The three dresses are the essence of the whole film, and they are also the embodiment of Jenny's charm as a veteran costume designer.

In addition, during the costume design process of the film, Jenny referred to many contemporary costume historical materials and tried her best to make beautiful colors for the film.

Most of the clothes in Dior's collection at that time were black and white tones, such as white organza with black velvet, and the famous New Look was also black and white.

In order to show the effect of the film, Jenny and her design team strengthened the dyeing of the fabric, so that the clothing can maintain enough color intensity on the big screen and have more vivid colors. This is a design innovation under the premise of respecting the history.

We can't help but wonder, what magic does Jenny Beavan possess that has earned her 12 Oscar nominations?

What difficulties did she experience during the design process?

As such a successful costume designer, what are her design principles?

With these questions in mind, we started a conversation with her.

Anthony Fabien approached me through the agency, and I almost turned it down at first.

But then, first of all, I was struck by the warm and touching story, then I saw my makeup artist friend in the production team, and most importantly, the main character, Mrs Harris, is played by Lesley Manville, one of the greatest British actors today, and I have already worked with Lesley. It was a great honor to work with Lesley again, and I said yes.

At the time of the invitation, none of us could have predicted the new coronavirus. I had been preparing for the film for a month before the outbreak, and then various European countries went into lockdown.

This made it difficult to source fabrics, find the right historical costumes, and fit the actors.

Because of the lockdown, neither I nor the actors could move, so we had to find other ways, like using remote control and zoom for fitting.

This is not ideal, and the staff often do not know how to use the lens and light, so I can not see the original costume from zoom, but in the emergency period of COVID-19, I and the actors are in different cities, this method is very effective.

The director set up color and mood boards for London and Paris, with London taking on a drab post-war hue of beige, grey and brown. In historical photographs, the streets of London are full of rough gurneys and images that are as firm as coarse grains of sand.

However, Paris, which had also been occupied in World War II, was chic and trendy, and everyone seemed a little more savvy.

So, I put more cream, black and navy in the film scenes in Paris.

What is impressive is the dress that Mrs. Harris wore when she visited the cutting room of the Dior fashion house. It is very typical of French elements, navy collar, navy blue, beret, but I did not put too many French elements, otherwise it would be unreal.

I love real characters, and Mrs. Harris should dress like herself, which is what she wore in London.

As you can see from the historical photos, floral aprons and headscarves were perfectly normal and sensible for working women in the 1950s.

These two pieces keep your hair and clothes clean in your modest daily life. I grew up in London, and in my childhood memories there were many Caribbean women who came to London in the 1950s to help us in our lives.