Seamless

In Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s ode to the French New Wave, costume designer Pascaline Chavanne conjures a world gone by, but one whose style legacy remains visible even today—in pixie cuts and Breton stripes, Ray-Ban Wayfarers and herringbone tweeds. Set in 1959 Paris, during the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece Breathless, the film captures a culture in transition, as the formality of the old world relaxed into new postwar shapes. No revolution is instant, and Chavanne chooses accordingly, deftly weaving the lingering decorum of the old guard with the emerging insouciance of youth. 

Generational contrasts play out in the clothes: A middle-aged matron’s uniform of hats and pearls shares the screen with the bohemian capris, ballet flats and T-shirts of Jean Seberg’s (Zoey Deutch) Patricia; the impeccable three-piece suit of elder statesman auteur Roberto Rossellini (Laurent Mothe) marks a counterpoint to hipster Godard’s (Guillaume Marbeck) loosened ties and permanent sunglasses. 

Resurrecting the past is challenging enough, but reproducing the look of a beloved piece of cultural iconography invites additional levels of scrutiny. Chavanne, whose credits include Roman Polanski’s 19th-century drama An Officer and a Spy and François Ozon’s ’50s-set musical 8 Women, is well suited to the task. With a historian’s dedication to research, she combed through the Chanel archives for references, collaborating with the studio to replicate specific pieces, like the striped 1956 Haute Couture by Gabrielle Chanel dress Seberg wears in Breathless. She has said it took her team ten attempts before achieving the correct shade of ecru for Patricia’s Herald Tribune tee—a fact made more remarkable when you consider Nouvelle Vague is shot in black and white.

This kind of costume work requires a kind of ego not often associated with fashion—one capable not only of the confidence to take on the challenge but also the humility to be in service to history. Naturalism isn’t often recognized during awards season, which tends to favor more bombastic demonstrations of skill, but in her nuanced and painstaking re-creation of a pivotal mid-century moment, Chavanne arguably accomplishes something even more extraordinary: She makes time travel feel effortless. — Caroline McCloskey