Romantic & Opulent - Anna Karenina Style

The award winning movie, Anna Karenina was released way back in 2012, but it was only today that I saw it for the fest time. The famous Russian love story by Leo Tolstoy, is one of the most iconic in literature and tells a riveting story full of romance, betrayal, passion and tragedy. In the 2012 adaptation, directed by Joe Wright, Keira Knightley plays the title role of Anna opposite Sam Taylor- Johsnon as her lover Count Vronsky and Jude Law as her betrayed husband. The movie does go on forever (almost 3 hours!) but is well worth the watch if in need of some Russian realist fiction. 

The reason why I'm writing about this film is due to the beautiful costume designs and sheer opulence of the movie set. Wright cleverly sets his story in a huge theatre, with the actors and actresses moving as though they were merely characters performing to an audience on stage. If we really wanted to get analytical about this film, you could suggest that in this way Wright makes a point that we are all judged in society as our lives are played out almost as though we are actors upon a stage... just like Anna's and Count Vronsky's. Anyway, this isn't an English lit essay - but you get the picture! The beautiful set designs are wondrous and the array of rich colours are just part of the overall appeal of this movie. But for me, the costumes worn by Anna especially were breathtakingly stunning! And it's all thanks to the legendary costume designer, Jacqueline Durran. 

 I have always been a fan of historical costumes and the romantic stories in which they tell. Durran however brings nineteenth century fashion entirely into her own, designing the most gorgeous dresses for Keira Knightley's Anna. From the stunning black tulle ball gown she wears when dancing with Count Vronsky at the ball to the dark crimson dress she wears later on in the movie. The dresses looks as though they could have come straight out of the Victoria and Albert museum such is the depth and detail within the handiwork.  Durran, who was heavily inspired by french couture when designing the pieces for this movie, revealed that the clothes mirror the unraveling story. When Anna falls in love her clothes match her wild, carefree spirit but as the movie progresses and her paranoia starts to unfold, the clothes become more subdued and dark. 

Jacquline Durran has worked with Keira Knightley three times, designing the costumes for Atonement and Pride Prejudice also. She has also worked on other films, including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Nanny McPhee Returns, Mr Turner, Lara Croft and Star Wars Episode II. But it's her costume designs for Anna Karenina that really capture the imagination. In fact, Durran won an Oscar for her work on the movie, the only Academy Award she has won so far in her career.  

The costumes in Anna Karenina make you feel as though you are really there in 1873 Russia. You feel a sense of the glamorous ballrooms, the elegant tea rooms where the Russian women would come together to gossip and socialise and the opulent stately homes in which Anna and her aristocratic friends live. I love the way in which Anna's costumes reflect that. From her peacock feathered pillar-box hat to her luxurious fur stole, to the embroidered cape and the decadent jewellery - which was all loaned by Chanel, apparently worth over $2million! Not only are the dresses beatiful but the way in which they are styled is also very clever. Leather gloves, with a netted hat, paired with a thick winter cloak and a full bodiced dress; just one example of a fabulous outfit fit for a Russian princess. Plus the fact that Knightley can pull of almost anything with her tall, slender figure certainly helps portray the beauty of Anna Karenina! 

While looking further into Durran and her inspirations for this movie, I found that the amount of work and thought that goes into costume designs is extensive and difficult. She explains here why she and the director Joe Wright picked sombre black as the colour for Anna's dress when she appears at the society ball. "The first thing we discussed was wether it should be in black or not. It is a very significant costume in the history of literature, so we thought that we should respect that. And also, black kind of worked in the playing out of the scene, because we had already decided that the colour of society would be a range of sour pastels. So I made the 25 dancers’ dresses that are at the ball in 25 shades of sour pastels. So that was already the backdrop for her dancing. To put Anna in that environment, with those colours behind her, that just made sense that she would be in black.” 

While preparing for the movie, Durran further explains what inspired her jaw-dropping creations.
“I looked at lots of pictures of 50s couture, particularly French couture. And I looked at 1870s paintings and photographs and pictures of existing garments from the period and I tried to make it an amalgam of these aesthetics, if that makes sense.”

I've put together some of the original sketches for the film and then the real pieces Anna wears. Look at the detail and beauty of the pieces and just take a moment to admire the skill of Durran and her fantastic eye for historical costume design.