Costume Design Academy Award Nominee Paco Delgado Visits FIDM Museum & Galleries (Interview)
FIDM was honored this morning with a visit from Academy Award Nominee Paco Delgado, Costume Designer for The Danish Girl. He stopped by the FIDM Museum & Galleries for interviews from publications gearing up for the 88th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, February 28. We sat down with him to find out more about his life and career, and to ask for advice he might have for aspiring costume designers.
FIDM: Our audience has aspiring costume designers trying to figure out how to break into the industry. How did you get your start?
Paco: The thing is I studied something completely different at university. I did physics.
FIDM: I heard you did set design, but physics?
Paco: Yes, that’s the second part of the story. I was always very, very interested in theatre, and especially in the visual aspects of theatre. Then I decided to get more into the design aspects of theatre. Then I started being a set designer. And I didn’t have any interest in costumes at all. Well, I had interest in costumes but it wasn’t my main aim. And what happened is I was working in very small productions and they never had any money to hire two people. Basically they didn’t even have money to hire one person. I started doing sets. They asked me sometimes to do the costumes as well. The thing is I always thought of the costumes sort of as a side dish somehow to the set. But I am ashamed for that now. But that was how I thought. I started doing costumes a little by little. People started to say my costumes looked very interesting. And then more people started calling me for costumes. And basically I started doing costumes and no sets. My sets were not as good as my costumes. The thing is when I was starting I was very unaware of how difficult they were. And I think through years and years working in them, I started finding them more fascinating and more interesting, and now I’m completely hooked in them. I really love costumes.
FIDM: What would people be surprised to know about costume design?
Paco: I think it’s a very artistic process. Believe it or not, you would be surprised how many people think that the costumes just appear on set by miracle, or the actors bring them from home. It’s a real lack of knowledge. One of the things we try is to make it so natural. A lot of people think they just happen to be there. I think the first sort of shock for a lot of people is to discover that it is a designer behind it—and a team making those costumes. I think the next sort of level of interest, I think unfortunately now-a-days is just us, that we work for shows and haute couture—we are the only people I think probably in the world that we still do costumes in a crafty way. Doing embroidery, doing cutting, assembling, dyeing fabrics—that is sort of like a world that has died in the main culture. It’s just like haute couture in Paris or whatever it happens, and us—in movies all over the world that we are still doing these things. And I think that’s what a lot of people find fascinating.
FIDM: What is it about The Danish Girl that sparked your interest in getting involved in this film?
Paco: Basically, the script. I just thought that the whole story was very interesting, very relevant now-a-days. For me, it was a great opportunity to work on something I believe is, it was a great project, even just to make visible the life of this amazing woman that she was fighting against society, and she was a pioneer in transgender. In that way, it was a really great privilege. And that was what really moved me to do this movie, apart from the fact that the director, Tom Hooper—I have worked with him in the past. And the actor was Eddie Redmayne, and I have worked with him in the past as well. I always enjoyed working with him.
FIDM: Did Eddie and the director both have input into the decisions you’re making?
Paco: Well, yes, because the thing our job is a job that at least a lot about compromising and having conversations. And I always think that when you design costumes for an actor, you have to be, in a way, quite humble. It might be that people have other better ideas than you. Sometimes the actors come with ideas that are better than anything you have thought before. And I really love to have an intellectual going backward and forward about what the costumes should look like, and the fabrics and movement. I always think that the actors have to have a big input. Because for me, it would be really horrible if I impose something that an actor doesn’t want to wear. It doesn’t go in my advantage. It goes in the opposite. It’s a collaboration.
FIDM: What can a high school student do now, if they want to get into costume design, to gain experience?
Paco: They should get into an interesting school that opens their minds to understand who they are. When you are in the process of getting into a profession, you need to open up inside yourself to see who you are and what are your potentials. I think that’s the most important thing. And the other thing I would say is, chill. Follow the flow. And you might end up doing something you never expected. That’s what happened to me. And it’s an amazing way to sort of navigate in life.
FIDM: I read that you had Coco Chanel, Lanvin, and Paul Poiret as some of your inspiration for the costumes for The Danish Girl. What did you do to research their designs and their work?
Paco: Well, basically you do everything you can. You go to see collections to see the real garments, the fabrics. I, myself, am a collector. I have a really interesting collection of especially ‘20s. You revisit all the Vogues of the period and catalogs of exhibitions.
FIDM: You’re a collector yourself. Where do you find the pieces? Where do you shop?
Paco: The internet, auctions, and word of mouth. People say, ‘oh my mother had this, my grandmother had of this Chanel. Maybe you’re interested to look at them.’
FIDM: So you can say that the arts and culture and visiting these collections really inspire you?
Paco: I think definitely it’s very important, I think, as a designer, as a student, is to revisit what people have done in the past. I think this is the key. It’s just amazing to see a garment. And if you have the opportunity to see a garment in life. And not just exterior, sometimes to see how it’s made inside. That’s where the knowledge is—in the seams, in the construction, and that’s how it reflects the outside.
FIDM: What’s one key piece of advice for aspiring costume designers?
Paco: Be yourself and chill. Don’t get very anxious about your life. I know students get very anxious normally—what am I going to be, what is going to be of myself. Keep it cool.
See costumes from The Danish Girl and other 2015 notable films in the 24th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition at FIDM Museum & Galleries on the Los Angeles campus from now until April 30, 2016.
Categories: Film & TV Costume Design
