Stylish Movie: The Tempest

Julie Taymor -- known for movies like Across the Universe and Frida -- directs The Tempest, in theatres now. Taymor's signature style is visually rich, and is heavily influenced by her background in Indonesian theatre.

An important aspect of her vision, then, is the costume design. In an interview with LA Times, Sandy Powell, The Tempest's costume designer, talks about how she combined the silhouettes of Elizabethan and 17th-century Spanish court with modern details like zippers and leather to create costumes that transcend any specific "time period."

For the blue tunic that Prospera (played by Helen Mirren in a gender-bending role) wears for the bulk of the movie, Powell says the goal was androgyny. "In terms of construction, we looked at the work of a lot of Japanese fashion designers, including Comme de Garçons, Junya Watanabe, and Yohji Yamamoto, and experimented with texture."

The most challenging costume was Prospera's cloak, which was described in the script only as "shards of glass and light." In the end, the cloak was shaped with mesh wire, and lightweight plastic shards were sewn on to resemble iridescent glass. In the end, the biggest problem with the cloak was that it wouldn't fold. "It was this massive piece of sculpture that had to be transported from London in a giant, coffin-like custom box."

The Tempest is in theaters now.

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