Solidago: Exploring Sustainable Costume Design

Solidago, directed by Jerusha West, tells the tale of Edith, a young, pregnant woman who was sent to the all-female rural community of the same name to secretly give birth to her premarital child in late 1960s Britain. The short drama symbolically dissects the Baby Scoop Era, which lasted from the end of WWII until the early 1970s.

Young, unmarried mothers were taken away from their communities in traumatic ways, and their newborns were put up for adoption due to the social norms of the time. Jerusha’s mother was such a Baby Scoop Era baby. Adopted in 1969, her biological mother, who was aged 16, was sent away to a community like Solidago. The film is an attempt to begin a dialogue about and come to terms with such intergenerational trauma. 

In the following conversation, we talk with the film’s costume designer, Sophie Daniel, about how she consciously created the film’s wardrobe in a sustainable way, the symbolic elements behind the designs, and how the future could be like for sustainably-minded costume productions.

Words by Sophia Schwan

Sophia: Could you guide us through the developmental process of the costumes? For example, how did the Baby Scoop Era affect your choice in the cuts and embroideries?

Sophie: From start to finish, the developmental process of the costumes was a really collaborative conversation between me, Director Jerusha West and co-creator Geoffrey Hazelton-Swales. Jerusha and Geoff had already collated a wealth of research over several years, built upon the initial starting point of archival family photos when I came on board and read through the script. Regarding the direction of the cuts, we explored the idea that these women were predominantly wearing practical, loose-fitting, not classically feminine attire. For the cuts and the patches and embroidery detailing, I actually drew quite a lot of inspiration from menswear – precisely 1930s and 1940s French workwear really captured the spirit of the costumes I saw the women wearing. Much of the fabric is delicately faded and patched up over time, mended with delicate stitching. It was also important that the costumes were functional for the women’s labouring tasks such as gardening and farming. I thought a lot about different pocket details in over-shirts and aprons. 

Sophia: The women in Solidago seem to be wearing white and cream uniforms. There are barely any other colours present except in the embroidery details, and it appears that they are clad in purity. Yet, they are part of the commune because of premarital pregnancies or not having adopted society’s norms. Was this an intentional choice?

Sophie: The film’s colour palette reflected tones in Jerusha’s previous works from her painting background. It translated aesthetically into the direction Jerusha wanted the production design and costumes to take. Specifically, the predominantly white and cream palette of the costumes throughout the film played a crucial role in setting the tone of this group of women that possessed an “otherworldly mysticism”. It was also used as a way clearly to differentiate the commune from other characters in the film wearing conventional attire with a variety of palettes and prints. The unified colour palette was also intended to convey an idea of solidarity between the women living outside of society, having all been “tarnished” in some way. Perhaps they were wrestling with feelings of shame and impurity, but they were accepted and equal within the commune. I also took inspiration from the unified colour palette of communes historically, such as the members of the Rajneeshees movement in 1970-1985 wearing red, maroon and pink, as well as images of women in the Monte Verità commune in early 20th century Switzerland wearing all white. The Kibbo Kift movement founded in 1920s England also provided a wealth of references.

Sophia: What plants did you choose to work with during your dye process and why? What prompted you to include boro stitching in your designs? Are there other symbolic design aspects you included?

Sophie: During the first lockdown, I created the costumes and experimented with the dyeing process, and I was away from my flat in London, staying in the countryside in South West England. I lived right next to a forest, which allowed me to forage various materials for natural dyeing. I collected barks, flowers and twigs as well as cones from multiple plants and trees; notably, I experimented with Hawthorn, Alder, Ash and Ivy. In the end, it was Alder tree bark that I predominantly used for the costumes, as it created varying natural shades of beige and brown that I wanted to achieve. I dyed costumes in varying amounts resulting in a mix of shades, reflecting how long the women had been in the commune. Perhaps some were sun-bleached or more dirtied from their varying labouring duties. I also wanted some of the costumes to look stained or marked intentionally. An essential reference for the “dirtied” look of the dyeing and the boro stitching was the film Himiko by Masahiro Shinoda. There is beautiful contrast boro stitching on some of the costumes in this film that I felt really inspired by. From the beginning, Jerusha and I agreed that we wanted the commune clothing to have a homemade, patched-together, mended feel. Jodie Ruffle is an experienced embroidery and embellishment designer who did some of the more intricate “folkloric” embroideries for the costumes, such as the symbolic flowers, and helped with the design of the loose boro stitching. We both love the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic of transience and imperfection, so it was a really harmonious collaboration. 

Sophia: Could you tell us more about the fabrics you chose? For example, where did you source these, and what role do the patches and layering details have?

Sophie: I predominantly used differing weights of natural cotton calico sourced from a small UK supplier. To get the lightest white and cream shades, I either oxygen-bleached the calico (a safe and non-toxic, biodegradable alternative to harsh chlorine bleach) or darkened the calico by naturally dyeing the fabric with the Alder tree bark. In one scene the women in the commune are all wearing mint green, sitting around a table, and those costumes were made out of some vintage green silk fabric that Jerusha already owned. The patches represented the ethos of these women as menders, caring for the environment – fixing and repairing clothing rather than buying new clothing. 

Sophia: An article from May 2021 on Refinery29 states that “if Hollywood produces over 700 films every year, and the average person will own more than 3600 clothing items in their lifetime, then the movie industry will send over 2.5 million garments into fashion limbo after production is wrapped.” Unfortunately, sustainability practices have not yet been integrated into the filming infrastructure, not to mention the dry cleaning, sourcing and shipping of these clothes. Do you think your DIY approach in a small-scale production could be scaled and applied accordingly? How did the aspect of sustainability steer your choices in your costume design?

Sophie: You raise a great question regarding sustainability practices within film infrastructure. It’s not talked about enough, and considering the scale of waste each year, it is really shocking. I think there’s a long way to go before we see significant shifts, but it’s something that absolutely needs to change. Unfortunately, changeability, lack of funding and the industry’s fast pace present the biggest challenges to the costume department. As the Refinery29 article mentions – often costume departments end up reliant on buying from the high street in an attempt to keep expenditures low and buying multiple sizes (some of which will be returned) as the cast can be finalised just a day before filming starts. However, much more of a conversation is happening now around this issue, and positive practices are evolving – ranging from sourcing pieces second-hand rather than buying and returning fast fashion, hiring from rental services or archives, or loaning from sustainable, ethical businesses. Jerusha and I found it essential in general but also intrinsic to the nature of the film that the costumes were created and sourced in a sustainable, non-wasteful way. It was also important to us that the costumes worn by the commune members reflected the natural resources that the women would have had access to and had a handmade, patched-together feel, reflective of their circumstances and lack of access to machinery living outside of society. I have seen examples of this DIY approach in larger-scale productions, and I think it’s not without its difficulties. It is undeniably more labour intensive, but I believe it’s definitely possible! 

Credits:
Director and Writer of Solidago film: Jerusha West
Photography: Laura Aguilera
Costume Designer and Stylist: Sophie Daniel 
Jewellery Designer: Justine Garner
Hair & Makeup: Jessi Chan
Models: Alexandra Glemstedt, Alice Macrae, Rose Keegan

You can watch Solidago in full on Girls In Film, where it was released last year. It is shortly entering the festival circuit.