Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531371
any given show. Whether it is a period piece or the narrative of the story, the research dictates how something will be aged. "I'll do my own research maybe a lile later on in the process. What's important is the research the designer gives you. If they don't give you research, you can end up frustrated and wasting time that you don't usually have. So, they give you research, which is easier on a period show like a Western; you take all that research, then you talk about it with the designer, and you say, 'well, what do you like about this? And what do you like about that?' And then when it comes to a certain character, and they say, 'I want his pants aged,' you say, 'Well, what does he do? Is there something special in this scene? Tell me if he crawls around on his knees all the time, that's one look. If he wears out the seat of his pants, that's another look.' Research is so important." Carol commended Costume Designer Mary Zophres for her research on Western films True Grit and Cowboys & Aliens. "When we did those films, she gave us so much research and talked to us about it so much." Carol and her team worked on the aging of all the layers of clothing, giving it an authentic Western period feel. "On True Grit, I was proud of the whole movie. I just loved it. I never met the Cohen brothers, but I actually got comments sent back to me and my crew from them because they would comment on the aging or how something looked, and they would want it to get back to us." On Cowboys & Aliens, there were Apache characters that wore off- white clothing, simple pants, and simple tunic tops. Carol explains, "We had to age them, so they looked like they'd been living in that desert area for a long time. There's a scene in the movie where the Apaches suddenly fishermen there. "Erica set up a deal with a clothing equipment store there by the waterfront and when guys came in, she would just trade them their old clothes for a new replacement garment, a new garment. Then she shoved all these dirty fishermen's clothes into a black garbage bag and sent it to us. It was research, how do I know what a fisherman looks like out on a New England fishing boat, you know, or that they call the area where they sleep the "goat pen", because it gets so stinky and nasty. It would give us a place to start, a place to know what actually happened to them." When working on films, Carol relies on a designer's research to create the aged looks on Mrs. Whatsit's dress from A Wrinkle in Time. Patterns in the velvet fabric were created using chemicals to disintegrate some of the pile, a process called devoré. MOTIONPICTUREC O S T U M E R S .O R G 33