The Queen (2006)”My heart dropped - here were tweed skirts and sensible brown shoes, Herm%26egrave;s and Barbour,” wrote Helen Mirren, recalling the duds that the designer, Consolata Boyle, assembled to enhance the actor’s portrayal of Elizabeth II. “Someone who chooses to wear [those] clothes,” she reflected. “I thought I’d never be able to understand this woman.” However, Barbour %26 Sons experienced a sudden sales surge as The Queen triumphed at the American box office and the Beaufort - the green waxed coat in which Mirren’s Elizabeth navigates her Land Rover, walks her corgis and encounters a stag - became a bestseller in Manhattan.Marie Antoinette (2006)Booed at Cannes and dismissed by film critics as a folly, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette eventually won some redemption at this year’s Academy awards when Milena Canonero won the Oscar for best costume design, despite stiff competition including The Devil Wears Prada. Kirsten Dunst had no fewer than 80 costume changes - more than in any other royal epic (”But it included nightgowns, and we covered 20 years of her life,” says Canonero, defensively).Although the fashion magazine W recently postulated that Marie Antoinette was “just too hip” to endure, the film, along with its 80s glam soundtrack, continues to enjoy cult status in the fashion industry and remains the best advertisement for both Manolo Blahnik (who designed innumerable satin court slippers) and Ladur%26eacute;e, the Paris tearoom that provided the macaroons munched by the frivolous queen and her fawning ladies-in-waiting.Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)Alexander McQueen was the fashion force behind the first “chick flick” in the Star Wars franchise, in which Natalie Portman’s Queen Padm%26eacute; Amidala of Naboo first encounters Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker (played by Hayden Christensen in the following two films). Queen Padm%26eacute;’s silken ruby-red Noh robes, startling Kabuki makeup and arresting, semi-painted lips were a direct, though unacknowledged, homage to McQueen as worn by Bj%26ouml;rk on the cover of her Homogenic album and accompanying video. The 16-year-old Portman clinched her first Vogue cover on the film’s opening. Three months after Phantom’s release, Yves Saint Laurent launched One Love, a Star Wars-inspired makeup range. Capturing the “power, elegance and confidence of Naboo”, its ultimate tribute to Portman was “Amidala Red,” a bestselling lipstick.Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)The wardrobe department on this three-hour epic, which charted the downfall and execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, united the costumier Yvonne Blake with Antonio Castillo, who was designer-in-chief of the Paris couture house Jeanne Lanvin for 12 years. Blake costumed Nicholas and Alexandra’s cast of thousands, while Castillo took charge of Janet Suzman’s Alexandra. He produced an Edwardian take on his signature Lanvin pieces, trimming a hip-length cape and a collection of satin evening gowns with ermine, and allegedly declaring, “Mink is for coachmen!” The fragile Alexandra wears fading imperial purple - from periwinkle to lilac and lavender - while her husband is toppled from power. Blake’s handiwork (Rasputin in monkish robes or Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin in sober, slim-cut black suits) sets off Castillo’s magnificence perfectly.The Lion in Winter (1968)Sparely yet stylishly costumed, this cinematic tribute to Eleanor of Aquitaine came out of late 60s Hollywood and managed to inject some of the disillusionment of the Vietnam era into a royal drama set in the 12th century. “Not that glossy old MGM stuff,” stated Katharine Hepburn approvingly after reading the script. “When do I start?”The film portrays Eleanor’s destructive relationship with her estranged second husband, Henry II. Eleanor, queen of France before she remarried and became queen of England, was, according to her biographer Alison Weir, a “leader of fashion”. So we get Hepburn’s imperious Eleanor brandishing golden cuffs and a heavy signet ring, sweeping through Chinon castle cloaked in bottle green, gold brocade and swathed in a dazzling scarlet.Cleopatra (1963)This Hollywood epic nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox. But at least it was a hit with fashion critics. Masterminding a swinging 60s Cleopatra instead of an authentic ancient Egyptian, Irene Sharaff, Elizabeth Taylor’s favourite designer, made 65 costumes for the star - including sexy draped gowns of chiffon and silk jersey that emphasised Taylor’s voluptuous bust-line and 22in waist. Cleopatra’s makeup was pale, while beehives, chignons and a Vidal Sassoon look replaced antiquated hairstyles. Women’s Wear Daily loved the togas and kaftans sported by the sovereign’s handmaidens. Sharaff recreated the canary-yellow gown Cleopatra is wearing when she falls for Richard Burton’s Marc Antony for the couple’s 1963 wedding.The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)”God, this is going to play hell with my sex life!” declared Bette Davis when she saw herself with her face dramatically aged for her role as the balding, 65-year-old Elizabeth I. Striving for authenticity, Davis studied contemporary portraits, and insisted that makeup man Perc Westmore shave off much of her hair. Extending the look of “bare effrontery to her already prominent eyeballs”, Alexander Walker wrote, Westmore next “camouflaged” Davis’s eyebrows by coating them with flesh-coloured wax. He also trimmed her long eyelashes. This was a masterpiece of movie makeup. Davis had a hard time making it, though: the high starched collars of Elizabeth’s gowns “stifled” her as she filmed in the summer heat of Los Angeles.Marie Antoinette (1938)The wardrobe for the original biopic of Louis XVI’s doomed wife, designed by Gilbert Adrian, was three years in pre-production. Norma Shearer, the film’s star, was so keen on the huge crinolines and fur-trimmed capes that she would drive her friends to the MGM wardrobe department and model them. Consulting Vienna’s Royal Archives, Adrian acquired fine textiles from Paris and enlisted a milliner who had worked for the Russian Imperial Opera to produce plumed hats and towering headdresses. One featured a gilt-caged mechanical canary. MGM balked when hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff demanded a double strand of extremely rare black pearls from Van Cleef %26 Arpels to adorn one of Shearer’s 18 powdered wigs. But Guilaroff got his way and it paid off. A box office hit, the film earned its designer the ultimate accolade from Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who said its costumes were “second to none”.The Scarlet Empress (1934)Marlene Dietrich’s portrayal of German-born Princess Sophie Augusta Frederica’s rise to the Russian throne as Tsarina Catherine the Great is not one for animal rights activists. The entire production became fur-clad on the insistence of Paramount’s head of production, Adolph Zukor - who also happened to be a former furrier. He hoped it would “help the fur trade” at the height of the Great Depression. So costumier Travis Banton let the fur fly, enveloping Dietrich in expensive pelts: the d%26eacute;collet%26eacute;s of Catherine’s ornate court gowns were sable trimmed; her military jacket was white fox; ermine was everywhere; and the blue velvet costume in which Catherine “reviews” her private guards feat ured a towering top hat made of mink as well as a mink-trimmed skirt.
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