Should We Worry Darling?

By: Micaela Magud

If you have any form of social media, then you’ve probably heard of Don’t Worry Darling, the newest movie directed by Olivia Wilde, starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. The psychological thriller has warranted many reviews— whether or not the movie was good or bad, and mainly how Harry Styles’s performance was. Deciding to take a different perspective on the film, I decided to focus on Pugh’s costumes. Arianne Phillips, the costume designer, has designed costumes for many Oscar nominated films, and did a fantastic job styling this movie, particularly Pugh’s character.

The film follows Pugh’s character Alice, and her husband Jack (played by Styles), as they live in a seemingly utopian world called the Victory Project. The more time that Pugh spends in the town, the more eclectic memories begin to surface, and she begins to think that she is going crazy. No spoilers, but the majority of the film is watching to see whether or not Alice is going crazy or if the Victory Project is not quite what it seems.

Phillips’ design for the costumes in this film are magnificent. She manages to give the audience a sense of Pugh’s emotions in each scene while also showing her eventual descent into madness. When the film begins, Alice is wearing a lovely red dress with a classic 50’s coiffure and a headband. While the costumes in this film are not completely accurate to the fifties, this is intentional. The Victory Project is a world created by men, so of course small details like hairstyles were not considered when designing. The typical hoop skirt is present throughout the entire movie, which gives the film the exact vibe of 1950s America that it is going for. A small detail that I appreciated when looking at the costumes in the film is the inclusion of the bullet bra, which was incredibly popular and widely used at the time.

Alice begins the movie incredibly put together every time, but as we watch her become more and more unsure of her life, her outfits reflect this. Her hairstyles become less and less put together, her dresses get looser and less tight, and her attention to detail becomes less and less apparent. She ends the movie in a white dress stained largely in the middle with blood, her hair down and barefoot, to show how much she has changed since the beginning of the movie.

Overall, the costumes in the movie are well thought out. It is obvious to me that the designer did research on the era, but due to the nature of the film, took creative liberties that make Alice stand out as the main character. These choices also match the tone of the movie very well, which adds for an overall enjoyable viewing experience.