STYLE

Michelle Williams and co-star Luke Kirby in Sarah Polley’s film Take This Waltz The CANADIAN FIREBRAND Lea Carlson on CREATIVITY, collaboration and the psychology of clothes.

s a child, Lea Carlson crafted meticulous “rooms” in cigar boxes. “I was always making little worlds,” recalls the aToronto native, who today costumes stars like Michelle Williams (Take This Waltz), Malin Akerman (Cottage Country) and Daniel Radcliffe (in the upcoming The F-Word). Still, however diverse her costuming gigs, Carlson says her “threefold purpose” remains the same. “You have to tell the story, make the actor look good and make [the look] work with the composition—the way that it’s shot and designed.” Carlson usually begins a couple of months be- fore shooting starts, collecting images and paying Select Sketches of attention to what resonates. “Sometimes it’s a filmography Carlson’s work for colour, a texture or just a quality of light—some- Ginger Snaps (2000) “I based the Canadian series thing that speaks to me about the story or the costumes of one of the girls on Slings & Arrows (top and below); mood,” she says. Her first actor fittings can last antique dolls and the scale of an- she also dressed for hours. “You go ‘That’s pretty good, that’s tique-doll clothing,” says Carlson. Ellen Page for The pretty good’ and then you find something and This Movie Is Broken (2010) Tracey Fragments you go ‘This is it!’ Then you proceed from there Take This Waltz (2011) until,” she says, lowering her voice to a whisper, Cottage Country (2012) “you go ‘Okay, this is really it.’” For a pivotal scene in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, Carlson outfitted Williams’ character, Margot, in a gingham ) dress—a look that would connote innocence if she wasn’t wearing it while chasing after a man who wasn’t her husband. “That dress was a fragments debate for me,” explains Carlson. “I was afraid it was too sweet. She’s

not sweet; her character is more complicated than that. In the end, it was tracey the

perfect for that scene, but it wouldn’t have been for others.” Psychological ( truth is an important part of Carlson’s craft. “Everybody thinks care- fully about what they wear at certain times, even if it’s not conscious,” she says. “You dress a certain way when you’re feeling good, and you o’sullivan matt dress a certain way when you’re feeling bad.” ); Carlson’s latest Polley collab, the doc Stories We Tell, premiered at waltz the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and the designer re- this cently received a grant to work on her own film project. Ultimately, it’s take the buzz of creating a fully realized character that keeps her hooked. ( “Sometimes it’s about the details—a piece of jewellery that has meaning gibson for that character or the way that a certain shoe makes them walk—the

subtle things that aren’t even perceptible on camera.” Ava Baccari h michael

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