In light of the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter films, 'Tatler' speaks to the costume designer about Cho Chang’s cheongsam, why Hermione Granger’s dress was pink and the overall magic of costume
How do you begin designing a costume?
Jany Temime: I start by reading the script and talking to the director. I try to find out what they want, because we are telling a story with the costumes. Every story and director’s point of view is different.
I also like to know the cast—every actor has a different look and way of being. When I have a discussion with production design to understand the style, colour, mood, location, then I have a better concept and can start designing.
When you were designing dress robes for the Yule Ball scenes, did you have a vision in mind?
JT: Although people associate these scenes from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Christmas, it wasn’t the core idea. The production designer chose this palace in Brighton, the Royal Pavilion, which was very glittery inside. It was a sort of ice palace—very cold, crystalline, and a lot of white and silver.
The idea was to design an incredible fantasy, to make it like a fairy tale. We’re in a magical world, and the Yule Ball is the culmination of the Triwizard tournament and those magical games. With the fantasy element in mind, I had a clear idea of what the costumes were going to look like.
This is also the moment our heroes are coming of age. The girls are looking more like women, and the boys are at an age where they’re looking at the girls. It was the first time in series where the boys and girls had the chance to start flirting with each other, which was an extremely important aspect of the story and the character development.
What is the most important thing you want to achieve with these costumes?
JT: Harry Potter is a film about teenagers, and it’s so important that they look and behave like teenagers. I wanted to keep the personality of each character, and the most difficult was Hermione, because it had to be a big contrast between the old her and the new her. The reaction to her changed appearance had to be “wow”.
I know that in the book it’s supposed to be blue, but I thought that the dress should be pink. Blue is so cold, and Hermione should be warm. The dress had to move and be revealing without being too much. I also wanted to have a magical sort of fabric that went from light to dark.
I added the frills on the shoulder because it would move when she was dancing. It softened the edges of the dress, and she looked like a blooming flower. Or, you go completely the other way and do a childish dress, like Ginny Weasley’s cutesy green tulle with pink pom poms.
Fleur Delacour, played by Clémence Poésy, and the Beauxbaton Academy girls were all in blue (so Hermione couldn’t have worn blue anyway), and during the introductory assembly, everyone is in black and brown and the Beauxbatons girls come in like a wind from Paris. Fleur’s Yule Ball gown is grey, and I wanted her to look couture and classy and elegant. That worked for her. We had 30 metres of chiffon for that dress, it was incredibly difficult but a beautiful result.
For the boys, we needed to a make a black-tie version of their magical gowns. I took the shape of the Hogwarts uniform, and it was beautiful. The first boy I fitted was Daniel Radcliffe, and we did it at his house.
I remember his mum was saying that he had to sleep at 9:30pm because he had to go to school the next day. When he tried on the robes, it was funny because his mum kept saying, “Oh my boy looks so handsome!” and he just replied, “Okay mum”, and went off to bed.
