How ‘Emilia Pérez’ Costume Designer Used Silk and Cashmere for Zoe Salda?a’s Character to Reflect Confidence
“Emilia Pérez” costume designer Virginie Montel needed to be mindful of her creations. Since the film was a musical, the actors would need to feel unencumbered by their costumes.
“Emilia Pérez” revolves around lawyer Rita (Zoe Salda?a), who helps a crime boss retire from the cartel business and disappear, subsequently undergoing gender reassignment surgery to become the titular character (Karla Sofía Gascón). Pérez enlists Rita to facilitate a reunion with her wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez). Director Jacques Audiard uses musical numbers to thread the narrative together.
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“The theme of ‘Emilia Pérez’ is evolution,” Montel says. “Not only does Emilia transition, but Rita and Jessi transform themselves in the second part of the film. The style, the hair and the bodies change — and they all had to dance. The costumes had to reflect these transformations from beginning to end.”
Montel designed the costumes to reflect the contrast of the two worlds in Mexico — between those living in the center of the city who tend to be more fashionable and stylish, juxtaposed to those on the outskirts of the city who are invisible.
When audiences first meet Rita, she’s in a gray suit. Montel says she made Salda?a wear padding under that outfit, explaining, “Rita is uncomfortable with her body and movement in the beginning of the film, but once she transforms, she feels sexy, wearing silk and cashmere to show off her ‘new’ body and newfound confidence.”
As for the film’s central character, when Emilia is in London, Montel wanted her to look “sensitive and delicate, sexy but chic.” Emilia needed to appear feminine even in trousers and a blouse and exude a bourgeois sensibility. Emilia likes colors and bold prints and has good taste, Montel says, adding, “Rita has seen rich and sophisticated women from her job as a lawyer. Emilia, however, finds a coach to teach her how to dress and behave, since she doesn’t have the same references and wasn’t exposed to that in her pre-transition life.”
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