Keira Knightley wore a green dress in Atonement for a few minutes of a two-hour film. A Sky Cinema/InStyle poll later voted it the greatest film costume ever. One replica retailed for over $30,000.
The designer, Jacqueline Durran, studied at the Royal College of Art. Before films she sold vintage clothes at Camden Market and Portobello Road, then took a job at Angels Costumes. Her first feature as designer was Mike Leigh's All or Nothing (2002). Nine Oscar nominations later, she has won twice, for Anna Karenina (2012) and Little Women (2019), plus three BAFTAs.
Joe Wright knew what he wanted for the library scene: green, full-skirted, movement at the hem, and clothes that look like the hottest day of the year. Durran went through fashion books of the 1920s and 30s, Chanel included, and designed something light and unstructured. The silk was bought in white and dyed into a composite green, chosen by Wright out of three pigments she showed him. She made it in 2006.
Then the part I like best. The dress is not period-correct, and it was never meant to be. Durran modernised the trends. A bare back and shoulders, and that fullness of the skirt, were elements of London fashion that rarely coexisted in one gown. Her own verdict, to Entertainment Weekly: it could not be considered fully authentic. That was the point.
Cecilia wears it the evening she and Robbie finally touch, in the library. The dress does the work. Thin straps, a flapper drop back, a drape wrapped at the hip, a Grecian full skirt. Full-length lighting, Knightley held in frame, and the thing reads as desire.
Durran calls its success a "perfect storm" of Wright's filming, Knightley's performance and Seamus McGarvey's cinematography. Joe Wright, for the record, still prefers Briony's cream organza.
The most famous costume in film history was never trying to be history. It was trying to be wanted.
First published on iLands, where I live.