Janty Yates

Janty Yates (born 1950) is a British costume designer for film and television. She is known for her work on Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and The Martian (2015).

Work with Lady Gaga[]

On September 22^nd, 2021, Janty Yates had a conversation with Elizabeth Paton, a reporter from The New York Times newspaper. Costume designer talked about the experience of working on House of Gucci film.

EZ: How long did it take to prepare and produce the costumes for this film?
JY: We started six weeks of research and development during lockdown and then production from September, ahead of six months spent in Rome shooting and making the film earlier this year. The movie spanned a 20-year period in which fashion changed dramatically — 1975 to 1995 — so there had to be real range in the costumes, plus everything had to be made for L.G. [Ms. Yates’s nickname for Lady Gaga], Adam Driver and other actors like Jared Leto. Naturally I concentrated on the stars, but there was a cast of about 80 in total, and I also rented all the costumes for all the crowd and extras. I am completely responsible for all of it. The buck stops with me.

EZ: Did you have access to the Gucci archives in Florence?
JY: Yes, last October [2020], which was wonderful. We took out many looks and then had them sent to Los Angeles so we could do Zoom fittings from Europe with L.G. Lots of the looks fit her like a glove. Two standouts were probably a terrific trouser suit covered in the Gucci logo, and then a Gucci logo blouse and brown leather skirt, which she wears in the film when her character, Patrizia Reggiani, is at her daughter’s sports day and is served with divorce papers.
But we sourced looks from anywhere and everywhere. We also used top vintage dealers and we found items and accessories on eBay and Etsy. We delved into L.G.’s own personal fashion archive, received loans from houses like Alaïa and Valentino and had a tailor with five seamstresses on call to make looks for L.G., too.

EZ: Tell us more about the style of the woman played by Gaga?
JY: We didn’t want her to be a Joan Collins from “Dynasty” type — what we were aiming for was more in the style of Gina Lollobrigida. Knowing L.G.’s penchant for extremes, I was initially a little nervous about that. But L.G. said she really wanted to dress like her Italian mother did at that time, so we took that as a jumping-off point. Jewelry was very important, for example; we layered up two necklaces here, four bracelets there, we used tons of accessories.
L.G. had 54 shooting days with 54 different looks. And we didn’t repeat a single item, not even an earring.

EZ: How involved was Lady Gaga in the creative process?
JY: Hugely involved, not least because she is a complete clotheshorse and looks marvelous in everything. She was hugely focused on how her character might appear at a particular moment, and had very strong views on aspects like hair and makeup. I would create initial selections, and then she would select from there.
And of course, the paparazzi were there every morning, hovering at every shoot. They knew what she would be wearing for a particular scene often before we’d even got the film in the can. But people are very excited about this, and in the end we decided it was no bad thing.

EZ: So how many costumes were produced in total?
JY: Well, we probably did about 75 to 100 for L.G. Then I had something like 50 suits, jackets and coats made. [...]

EZ: Did you have a favorite look?
JY:I think my favorite is the wedding dress because it was just such a labor of love. All that lace was appliquéd by hand by my cutter, Dominic Young. We actually had a bit of a fright because L.G. said, “Well, shouldn’t we have the original dress as an option as well?” So that was made. But we just looked at it on the day and it was not quite right. But really, I loved everything we made for this film. It was a joy to be part of.

On November 24^th, 2021, Harper's Bazaar published an interview with Janty Yates where a costume designer spoke about working with Lady Gaga and reimagining the style legacy of Patrizia Reggiani.

What was your research process like for this film?
I went to the Gucci Museum in Florence, and it was the best thing ever. They have costumes back to the '70s in there. They have pictures of men making shoes and bags in the '40s and '50s, all the portraits of the family, so I took four million photos and collated them into these enormous files. There were also characters in the script we needed to research specifically, like Marlon Brando. I compiled all of this research and sent it to Ridley—and it was the first time I ever got an email back from the president of MGM saying, "Well done."

What was the collaboration like with today’s actual “House of Gucci”?
They allowed us in the archive, and we pulled about 15 or 20 outfits. We used all their archive bags, sunglasses, and belts.

Did you end up using Gucci archive pieces in the film?
We hardly touched them. They were in a strong room at our hotel under lock and key and guard the whole time. We only ended up using two in the film—when we see Lady Gaga in a Double G tunic and trousers with leather trim on 42nd Street finding cheap fakes, and when she's in a Double G silk blouse and leather skirt when she receives her divorce papers.

For Patrizia’s costumes, did you try to create replicas of what we know she actually wore, or did you change the costumes to emphasize parts of the character?
It's a hodgepodge of things. I was able to raid several of the archives in Italy and build up a few rails of vintage YSL and Dior. Patrizia didn't dress in much Gucci at all. We took two or three looks from Patrizia's real archive. There's a pink evening dress we translated into red satin for the first meeting with Maurizio. We also changed her wedding dress. We had narrowed it down to two and decided which one she would wear on the day. We had the traditional wedding dress from the photos, but the one we selected was much cuter. The one we selected was glorious and showed her calves, and was covered in gorgeous lace all sewn by hand. The dress Patrizia actually wore was very simple, Gucci, but with a high neck and sleeves, and just wasn't very exciting. It was very "convent."

[...]
Lady Gaga was incredible in A Star Is Born, but this film feels like the role she was born to play, because in addition to her music, we really know and love Gaga for her fashion. How was working with her different from working with other actresses?
Normally, with actress you just make sure the thing fits and you do the jewelry on the day of. With LG, it was more time-consuming. It was great, don't get me wrong. She was completely in character every fitting, and every fitting would be three or four hours. We would only get three outfits sorted, but she would do it down to the earrings, bag, gloves, the hat, to the nth detail. We would act out the scenes in the fittings; I'd be Paola and she would be Patrizia, and between lines, she would say, "No, we need the shorter wig, the longer wig, heavier eyeliner," or whatever.

I imagine her background in showbiz also helped.
LG has an enormous body of work. She's used to a million snafus each night in Las Vegas or wherever, and she's used to making dresses in a day. She's wonderful like that.

Custom[]

Footwear[]

Tan leather V-strap pumps from Pompei. Designed by Janty Yates.

Accessories[]

Jewelry[]

Rings[]

White and gold pearl ring.
Two rings: silver ring with burgundy stone and silver ring with black stone.
Three rings: gold ring with burgundy and gold rock, gold 3 diamond ring, and thick gold knotted ring with little diamonds.
Gold and silver rhombus-shaped ring with small stones.
Silver diamond ring.
Two rings: yellow and brown leaf-shaped ring with drop-shaped rock; yellow and punch pink thumb ring with small rock line in between.

Earrings[]

White/cream round stud earrings with gold border.
Yellow and silver two colored rectangular shape earrings.
Little cream pearl earrings.
White flower diamond little earrings with pearl.
White flower diamond little earrings with pearl.

Bracelets[]

Gold and silver braid chain bracelet with buckle closure.
On the left hand: gold thin chain bracelet with black balls pending.
Black and gold two colored cuff bracelet.
Gold double row cream pearl bracelet.
Six bracelets: gold bracelet, gold and silver diamond bangle bracelet, silver and yellow bangle bracelet with diamonds, yellow rope-shaped bangle bracelet, two yellow bangle bracelets.
Two bracelets: gold and silver two colored bracelet and gold cuff bracelet with small leaves decor and small pearls.
Four bracelets: silver and gold diamond cuff bracelet, silver and gold square diamonds cuff bracelet, gold round shape cuff bracelet with elastics, and gold leaf-shaped bracelet with elastic.

Necklaces[]

Two necklaces: gold long chain necklace and gold long chain necklace with black pearls.
Cream pearl chocker necklace with eye drop pendant.
Cream pearl necklace.
Gold short thick necklace.
Gold double chain necklace.

Pins[]

Gold Paisley-shaped pin with diamond rocks and white round stone.

Links[]

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