If you’re of the generation that used Facebook in the noughties to show off your club pics from the night before, you’ve probably learnt to be a lot more vigilant about your digital footprint. And you have good reason to be, because there are people like Sophie Canale, the costume designer for Emerald Fennell’s highly-anticipated movie Saltburn, who are deep diving into those photo albums for research.
“Facebook was a really good source for me,” she says about her approach to the film's costumes. “It was so popular at that time, everyone was just posting photographs of their nights out and university lives. It was a great source of fashion, because I was able to really capture what people were wearing in that period.”
Saltburn follows Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a slightly dorky, seemingly working-class lad that has started at Oxford university during the mid-2000s. After befriending Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), Quick is invited to spend the summer with him at the family estate, named Saltburn. Tapping into themes of wealth, privilege and obsession, you wouldn’t be wrong to draw parallels to the beloved classic The Talented Mr. Ripley. The same parallels can be made in the costume department, too.
That isn’t to say the two films have a shared dress code. While The Talented Mr. Ripley taps into the holiday uniform of the upper-class – an old-money look that's been gushed over on TikTok – Saltburn nails noughties fashion with an accuracy rarely captured on screen.
Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger feature regularly within the university scenes, while Jane Norman and Miss Sixty can be seen on the female characters. British collegiate style comes accurately in the form of rugby polo shirts, chinos, checked button downs and basically anything that would be found in a Jack Wills store – another sartorial contributor. Canale notes that student-era Prince Harry and Prince William were major inspirations, mining the attire of upper-class, Eton-alum to show how Oxbridge undergrads would dress.
“There's a realism in the way I wanted to design it,” Canale adds. “I love putting real life onto screen, so when the opportunity arose to work on something that is a contemporary piece, I was really excited by that.”
Canale is calling me from Wales, where she’s working on a period drama set in 1918. But one of her most notable costume credits comes from Bridgerton, the Shonda Rhimes drama that’s become Netflix’s most popular English-language show.
“I do see the film [Saltburn] as a period piece, because it wasn’t about going to the high street or shopping in Selfridges and Harrods to get key pieces of today,” she continues. “Even the cut of a T-shirt; you can go into H&M now and the ribbing won’t be the same as it was in the 2000s. We were buying things from the back of people's wardrobes, so we had to go to Vinted, Depop and eBay. It was really fun and a different way from how I've worked previously – usually you buy pieces or go into costume houses, but this was a style that wasn't really there.”
Much like anyone that’s been through the formative experience that is uni, Canale wanted the character’s costumes to be a reflection of their ever-changing personalities, and that detail is noticed in how worn out they were. In fact, the piece's newness (or lack of it) reflects how natural it is for that character to be in that environment.
“I washed Felix’s costumes more, they were broken down. But with Oliver's, they were so stark and so new, it was like he bought a new wardrobe to go to university,” explains Canale, noting the university scarf that Oliver wears when he arrives on campus. “He’s trying to fit into the gang but everything he’s wearing is a bit new and fresh out of the packet.”
Recreate The 'Saltburn' Wardrobe
Bode Prisma embroidered cotton overshirt
Nudie Jeans Grey Tight Terry Slim-Fit Jeans
Stone Island Logo-Appliquéd Cotton-Blend Piqué Polo Shirt
Polo Ralph Lauren Fairisle V-neck wool-knit jumper
POLO RALPH LAUREN Button-Down Collar Checked Cotton-Flannel Shirt
John Smedley Blenheim V-neck wool jumper
Nudie Jeans Blue Dean Slim-Fit Jeans
KINGSMAN Button-Down Collar Striped Cotton Shirt
Aspesi Straight-Leg Cotton-Gabardine Chinos
Beams Plus Striped Cotton-Jersey Rugby Shirt
Beyond the standard collegiate uniform, Saltburn offers plenty of black-tie inspiration – prime for any formal festive events that you might have in your upcoming calendar. Canale had custom Burberry suits made for Felix, while Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) wore suits from Berwick Street tailor Chris Kerr. But Oliver’s suit – which Farleigh ruthlessly points out as being a rental in the film – comes from a hire house, purposefully picked for being “a bit older and not as sharp”. Canale notes, “I wanted to have that element of it being lived in.”
There is, surprisingly, a wearability to these clothes. While the film instils nostalgia for a pre-TikTok, tabloid-frenzy age, the fashion hardly speaks to the low-rise, crop-top trends that we’ve seen populate the catwalks. In fact, the clothes were more covetable than they were cringey. The embroidered, white jacket Oliver wears to a fancy dress party in the latter part of the film, despite being a costume, is something you’d expect to see on the Bode website, while Felix’s wardrobe throughout – though a special shout-out should go to his canary linen shirt – made what the uniform of rugby boys residing in Clapham back in the day look surprisingly good. I’d even go as far to say that this is a very stylish film, one that has the influence of its aforementioned distant cousin, The Talented Mr Ripley.
While Canale makes it very clear that the dress code hasn’t infiltrated her own wardrobe, special occasions have called for that mid-2000s influence. “It will always have a place in my heart, even more so because Saltburn does,” she explains. “For Emerald’s [Fennell] birthday we all dressed in pink, and I was in a Juicy Couture tracksuit and a pair of Uggs. But that's the only time you'll catch me dressed like that.”
Saltburn is out in cinemas from November 17th.
