Phantom Thread’s Oscar-winning costume designer on how to tell stories with couture

There’s a common theme among the films that were nominated for Best Costume Design at this year’s Academy Awards. You won’t find any superhero costumes or exotic space opera designs. Instead, movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Darkest Hour, and The Shape of Water focus on traditional period designs, using the art of costuming to establish their highly specific worlds and offer insight into their characters.
In the case of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, which t