume rental places, good fabric stores and tailors. One needs to have a good team as there’s so much work that goes in before we get to the actual shooting. So, the prep team and set team need to work closely to make sure what is done in the fitting room is what goes on camera.” For the drama series, Prison Break, the designer had to show two distinct worlds of North America and Yemen for the latest season. “I do a lot of research based on the scripts. I love looking for photographs, information from books, watching films and documentaries. We wanted to give authenticity to the costumes but also a timeless style. A lot of the inspiration came from classic movies like Cool Hand Luke, Midnight Express, etc. The prison guard uniforms were created from scratch and the colour of the fabric, the trimmings, the patches, emblems were all studied carefully, as we wanted to create the right contrast with the prison walls,” the designer explains.

Sonu believes that the fabrics can make or break a costume. “If the fabric doesn’t drape in a certain way, no matter what you do, it’s not going to work,” she says, adding, “India has such a rich culture of fabrics and colours, it’s a huge resource to draw from.”

(Prison Break Season 5 airs at 9 pm every Saturday on Star World and Star World HD)