Jacqueline Durran Wiki: Everything To Know About The 'Pride & Prejudice' Costume Designer

Most of adults over 20 years age grew up reading fairy tale stories at bedtime. Children today, however, watch fairy tales on their iPads. Luckily, last year there were several fairy tale movies for children to watch, the best of them being 'Beauty and the Beast.' The movie was very successful due to the collective dedication of director Bill Condon’s team, one of them being the costume designer, Jacqueline Durran. Durran has been one of the best costume designers coming up with creative designs based on the setting of the films. But who is she? Durran is, as mentioned above, is a costume designer who hails from Britain. Jacqueline Durran has won a BAFTA for the movie, 'Vera Drake,' though tt’s not the only award she has received. Durran also won an Oscar Nomination for Best Costume Design for the movie, 'Pride & Prejudice,' a film that won her much more attention that she ever expected. She won a Satellite award for the same film. Durran also won an Oscar for her role of the costume designer for the film, 'Anna Karenina.' Other films that Durran had worked on include: 'Darkest Hour,' 'Macbeth,' and 'Atonement.' Durran has been nominated for Oscar 2018 for two films, 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Darkest Hour' making herself a stable net worth.

The Disney movies 'Beauty and the Beast,' and 'Coco' each got two nods from Oscar, himself. 'Beauty and the Beast' grossed over $1 billion dollars at the box office worldwide. One of the categories the film is nominated for is Best Costume Design and we'll let you know that Durran is competing against the costume designers of Phantom Thread,' 'Victoria & Abdul,' 'The Shape of Water' and against herself in 'Darkest Hour.' In every movie, the costume is a vital part of the production. As a character’s story is told, the character’s clothes evolve. This year Oscar 2018 has decided to recognize the best costume designers from last year as well There were hundreds of costume designers last year alone, but Oscar chose to recognize five films, and among them, two were the ones Jacqueline Durran did, meaning she is the best out there.

Durran considered a lot of things when choosing the costumes and she decided that all the outfits worn in the castle had to look like they were made in the castle. So, Durran made a ragged fabric patchwork and threaded it with the formal look of the Beast. Durran also made sure that Belle wore her pockets on the outside like a modern tool belt so that she could access whatever she needed during the day with less hassle. Belle also loved to wear boots and she avoided suffocating corset. On creating the costumes, Durran was tasked with taking one of the most iconic projects in Disney’s history. However, Durran had to do her homework well and refer to the original animation to understand how the costume was supposed to be like, keeping in mind how the 18th Century France looked like. She managed to pull them all together perfectly.

Durran revealed that it was a completely new experience for her to work on the Disney film because the film was a precious commodity. She had never done such a valuable piece of work before, and she had to be conscious throughout while referring to the original animation. Durran stated that if she had made the costume as she saw in the animation, the movie would not have been as good because the costume is simply drawn. Durran had to visit France in order to see the historical elements and then made a combination which would satisfy those who loved the animation and wanted to see the movie set in the 18th century.

When Durran asked how many costumes were required, the director told him that there would be around 500 characters in the film. So, she had to make almost the same number of costumes, including several for every main character. Durran went ahead to reveal that the studded coat that the prince was wearing was tough to make. Another huge labor was Belle’s dress. However, some outfits were not hard for Durran to make as they didn’t need much detail.

Durran had a lot of false starts and ideas when redesigning and making the yellow dress in different fabrics. What disturbed Durran’s mind was the fact that the fabrics were not bringing out the exact color on the animation. It didn’t feel like Belle’s dress, and when she changed the fabrics, they lighted before the camera in different ways. So, Durran had to test many fabrics that would light differently until they found a yellow that looked better close to the animated feature because Durran had to find exactly what Emma Watson had to wear.

Durran has a bet worth of $3 million, according to Net Worth Post. She has made her net worth for creating costumes for the actors in movies such as 'Pride & Prejudice,' 'Darkest Hour,' 'Atonement,' 'Anna Karenina,' 'Macbeth,' and 'Beauty and the Beast.'

Been double nominated for the Oscar 2018 made her chance of winning the award higher. Hopefully, Durran will take the award home come April.