Meet The costume Maker of Batman Begins | Laura Jones

This week I sat down with Laura Jones, who used to be the costume maker of Batman Begins, Tomb Raider, Peep Show. Also, Laura was one of the costume makers for Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic making space suits! An incredible story on how Laura first started her career.
 
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Transcript

I was working with a team of people to create like principal character costumes so the key costumes for lro for example on Tomb Raider and the key costumes for Christian Bale in that particular bat Batman film um these are films that are going to get these sorry these are costumes that are going to get a lot of close-ups and you have to make like multiples of each one of those things and they have to be completely perfect you've worked with a few interesting people yep for a few interesting movies I hear especially when I met first met your husband yeah so take me back and and share with me how your experience was when you when you did that when you worked with such amazing people um well at the end of the day primarily you're there to do the job mhm so that's your focus and I think if you're not Star Struck and you're focused on the job in hand right then you're going to get much more respect in the in the long run because you know you you you're going to be respected because you're focused on the thing you're there to do as opposed to kind of focusing on the people around you and the kind of starriness I mean in lots of ways it was interesting for me because when I was kind of thrust into a relatively showers lifestyle I was so young that I just kind of figured that that's what life was like okay so old way you when you first started working so I celebr so I went to work for a big costume house in London called angels that does like big film and TV um projects for pretty much all the all the movies that come out of this country and other countries too and I was 19 so right I had no real transition from being a young Devon girl mhm at College yeah to being in this world where I was meeting fashion designers and stylists and actors and um you know directors and people like that so for me they were just people I was just interested to meet new people but for me they were just the same as the other kind of people I was meeting along the way so I guess I didn't really struggle um to kind of BL in feel natural in that environment I was excited I was excited to do um new things but I don't think I was if I look back now at my like 19-year-old self I'm kind of amazed that I wasn't more overwhelmed it okay but I think when you're young you kind of just go with the flow I guess yeah you don't know why you're looking in front of you if even if you have an opportunity and to me especially I was never in that position to be able to actually see opportunities when they came to me and even nowadays it's really hard to identify something whether that's worth spending your time yeah because you haven't put yourself in a situation to think what could be if I would have done this I would have followed this path and open this door um but the more I do the more I speak with people with individuals no matter the industry no matter what they've done how much they have succeed and I I take a small portion from what they have gone through their own lives and I try to uh put myself in that picture and see if I could be that Persona does that make sense I think so um if I could walk their their walk in the shoes that's pretty much what I mean by this yeah and sometimes even for me it's so difficult to to see those um to see those things because the way I do it is I remove myself from that moment and I visualize how would I how could I be this person how how could I be where he was at that stage you know mhm so that that was kind of deep so um yeah so I've lived my life jumping through every door that opens right and almost never say no to anything okay um and for that reason I've done loads and loads and loads of things and they weren't all necessarily like goals or on the agenda for Life by any means but if somebody just says do you want to do this or do you want to do that job or why do you try this I go yeah all right and that's I I don't know the sort of where I am now is like a culmination of like 20 more than 20 years of jumping through doors whenever they open so I guess I've never really sorry sorry sorry I've never really taken the time time to like stop and think is this where I want to go I just go that sounds like a good idea let's have it go but I'm pretty sure that has allowed you to learn so much from those many opportunities that you had yeah and speaking about opportunities you have worked as a designer correct me if I'm wrong with so many big names some that I I know Tom Rider um bman begins yeah so those two films Tomb Raider and Batman Begins were in my early kind of costume years and I wasn't a designer but I was a maker so a costume maker so um I was working with a team of people to create like principal character costumes so the key costumes for laa Croft for example on Tomb Raider and the key costumes for Christian Bale in that particular bat Batman film okay um these are films that are going to get a these sorry these are costumes that are going to get a lot of close-ups and you have to make like multiples of each one of those things and they have to be completely perfect so if there's a tiny blemish on on the sleeve for example of one item you have to replicate that over and over again because in stunts they get damaged so the costumes have to be completely perfect we have to focus particularly on like areas of the sleeves and areas of the collar because that's where you get most like focus in the films so yeah that was my kind of role was to difference between a designer and a maker so a designer's mostly working in 2D so they're working with the director to come up with the concepts of um how they want to frame that character for the costume and the makeer is the one that executes that ex yeah but I still there's a lot of people that we we don't give them the credentials um and a lot of people especially with with your backgrounds who take part in Amazing Stories amazing movies amazing experiences because that movie becomes a a super official reality to a l of kids you know and I looked up to you know watch Batman Begins and all those amazing things but we never give enough to the people in backstage yeah you know what I mean yeah so and I think this is this is the part this is one of the reasons that I'm sitting here across you because I want to know all about that I'm so excited to know the ins and out how did you even like come across to this and how did you even have this opportunity to be able to be in that position cuz to you it might not sound like an important thing um you may ask but some of the people will say ah this person really was the the backstage for this movie that is incredible yeah so for me um the par that particular door um opened because I worked for a big costume house and I managed to get that job by being extremely enthusiastic right and that's my advice to people generally so at 19 I went for an interview for a job with you know people twice my age with twice my experience and whatever and for whatever reason I got the job and I think the main thing that I was able to contribute that other people might feel might have had less of was sheer enthusiasm and willingness to learn um and while I was working for that costume house I made friends with lots of costume designers who were working on big projects and films as well as fashion stylists and people like that um and again enthusiasm and being really helpful and really friendly um makes people want to work with you so there was a designer that I really got on well with and then she asked me to come and assist her and then I became her assistant and then I went freelance and stopped working with that costume house and started working independently on Films um and we the first film we did was actually um it was James mako's first film so I spent like my first three months of being freelanc pretty much like dressing James makoy who's now Super Famous but it wasn't at that point it was his first film and he was quite nervous and all the rest of it so um we were kind I guess we were just sort of like learning together and it's actually quite unglamorous the actual reality of getting up at 5:00 in the morning and getting into like a winner Bago which is what we used to have as dressing rooms and in you know the naughties um and putting clothes on people and dealing with we had we used to have Polaroids it was a really simple time before digital right so it was really important that you make sure that from one day to the next shooting of a scene that everything is exactly the way it needs to be so we' Polaroid somebody before they before and they'd go on set and when they come off how is their collar how are there jewelry which way is everything facing everything needs to be for continuity so then you when you come back to shooting a day later a week later a month later you have to make sure that person looks exactly the way they did in the last shot because the shots are going to be pushed together and they're going to run consecutively even though they weren't shot consecutively um so that was a big part of it actually which is relatively mundane in reality it's not particularly glamorous um but you know you're in that environment it for me it was so exciting just being being part of something that was going to be made into a film have you ever come across to a an interesting experience or maybe rather a crazy experience that you never really thought of seeing or come across to this industry whether that is with the actors whether that is I'm not sure whether you had any type of communication with any of them um um I mean probably I don't know so the film my film life was quite a long time ago um I pretty much worked in fashion my whole career in the film life was quite a small part of the beginning so I don't know if I remember too many stories um the fashion industry is full of characters for sure there's a lot of drama um that's what people like I know I know and it doesn't literally doesn't matter how kind of high up you go in terms of success if you're backstage at a show it is Carnage right there's clothes still being sewn while on the model nothing is organized everybody's screeching and everything's everywhere there's like there's no point at which it suddenly becomes really professional backstage it's really funny because as soon as they go out on the catwalk everything is demure and beautiful and like super super super um classy but what goes on Backstage is hilarious because it's just like there's clothes everywhere and there's models in one shoe and there's mostly people half naked everywhere and there's people running around going who's got this and who's got that and absolute yeah so generally I mean I won't go into any like details about particular designers CU it's not kind of kind or professional but yes there's a lot of like drama there's a lot of Hissy Fits yeah that crazy not going to lie and being part of that you must have been very intense very intense yeah to be able to move around so um one interesting conversation I had with your husband was you whether you designed or or made um space suits is that correct well so I had to go and deliver a pitch for Virgin Galactic right of space suits I had designed and this was another just jump through the door situation so I was working in a completely unrelated job to pay the bills while I was building up my fashion label and I just happen to talk to people cuz I do and I met a lady who designed who has a big company who designed cost um uniforms rather so she's a corporate designer and they have a big company that designed and and then she came one day to this particular job and said um would you like to design some space suits because I've seen some your men's wear that you're designing and it's more in line with what they want and what we do is more like corporate stuff or um I don't know Supermarket chains or whatever so she asked me to put some designs forward and she really liked them and then she said I think you're the one that needs to go to like Virgin Galactic wow HQ and deliver the pitch and I again you know why not so I prepared my little pack and I went off and then um went into the big building I think it's in Leicester Square um it was a long time ago and you go through each door has like the the iris the the Eye of whoever's office it is or whatever so you're walking through people's eyes as you go through the building that's interesting and there's lots of like hanging chair like egg chairs everywh everywhere and stuff again it was like a long time ago it's probably a bit more modern now right um and then there was like a long table like a boardroom table and then I had to stand up all by myself and deliver this pitch for the for the space suits and what they wanted yeah so i' I'd kind of looked at like high performance um motorbike crossbike kind of stuff and then kind of merge that with a bit of fashion and then some more kind of sci-fi kind of look um to create like a performance wear outfit that would move the way you need it to and have all those kind of functions and breathability and all of that kind of stuff um but they kind of looked apart because what they actually wanted it for was the training exercises so it wasn't act it didn't actually need to perform in orbit it needed to be there to make the people who come on the day for their training exercises whove paid T this is for space tourism basically so these are just like normal people who who are super wealthy um but basically going to come and have this experience to go out of space so in that moment they need to feel like an astronaut so yeah so it kind of do you know how much would that cost I don't know it's only really just happening now like it's taken so long to actually be safe so I have no idea whether they used in the end for those training exercises the things I designed I know that there were samples made and things like that um but yeah as an experience another to jump through why not sounds really amazing nor One Lie yeah it was good it was good it's it's a nice like unusual project I really like projects with a um like a practical outcome okay so whilst I'm a fashion designer and I guess the outcome isn't really practical I like what I designed to have a purpose and a function right okay so yeah it was a nice project okay that's beautiful so how did you move from what you were doing at the time to where you are to today that's quite a long story quite a long story I um yeah so costume are was great and really interesting and I could have continued that for my career and hopefully one day been one of those big Hollywood designers who knows um but actually I found there were limitations with costume in terms of you're framing a character so you have really specific boundaries around what you're designing so somebody comes to you and explains the character and the character is I don't know a middle-aged white man who works in an office and um has these particular hobbies and drinks this and drives that and all the rest of it you pretty much know what he's going to look like and you need to you need to create the visual for that um okay right but if you just want to make something incredibly beautiful that's not based around a character it's something else so I kind of always wanted to be in fashion so I knew I wanted to transition into fashion because I had these ideas that didn't quite fit into the realm of what a director wants necessarily um so I ended up going back to University studying for degree in men's wear fashion design and then um but actually worked on Films the whole way through that sort of in my spare time well I took time out here and there um what did I work on I worked on a Bond film I worked on Peep Show Peep Show yeah did the first two seasons of Peep Show as the assistant stylist really fun before no one knew you know no one knew it was going to be this huge big amazing show and it was the same with like the film I did with James mcfoy like you don't know which thing's going to become like this Epic Big Star Story kind of thing um so you just they're just normal people and you just do your job well and you get on with people and stuff like that so I didn't know that peep show was going to be this incredible cult kind of British thing um yeah but yeah the whole way through my degree I continued to work on projects whenever I was asked basically um and then I had my set up my own label a few years after leaving University in London and then joined up with a friend of mine and we worked together on a men's wear label so we kind of we went to Paris did Paris fashion week at the trade shows and we did London Fashion Week we did a lovely show and things like that and it was yeah ticking along nicely um but the reality is it's really really hard to make money um in fashion generally it still is the margins are like really small because there's so much work involved and the expectation of what people want to pay doesn't necessarily reflect all the work that goes into it um and so I worked consistently throughout my time as being a designer also as a creative patent cutter yeah so I don't know if that is a term you've ever come across um Frankly Speaking my knowledge when it comes to Fashion is limited but yes um my sister she's a fashion designer okay and she owns her own Brandt and we went to an exhibition in London last year in July I think it was um it was mostly B2B but it was also so it was it was two or three days event and but one of those days uh it was open to public as well and other clients and and it was an interesting thing and I've never exposed myself to such a um opportunity I guess but it wasn't I wasn't really doing it this for me it was just me assisting my sister but ending up doing all the the talk and all you know the smiles and bringing in more people and interacting with everybody um day W cuz we went there I I was never we were never in that position to take uh take part in such an exhibition especially in the UK I have no idea how to what to do you know where to begin and all that but it was generally speaking it was it was an interesting uh experience we we got to meet interesting people uh different companies and what crazy part was that my sister had a least with her ideal clientele MH that she would like to work with and unfortunately those people they never showed up right and we really hoping you know we just another day just another day so last day I was meant to drive back to here and and and she was meant to fly back to Athens cuz um we are from from grace and we went for food and in that restaurant and in the restaurant around it was only one table it was a gentleman it was uh and with with somebody so and and the whole restaurant was empty so we sat down had some you know some food some drinks and eventually came and the the server came to came to us so we can order desserts and this gentleman asked us oh you should get this dessert because it's really amazing all that and I saw he was wearing a really expensive watch and I said huh okay let me ask what they do just you know blending have a little Bund and just have a normal conversation like a human being and we ended up having such amazing time amazing conversations the lady that she was uh sitting on the table with this gentleman she was working with one of the biggest clients that we would like to work with small world yeah and we end up exchanging information and inviting them to to come to aens and we can take them out for for a few meals for a few drinks show them around and everything else they invited us to back to London so they can take us out and build more you know connections and but I said wow yeah how is this even possible that is how it happens you know that's my experience as well that is exactly how it happens it doesn't happen well my experience is it doesn't happen from writing a job application okay ever I don't think any of my any of my great opportunities have happened that way they've happened because you have a nice conversation with somebody they like something about you and then you get talking and then they find out you have a skill that fits in with their skill set and you end up working together that's my experience exactly um and I think particularly around like fashion and costume and and TV and stuff there's lots of people coming out of college there's lots of people with degrees there's lots of people with with skill to some extent but actually working with somebody day in and day out it's more about who they are it's more about how they think they can guide you um you can grow into you know somebody with the level of skill that they need from you I think it's really important and I see that now with like if I have people who come and work with me or when I was cuz I was a lecture as well um I was a lecturer in Plymouth at the um art school in fashion design and you can really tell quite quickly who are the students that you would employ okay and it isn't necessarily because they're incredibly talented it's because they've got um a hunger to learn and um that they learn quickly that they pick up on the the cues that that are around them about um how they can kind of develop skill or whatever um yeah so I think personality how passionate is somebody about something that they makes them stand out yes but for me I wouldn't be hiring the student my fashion students who would walk into the room with like drama cuz there's a lot of those and they're lovely but it's entertaining but it's not really what you need so you'd have the students who would walk in and the insane outfits and they'd have the drama and it would all be like but it's the kind of it's It's the miow and actually what you want for them when they're coming to learn with you because they're an employee is them to do the job and you know that you're going to get all that drama on day one of the job as well so you kind of go right you need to grow up a little bit because it isn't actually about you it's about the job so it's they might be the most passionate person about fashion right but they're not focused on the job because they're focused on themselves yeah so yeah so it's often about things like how quick it's how quickly they learn whether they're going the extra mile whether they see things that need doing and they do them without being asked it's those kind of qualities that I really see as well as being just helpful and and and kind and nice and reliable and all of those kind of I guess what we think of as kind of mundane kind of skills those are the things