As she prepares for a 2018 that includes filming the final division of Game of Thrones and the absolution of two films that she formed on (the aftereffect to the hit agreeable Mamma Mia! and The Afterlife and Activity of John F. Donovan, starring Natalie Portman and Kit Harington), Clapton explains how she uses accouterment to enhance a story.
The aboriginal division of The Crown appearance an arrangement of ornate, mid-century gowns and brittle aggressive suits, which are on abounding affectation during such cardinal scenes as Queen Elizabeth II’s bells to Prince Philip. But to accomplish assertive quieter, yet appropriately important, moments resonate, Clapton acclimated beneath absurd pieces. In the additional episode, aloof afore Elizabeth (Claire Foy) finds out about her father’s death, she appears in her allowance at a carnival abode in Kenya cutting alone Philip’s long, white button-up shirt, which serves to accentuate her vulnerability. “To me, [choosing that look] was aloof as big a accommodation as the architecture of her bells dress, and took aloof as continued to appear to,” Clapton says. “[Elizabeth] is at her best accessible and airy and affectionate afore she finds out this affair that is activity to be so awe-inspiring in alteration her life. I adulation that contrast.”
Clapton’s designs added the artifice arcs of the characters she works on, whether it’s the fabulous queen Daenerys Targaryen or the British Queen Elizabeth II. [Photo: Macall B. Polay/Hbo]In 2015, Clapton took a aperture from Game of Thrones, which she had formed on aback it went into assembly in 2009. She concluded up sitting out division 6—a abeyance that accustomed her to assignment on The Crown and appear aback to the HBO juggernaut with beginning eyes. “It rekindled my admiration to see [Game of Thrones] through,” Clapton says. “The characters are like absolute bodies to me, because I’ve been accomplishing this for so long.” When she alternate for division 7, which aired this accomplished summer, she was able to actualize apparel that reflect the characters’ beyond journeys. As Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) action for the Iron Throne, for example, Clapton has active more bound dressmaking and references to anatomy armor to arresting their progressively attentive affecting states.
The Crown [Photo: Stuart Hendry/Netflix]After alive on Game of Thrones and The Crown, Clapton active on for the Abba-infused aftereffect Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, absolutely because it accustomed her to footfall abroad from heady, British-accented dramas and accouterment a ball instead. Filming in Croatia, Clapton’s better claiming was authoritative abiding the musical’s 1970s-era apparel (which accommodate alarm cheers and bright prints) didn’t become too over-the-top, abnormally during big account numbers involving lots of extras. “Costumes [should] be witty, but not funny,” Clapton says. “Even admitting [the movie] is a bit of ablaze frivolity, I still capital to amount out why somebody is cutting something, that backstory.” The film, due out in July, was additionally a acceptable adventitious to diversify. “People assort you and think, ‘Oh, but you aloof do medieval stuff,’ ” she says. “Well, no. A artist does anything. A artist works with the calligraphy and the story, whether it’s absolute or aeon or agreeable or whatever.”
Clapton will abstraction a calligraphy in adjustment to use characters’ accoutrements to telegraph narratives. This aptitude has fabricated her an important articulation on set. When the controlling ambassador of The Crown capital to adapt the filming of a arena amid Princess Margaret and King George afterwards the apparel had already been agilely designed, Clapton pushed back. She argued—successfully—that seeing Elizabeth’s alienated adolescent sister in an off-the-shoulder dress as she played piano for her ancestor would accomplish their accord assume ever affectionate unless the camera pulled aback to appearance that the account was demography abode during a banquet party. “[The apparel design] is that cautiously balanced,” Clapton says. “You’re aggravating to say something, and you accept to anticipate so anxiously about how article should be. I additionally appetite to bandy the admirers off sometimes. That’s area I accept my fun.”