Anya Taylor-Joy is a costume designer’s dream as she connects to the clothes on her body, says The Queen’s Gambit’s Gabriele Binder.
The Netflix miniseries has had everyone talking in recent months, and tells the story of Anya’s Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy who masters the board game in ‘60s America.
It’s based on a novel by Walter Tevis, and costume designer Gabriele explained to Vogue Australia what a thrill it was to work on.
“My role is always to connect back to the story through the clothes and the initial brief is, of course, the script. I immediately fell in love with it as it was so full of inspiration,” she said.
“She (Anya) is magical. If she really likes (a piece) and thinks it is the right thing for the right moment, she makes the smallest thing big. She immediately connects to the clothes on her body.”
Among the best fashion moments were an all-white outfit Beth wears towards the end of the series, a vintage coat by André Courrèges, and a parade of laidback T-shirts.
Another stand out style is the checked pieces Beth frequently wears.
“I always try to mirror what is happening inside a character with what they are wearing on the outside and the checks are something that I thought would be immediately interesting to Anya’s character, as she would intuitively choose to wear pieces that are connected to chess,” Gabriele mused. “The contrast of the check print also mirrors the nuances of the game itself — it’s decisive, it’s win or lose — which you would not have with, say, a floral print.”