Warning: gentle spoilers for Babygirl beneath.
In Babygirl, an intense, fiery affair between high-powered CEO Romy (Nicole Kidman) and her enigmatic intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), is fueled by an ongoing, ambiguous recreation of energy performs. Within the manufacturing notes, director Halina Reijn — who additionally introduced us the quintessential Gen Z horror comedy Our bodies, Our bodies, Our bodies — defined, “That complete relationship between the 2 of them is simply going: Who’s the cat? Who’s the mouse? Who’s utilizing who?”
Throughout a short interplay within the glossy workplace pantry, an enthralled Romy instructions Samuel to make her a espresso. The subordinate, sensing her intrigue, cheekily counters by shaming her afternoon caffeine habits.
“What number of coffees do you drink a day?” he asks, with a glint in his eye. “None of your corporation,” retorts Romy, carrying a gentle pink shirt and skirt, wrapped in a dove grey Max Mara wool-cashmere coat. She then yields: “Seven.”
“We actually needed to point out the quantity of management she had in how she presents herself,” says costume designer Bart, one half of Kurt and Bart. “A part of that was [her color] palette. Though she’s this tremendous calculating and controlling government, she [has] this hyper-feminine, however actually impartial presentation. It’s tone-on-tone and really pale colours. There’s a stage of take away.”
Similar goes for the luxurious, tactile materials and textures — cashmere, silk, and sheer organza — in her luxurious wardrobe: “It feels very inviting and female. We needed to point out what occurs when she loses management and goes down the rabbit gap,” provides Bart.
That is additionally mirrored in her mannerisms, particularly how she handles her clothes. As an example, Romy pristinely ties the belts of her coats, additional exerting (or presenting the facade of) management. “She’s a bit of extra belted tightly, a bit of extra closed-off,” says Kurt.
On the firm vacation celebration, Romy paints a really perfect image of a lady who has all of it, carrying a blush Giorgio Armani bodycon gown with refined cut-outs, delicate pleating, and draping on the neckline. However, even surrounded by her good household — doting theater director husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), plus teen daughters Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughn Riley) — all clad in white, she’s distracted by Samuel.
Within the manufacturing notes, Kidman described Romy as “not able to being fully genuine together with her husband or herself as a result of she’s so frightened of unveiling her innermost ideas and needs and emotions and secrets and techniques, and what she considers shameful.” Via her exhilarating, typically stunning, and harmful tryst with Samuel, she’s capable of discover and specific her sexual want, often thought-about a societal taboo. Her wardrobe responds in type.
“Harris’ character, clearly, lets her open up and discover one other facet of herself, and that’s when [her clothes] get looser and extra open,” says Kurt. (As for Dickinson’s costumes, he googled “interns on the subway” to tell his ill-fitting however really custom-made fits and Males’s Warehouse ties. “I discover that distinction actually, actually fascinating,” Kurt notes.)
Arriving at Samuel’s low-rent resort room with the intention to place a cease to the mutual flirtation, Romy sends a blended message armored up in a extreme, nearly dominatrix-like all-black outfit: a sculptural Khaite coat over a sheer, high-neck floral Etro shirt and custom-designed, ultra-tight pencil skirt.
“She felt overexposed, so she’s closing again in — and he or she finally ends up getting overdressed for this assembly,” says Bart. “The concept is that she’s making an attempt to imagine management once more, and never let him seduce her, however she’s undecided about it, so the shirt is blue and black sheer lace. She’s additionally carrying the best heels that she wears within the film, all for that scene.”
Strolling in late with snacks from the bodega, Samuel professes confusion about Romy’s intentions by referring to her sartorial messaging. “You present up dressed like this,” he says, gesturing to her ensemble, all the way down to the towering Valentino stilettos.
“It’s what I like about the entire film — it’s not easy,” says Bart. “[Romy and Samuel are] each awkward in these roles that they’re assuming, and typically gown fully incorrect or uncomfortable for the event.”
Provides Kurt: “The truth that Samuel type of doesn’t give a shit, and exhibits up in his soiled [Nike] hoodie, he has no type of premeditated something about their encounter.”
As Romy submits to her personal sexual impulses and needs via the thrilling, clandestine relationship, her shade palette additionally shifts. “She’s beginning to blossom,” Kurt says. “These colours are getting extra scorching and extra saturated, identical to she’s turning into hotter.”
Reijn’s imaginative and prescient for Romy’s tipping level contains a sartorial tableau of kinds: Because the digital camera shoots from overhead, she writhes on the ground of her walk-in closet, struggling to alter from a signature-pink pantsuit right into a sapphire velvet Zuhair Murad robe with slashes, cut-outs, and uneven particulars.
“Romy’s shedding her pores and skin. She’s transitioning in actual time,” explains Bart. “We rehearsed [the changing scene] collectively, like how she was going to get all of it off, whereas she’s additionally pulling the gown, which is so tight, on.” Romy wears the beautiful gown to supposedly assist Jacob at his play’s opening night time — however then lies and fakes a piece emergency after receiving a textual content from Samuel.
Deep into the affair, Romy lies to her household, once more, and rushes from the workplace to an outer-borough rave, to satisfy a tank top-clad Samuel. She’s nonetheless carrying her work outfit: a lush marigold pussy-bow shirt by Jason Wu, a custom-designed cream pencil skirt, and her camel coat (which she miraculously didn’t lose within the sweat-soaked, tweaked-out crowd). As the 2 interact in a sultry dance amidst the pounding music and erratic lights, Samuel slowly unravels Romy’s lengthy ribbon tie on the neck, and peels off her shirt all the way down to a Journelle cami.
“Seeing the shirt ripped off of her at a rave [by Samuel] is definitely actually thrilling — there’s an abandon to that,” says Kurt. “Additionally, as a result of all of her garments are actually lovely and costly, to see one thing like that simply torn off her in a sweaty membership was actually, actually thrilling and actually symbolic of her letting go, truthfully.”
Romy opens and closes the movie in a distinct shirt with an intricate pussy bow flourish. At first, she’s flustered, due to a late arrival to work and a cluster of recent interns in her nook workplace — together with a brazen, outspoken Samuel — and retains fussing with the haphazardly-tied neck on the dove grey Saint Laurent prime. Within the finale scene, although, Romy, reappears within the sheer shirt, sitting tall at her desk with an immaculately-tied bow.
“Once we first meet her, when she’s at her most managed, she’s already beginning to unravel a bit of bit,” says Bart. “It’s not like she finally ends up as some fully totally different character. She’s carrying the identical garments, however the true massive distinction is she’s herself. It’s actually Romy that has made the change.”
Babygirl shall be in theaters on December 25.
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