Los Angeles Times - 26.11.2019

S34

THE ENVELOPE LOS ANGELES TIMES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019

son to make happy was Elton. There’s no

point in doing something if he watched the

film and went, “Well, I never looked like

that” or “I don’t like this.” To me, what’s the

point of doing it?

[Elton] came to the studio, and I did a

show and tell, but he pretty much didn’t get

involved. He actually sent me a handwritten

letter and said how much he enjoyed the

costumes and thought they were incredible

and wished me luck in any possible poten-

tial awards.

In terms of costume on this film, I as-

sume it’s not just “more is good but more

plus more is best”?

Yes. This was one of those films where I

broke my own rule that the costumes should

not ever overtake the actual story. I was al-

lowed to break my rule, which was fun.

Sometimes the costumes were larger than

they might have been, but this was cast as a

musical fantasy. I think the louder the cos-

tume, the more they wanted it in the film.

I understand you did research at John’s

personal archive in London. What was

that experience like?

It’s basically a massive warehouse in

West London, with two big rooms that hold

all his stagewear. A lot has been auctioned

off for charity, but let’s just say there’s still a

lot there. The guy lovesshopping. I saw a lot

of iconic pieces: the Donald Duck outfit, the

Dodger suit. It’s all cataloged and photo-

graphed, with shoes and hats. The glasses

are kept somewhere else.

John’s Dodger Stadium outfit — the one

originally designed by Bob Mackie —

why did you choose to alter the piece

when you reproduced it?

As far as reproducing, it’s more fun de-

signing it yourself. So I wanted to change it

up a bit: I thought, how can I amp it up? I

wanted to make a crystal suit and so used

250K [Swarovski crystals]. It was really com-

plicated putting it together, and we only

completed it a day or two before shooting,

with Taron quite physical in those scenes.

That was a bit nerve-racking on those days.

Was the hot-orange devil suit with

the feathers and horned cap your own

fantasy?

Yes, absolutely. That outfit was pure fan-

tasy; it came completely out of my head. I

had a dream and then created it, and it was

the first actual outfit I designed for the

whole film. The devil suit was such an im-

portant costume, since it had to be in the

film so much and at such key moments. It

turns out Elton had worn [a devil’s outfit],

but it was so different I honestly didn’t real-

ize it until David Furnish pointed it out to

me three-fourths of the way through film-

ing. It worked out quite well.

The “Yellow Brick Road” costume was

delightful ...

Dexter told me Elton’s going to sing “Yel-

low Brick Road,” so I pulled the outfit to-

gether with something from every (“Wizard

of Oz”) character: He’s got the faux fur lion’s

coat, the straw hat, the Tin Man shirt. The

blue fabric was Dorothy’s blue. The color of

red crystal on the shoes and the jacket lapel

are the same color used for the original ruby

slippers.

His patched denim jacket was quite cool,

especially for anyone from

that era.

The denim jacket was really good fun. I’d

found an old ’70s denim jacket and had it re-

made and got all the patches and had them

put on — though they’re different from the

ones Elton had. It’s funny, so many people

like that jacket. Someone tagged me on Insta-

gram having re-created it with all the origi-

nal patches; someone else designed it for a

pet cat [laughs]. I think the original jacket

was sewn by a band member’s girlfriend.

Originally, the one thing that Taron

really wanted from the film was the denim

jacket. I made sure that Paramount sent it to

him. I think he wore it to the world pre-

miere.

John seems to use costume as character

in a different way than other similar-era

music icons such as Elvis and David

Bowie. Would you agree?

I heard once he said he’d put on his costume

20-30 minutes before a show and then he’d

become Elton John, the performer. The

other musicians you mentioned seemed to

express their real inner selves more. If you

look at some of the stuff he wore, it was al-

most that he hid behind it. This character, I

think he’s shy but also very extroverted. It’s

quite fascinating. But at the end of the day I

think Elton just likes dressing up, to be hon-

est with you. 8

THE DODGERS

SUITwas an amped-

up version of the

original, but the devil

costume (flanked by

Day and Taron

Egerton, also below

left, in the denim

jacket) was all Day.

Gavin BondParamount Pictures David ApplebyParamount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

[‘Rocketman,’from S32]