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Having collaborated with Aronofsky before on THE WRESTLER, Westcott knew what to expect.
“Darren likes to dive into a world and get it right, and it’s our job to dive in right after him,” she says.
Key to getting BLACK SWAN right was finding a look for Natalie Portman as Nina, one that shifts as
her reality lurches. “I wanted to get across that, at first, Nina’s mother has a big influence on how she dresses,”
says Westcott. “Her mother wants to keep her in a childlike state, so Nina wears mostly three girlish colors:
white, grey and pink. We start out heavy on the pink. But, by the end, she wears mostly black. Once you start
to see her in black tights instead of pink, you know something’s snapped and she’s on the other side of the
fence.”
Westcott used each of the character’s core personalities to influence their look. “Lily is about sexy
confidence so she wears a lot of black with flashes of silver. There’s also a dream-like quality to her that we
tried to convey. Thomas Leroy is very strong and so Vincent wears black, grey and white.”
Then there was the extraordinary task of coming up with costumes for a New York ballet
company's new spin on the classic “Swan Lake.” To do this, Aronofsky spoke to two exciting fashion
stars, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, sisters known collectively to the fashion world as Rodarte. Aronofsky
felt that Rodarte's gothic, romantic, yet rough-edged designs could update the ballet's traditional look in
unpredictable ways. "Visually it's a very different take on ‘Swan Lake,’” he says. “Rodarte's ballet
costumes take it to another plane, they're both classic and cutting-edge at the same time.”
The Mulleavy sisters were intrigued and excited by the concept of a new take on “Swan Lake.”
“The aesthetics of ballet are compelling to us as designers and we have always loved Tchaikovsky's
‘Swan Lake.’ Reading the script, we were immediately drawn in to the story and began to envision
Natalie as a ballerina and the world that Darren would create with her character. Darren is a true auteur
and we were excited by the concept of bringing our visions together. We met with Darren in New York
and Natalie in Los Angeles and instantly knew the vision for the movie was an aesthetic we wanted to
help bring to life.”
They continue, “BLACK SWAN is a story of beauty contrasted with a dark transfiguration. We
developed the costumes with the characters' dual identities in mind, always trying to find the balance
between their delicate and brutal natures and actions. We used colors (cool grey, pale pink, white,
black, and dark green) and textures (wool and angora, feather, tulle, metal, and embroideries) to
illustrate their on-stage and off-stage personas.”
Another key component in building the mood, suspense and emotions of BLACK SWAN is the
music composed by Darren Aronofsky’s long-time collaborator Clint Mansell. Mansell began by going
straight to the source of Nina’s obsession – “Swan Lake” – and wove strands of Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky’s iconic music for the classic ballet throughout the fabric of the film’s score.
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