Inside House of Gucci wardrobe: Costume designer reveals fashionable secrets

We go behind the scenes of the film’s iconic fashion (Picture: MGM)

There is no doubt that House of Gucci is already up there with some of the most fashionable films in cinema history.

Lady Gaga leads the A-list cast in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece on the bitter history of the brand, starring alongside Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and Salma Hayek.

As expected, the wardrobe choices are truly iconic and that is all thanks to costume designer Janty Yates and her incredibly talented team.

Lifting the lid on dressing the legendary Gucci family on the big screen in a chat with Metro.co.uk, she revealed the rare pieces that she was allowed to use in a bid to make the film as authentic as possible.

‘I got access to the Gucci archives which was fabulous. I got archive costumes from Tirelli in Rome, which were endless. Wonderful Yves Saint Laurent, wonderful Dior, you name it, they had it…,’ Janty tells us.

‘It was so fun, it really was extraordinary, I felt so privileged.

‘There’s a Gucci Museum in Florence, I was a regular visitor there, but they basically transformed the room and there were about 15 or 20 archived pieces, so I asked them to send [those] to LA, we tried them on Lady Gaga and they fit like a glove.

‘She wore them beautifully. We wore two of them in the actual film, and she used all their handbags.

Lady Gaga played Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci (Picture: MGM)

Adam Driver starred as her husband, Maurizio Gucci (Picture: MGM)

‘We had probably 30 dresses, 20 suits, 10 coats probably, I don’t know how many blouses and skirts and trousers we did, but it was fantastic. [Dominic Young, cutter] did such a wonderful job. So with that and the archives, we had a lot of choice for LG. She had 54 different changes, and she didn’t repeat the same thing, ever.

‘She wouldn’t replicate jewellery. Shoes occasionally, she’d have the same black slingbacks, but outfits and jewellery never, and handbags.’

Speaking of those accessories, some of the vintage options, including the classic bamboo handle handbags, were among the most expensive pieces used – and they were actually kept in a strong room to make sure that nothing happened to them while filming.

There was also expensive jewellery supplied by Boucheron and Bulgari that came with security guards to make sure that nothing went missing.

‘They [bamboo Gucci handbags] were courtesy of the Gucci archive,’ Janty recalled. ‘We kept them in our strong room because they were so valuable. They had to be locked up, crazy but true.

The Gucci bag, as worn by Princess Diana, was so valuable it was under lock and key (Picture: Brendan Beirne/REX/Shutterstock)

‘I never got the values of anything but I would imagine being Gucci archive, they are all quite valuable. We had 18 handbags and 20 outfits, all of which came from their archives. The cost was beyond belief, I’m sure.

‘They were in a strong room, they were under lock and key in the hotel that we were in, We made sure they were safe.’

Anyone else wish they had a spare key to that room?

Many of Janty’s initial fittings took place over Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic, which she found ‘strange’ at first but she shared her pride that it all seemed to work seamlessly in the end.

Of the countless outfits that were worn by the cast, she admitted that her favourite has to be Patrizia’s wedding dress.

Janty couldn’t get enough of the wedding dress (Picture: MGM)

‘It was all done by hand and all the appliqué layers were sewn on by hand,’ she continued. ‘We’d made two different dresses, we made one as per photographic evidence, which actually was a Gucci. And then we also made a confection one, I call it. 

‘We didn’t make our minds up until the morning [of the shoot] and LG put them both on. The result was overwhelming, she looked so pretty in the confection [dress] that we just went with it.’

Janty was also proud of the looks that were mocked up for Adam, teasing Maurizio Gucci’s subtle arc through his clothing that many may have missed.

‘They all stood the test of time, they were all fabulous,’ she said of the outfits. ‘I had 40 different suits made for Adam, he’s very much Savile Row. 

‘He had a small arc, he started off in jumpers and blazers and ended up in velvet suits. I loved my tailor, Leonard Logsdail, he’s New York but English in Savile Row, so I knew I was in safe hands.’

There were many more iconic outfits that we didn’t get to see (Picture: MGM)

Despite the incredible outfits that made their way onto the screen, there were some that sadly didn’t make the final cut, with the designer spilling the beans on stunning moments we may have missed out on.

‘Dominic Young made so many costumes, so many coats that didn’t get in, so many skirts and shirts, so many dresses,’ she explained. ‘There was so many I would have loved to have got in. The sad thing was that LG wore a wonderful halter-neck turquoise sequin dress [for] Studio 54, and when I saw the film, I didn’t notice Studio 54 happening at all. 

‘It’s in the trailers, she’s dancing with Aldo [Al Pacino], it was a wonderful day, she looked spectacular in this – and because [Patrizia] is six months pregnant – we accommodated a baby bump. But I don’t think it’s in the film, sadly.

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‘Also she takes Pina [Salma Hayek] shopping and Pina, who dresses so down, wears this spectacular, big shoulder number and steals some earrings, and that wasn’t in either. But I would imagine the film is quite long anyway, Ridley had to choose to cut things out.’

‘I’m very proud of this film, I really am,’ Janty added. ‘I’m proud of Dominic Young, my cutter, without him I couldn’t have done it. I’m proud of Stefano De Nardis, my associate designer. He did all the fashion shows from scratch. He did every single look for Versace 1984, for the Tom Ford 1995, and then he created his own designs for Paolo’s invented fashion show. 

‘Actually, Paolo is supposed to be the tasteless one, I thought he made them very tasteful. They were pastels and brown, but they were very tasteful. Very lovely.’

House of Gucci is in cinemas now.

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