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Clothing the conqueror
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Jenny Beavan, who designed costumes for `Alexander,' took her cues from history
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WHILE IT is easy to get dazzled by the craftily shot battle sequences in Oliver Stone's Alexander, the hard work put in by the behind the scenes crew cannot be ignored. Costumes, which were handled by Academy Award-winning designer Jenny Beavan, saw her create more than 20,000 historically accurate clothing.
In consultation with historian Robin Lane Fox and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Doctor of Ancient History at Exeter University, Bevan created the rich look for the film. "There are an enormous number of vase paintings left from Greek civilization," Beavan says. "And a certain amount of written material, so we knew how they wove their fabrics."
One of the challenges Beavan faced was creating the costumes for Alexander's marriage to Roxane (played by Rosario Dawson).
"In my research, I found that Afghan techniques haven't changed much in two thousand years," Beavan comments. "They sewed gold into clothes, which we did both for Roxane and Alexander's wedding costumes. I wanted Roxane to look sexy, and I often think that the less you see the more there is."
To outfitting the army Beavan "researched the different wardrobe categories of the Macedonian army, with excellent input from our military consultant, Captain Dale Dye. We constructed our initial armour in leather and brass, which were then replicated in lighter and more supple plastic."
The Battle of Gaugamela had the white cotton tunics and armour of the Macedonian and Greek soldiers offer a contrast to the vivid costumes of the Persians. "The Persians actually constructed clothing rather than just draping fabric like the Greeks. The Persians shaped cloth, made trousers, used belts and hooks and wore heavily decorated shoes. They gloried in their clothing, whereas the Greeks gloried in seeing the lines of their bodies."
For the final battle in India, Beavan created "costumes for the Indians from very bright coloured silks and straight pieces of fabrics tied like dhotis. They wore highly decorated scarves, a huge amount of jewellery, and sometimes turbans. There was almost always a topknot of long hair. We know less about them because most of the sculpture of ancient India was done in sandstone that has perished over the years, whereas the Greek vases have remained."
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