Kate Hudson in 'Almost Famous' saw millienial teens wish they'd been born thirty years too late. While Hudson's portrayal as Penny Lane - leader of the groupie pack 'Band Aids' - was a cutting depiction of music's glamor in the Seventies, it was the fashion onscreen that really set the mood.
The film's official costume designer Betsy Heimann spoke to Dazed & Confused this week, revealing just how much detail went into her movie garments.
According to Heimann - who went on to make the clothes for Everything was made for the film "except for the blue jeans," revealing she sifted through hundreds of thrift shops across America just to find an authentically retro pair.
It's been fifteen years since 'Almost Famous' rocked modern youth culture. With the help of Heimann - a trained seamstress - the film’s most iconic outfits are explained. Almost undone, even.
Jeff Bebe's Tee
"I made the Jeff Bebe t-shirt that was an exact copy of a t-shirt with Neil Young’s face on it that we got permission to use, but we put Jeff’s face on it. That cracked me up, I loved making that t-shirt! I am really serious about my graphic t-shirts. If you’re going to use them, they have to have value, they have to have meaning and they cannot be a distraction. They are a terrific way to say something within the context of the film and say something about the character.”
Penny Lane's Coat
“We knew that Penny Lane had a coat. There was no picture reference for that at all, I just felt like she was so vulnerable on the inside and so strong on the outside, that this coat was her armour. She could wrap herself up in it and no matter how low or insecure she was feeling, she put on that coat and she became Penny Lane. It was her protection. I immediately felt it had to have a little bit of fur. I actually made that coat out of a rug with the collar and some upholstery fabric that I found and it was inspired by a 1920s opera coat because they were longer in the back than they were at the front.”
PSA Airlines Outfit
“I made that. You wouldn’t have believed it. There was an airline during that time in California called PSA – Pacific Southwest Airlines – and they flew up and down from LA to San Francisco and that was the actual stewardess costume. And my assistant on the film tracked down one of the old PSA flight attendants who still had her stewardess outfit and we had it to look it at and made one for Zooey.”
The Band Aids
“In that time period, and I think Bianca Jagger kind of started it, it was the beginning of thrift shopping. So all of Anna Pacquin’s dresses were 30s-influenced, like she had got them at the vintage store, though we actually made all her dresses. For Fairuza Balk, I made the black lace ponchos and the really wide bell-bottoms and I cut up lengths of boa and stitched them down into the shape of a vest and she wore that. She was more flamboyant. Kate was the romantic, Anna was the shy kind of vintage put-together from the past and Fairuza was loud, the den mother. She was the most outrageous.”