Life Is Beautiful (1997)

Costume Design by Danilo Donati

Costume designer Danilo Donati had previously worked with Benigni on 1994's The Monster and would work with him again on 2002's Pinocchio; Donati's experience on Fascist-era period productions like Fellini's Amarcord and Pasolini's Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom - both of which are far superior films to Benigni's tasteless exercise in cutesying up the Holocaust - was no doubt another factor in Donati being handed the job.

Sets of formal menswear, waiter uniforms and women's clothing were made for the main players, in particular Benigni himself as Jewish waiter Guido, and Nicoletta Braschi as his love interest Dora. Sets of 1930s children's clothing were also custom-made for young Giorgio Cantarini as Guido's son.

The speaking part performer's costumes were constructed in Italian costume house Costumi D'Arte, who also custom-made the prisoner uniforms in bulk for the concentration camp scenes, as well as the men's and women's SS guard uniforms. All the extras past that were wardrobe stock.

It is Braschi who gets to wear most of the film's standout costumes; Braschi is first seen wearing a white dress and bolera jacket with orange and green lining around the collar, pockets and cuffs.

Braschi's next costume, worn when Dora is watching opera, is a black patterned jacket with glittery lining on the lapels, worn with a small hat also encrusted with similar ornamentation, and worn with a plain black skirt.

Donati also constructed a pair of bright red costumes worn by the opera singers; both are made from shiny materials, one a frilly dress and one a suit with top hat.

The rest of the film's costume highlights are worn during the dinner party sequence; Raffaella Lebboroni, as Dora's friend Elena, wears a shiny steely-grey dress with golden buttons.

A more elaborate white dress was designed for Marisa Paredes as Dora's mother, consisting of floral ornamentation around the shoulders and chest, with a white chiffon cape.

However, the film's costume design showstopper is again worn by Braschi; a pink dress with stone-like white ornamentation around the collar, with hard pieces covering the dress all over it, with a bow on the back of the dress.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Costume Design by Danilo Donati

The design sense of Salo, Pier Paolo Pasolini's infamously bleak and grotesque final film, is in stark contrast to his previous works, with perhaps the clearest difference seen in the costumes. Donati's costumes for Pasolini's 'Trilogy of Life' utilized bright colours, while the costumes for Salo are in various muted hues of grey, black, white and brown; the colours of fascist uniforms, no less.

The costumes of Salo were fabricated in the Sartoria Farani costume house, where Donati had constructed the costumes for many of Fellini and Pasolini's movies. The bulk of Salo's costumes are dull coloured 1930s and 1940s fashions, presumably most of it wardrobe stock or found in flea markets; the Italian Fascist and SS uniforms were most likely stock from earlier Italian WWII productions.

However, I am certain the dresses worn by the fascist libertines as they crossdress, the women 'storytellers' such as the grey suit worn by Caterina Boratto and the shiny brown suit worn by Elsa De Giorgi, as well as the hats and suits worn by the unlucky 'daughters' of the libertines, were bespoke made at Farani for the film.

Two wedding dresses were also made, a silvery patterned dress for Renata Moar and a more flat-coloured dress for Sergio Fascetti; notice that even these dresses feel steely and metallic in their fabric texture, fitting in with the costume design's palette being inspired by fascist imagery.

Salo is divided into segments named after Dante's Inferno, each having a 'storyteller' narrating vulgar, sexual stories for the libertines' amusement. Hélène Surgère playes Signora Vaccari during the 'Circle of Manias', wearing a wide-sleeved and low-cut dress with black floral markings all over.

Elsa De Giorgi plays Signora Signora Maggi during the 'Circle of Shit' segment; Donati designed a black sequined dress with gold lining and matching bolero jacket for De Giorgi to wear, with a fur-lined black sequined cape worn over it as well.

Caterina Boratto wears a silvery white glittery dress as Signora Castelli during the 'Circle of Blood'; this dress is mostly seen at a distance, and worn with white furs.

The four perverted fascists, only named - the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate and the President - wear 1940s suits for most of their scenes; the one exception is the occult-inspired wedding at the start of the 'Circle of Blood' segment. Giorgio Cataldi, as the Bishop, wears a red gown with ornamentation on the shoulders and head as a mock priest costume, while the other libertines are in drag (as seen at the start of this entry).

The Night Porter (1974)

Costume Design by Piero Tosi

One wonders how much director Liliana Cavani was inspired by Luchino Visconti's The Damned when setting out to make The Night Porter (aka Il portiere di notte) - not only do both films star Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, but both share Piero Tosi as costume designer. And just like in The Damned, Tosi had the costumes fabricated at the Tirelli Costumi costume house.

Rampling stars as Lucia, a former concentration camp inmate who Bogarde's former SS officer had a fling with; I can't remember when Rampling wears this dress in the film, but her flashback dress is a white design with lace panelling and shoulders. The SS uniforms in the flashback sequences, such as the one worn by Dirk Bogarde in the below image, were possibly the same ones supplied by Tirelli for The Damned.

(And before you ask, no, I'm not including Rampling's infamous Nazi uniform fetish look - it doesn't count anyway as it was probably just cobbled from Tirelli's wardrobe stock, due to its very brief appearance in the film).

In the present day of Night Porter's story, Rampling first appears wearing this gorgeous sparkly black dress with with a chiffon shawl worn over it - this dress is only worn very briefly in the film, no less.

Getting even less screentime is this silvery dress and shawl Rampling wears when watching an opera performance; this photo from an Italian film costume exhibition is far better a shot of it than what you'd get in the movie itself, as Rampling wears it during extreme close-up shots as she's sitting.

Isa Miranda stars as the Countess Stein, whose most notable costume is this lovely gold and black design, with the gold in a 'flame' like pattern around the chest with matching rings on the cuffs. I suspect that Bogarde's waiter uniform (seen below) was tailored for him personally, while the rest of the cast's costumes were vintage wear due to the then-recent setting.