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.

Most of the costumes made by Donati's team for the main players - Benigni himself as Jewish waiter Guido, and Nicoletta Braschi as his character's love interest Dora - are fairly formal 1930s wear, with 1930s children's clothing being custom-made for a young Giorgio Cantarini as Guido's son. Waiter uniforms were also made for Benigni in various scenes.

The costumes were constructed in Italian costume house Costumi D'Arte, which also supplied the 1930s stock wardrobe and Fascist uniforms for extras in the film's first half set in 1930s Italy. The SS uniforms and prisoner outfits in the concentration camp scenes were presumably made in bulk for the film, though I don't know if it was Costumi D'Arte or a different movie uniform supplier that made them.

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, if not supplied for the movie, possibly 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.

The Damned (1969)

Costume Design by Piero Tosi

A dark and disturbing allegory for the rise of fascism, Luchino Visconti's The Damned (aka La caduta degli dei in its native Italy) centres on a family of perverted, wealthy industrialists who manipulate one another to curry favour with Hitler's regime. Costume designer Piero Tosi had to recreate 1930s German upper class fashion, but not fall copy the glitz and glamour associated with American stars of the decade.

In an interview with Variety, Tosi recounted, 'My goal was to rediscover, through movie characters’ look, the refined and sober style of the German world in that specific historical moment, different from glamor and the glossy and sexy image 1930s Hollywood America promoted through its movies'. Tosi also had the problem of using fabrics best-suited for the period, to make the period setting believable, 'It was the late ’60s and fashion at that time proposed rigid fabrics to support the geometric and linear clothing styles. For soft and slippery lines typical of the early 1930s, I needed soft and drooping materials like crêpe and silk cadì. I had to use fur covers found in an old warehouse.'

The costumes were constructed at Tirelli Costumi, where Tosi fabricated the costumes he designed for many of Visconti's films. Naturally, sets of 1930s menswear were made for the male main players such as Dirk Bogarde and Helmut Berger. Assorted uniforms of the SS, SA 'Brownshirts' and Wehrmacht were also supplied, presumably by Tirelli, for the picture.

However, for this article we are mostly going to focus on the women's wear. Most of the film's dresses were designed for Ingrid Thulin as Sophie von Essenbeck, the family's resident femme fatale; Thulin's first outfit is a black dress worn with a dark blue sequined bolera jacket with raised shoulders, and glittery strips on the collar.

Thulin's second dress doesn't get seen fully; a slinky black dress with sparkling lining around the chest and back.

For when Sophie discusses with the SS, Thulin wears an asymmetrically patterned silver and dark brown dress, with silver lining inside the sleeves; the look is completed with a translucent brown wide-brimmed hat.

The dinner scene near the film's finale has Thulin wearing another black dress with silver ornamentation around the cuffs, with holes cut around the chest - the cuffs are detailed with small gems, some of which can only be seen depending on Thulin's posture in the shot.

One dress made for Thulin that only gets very little screentime in the final film is this black dress with a large ruffled collar, with a black flower fixed to it as well.

On that note, Thulin wears several nightgowns throughout the film; a silvery nightdress and frilly lilac top, a peach-coloured robe with furred cuffs, and my personal favorite, a kimono-style gown made of a patterned fabric with pink lining.

Thulin's last dress is similar in design to her earlier silver and brown dress, being pale pink and grey in its colour scheme, with the grey panelling asymmetrical in design. The dress is worn with a cloche hat and veil.

Tosi also had to dress Charlotte Rampling as Elizabeth Thallmann, another relative of the family who finds herself embroiled in its sinister machinations, In contrast to Thulin's costumes mostly being designed with dark colours, Rampling's utilize lighter colours, highlighting her relative innocence in comparison. Rampling first appears sporting a cream lace dress with a flower on her shoulder.

Rampling also wears this sleek silvery nightdress when the SS arrives to arrest her husband, notice the curved panelling around the waist.

Rampling's other costumes in the film are more on the formal side, such as the white and brown top with an asymmetrically-cut collar, and the coat with strips of panelling around the lapels. Shame you can't see the dress underneath the coat, though!

Florinda Bolkan stars as Olga, girlfriend to Helmut Berger's Martin von Essenbeck, the sociopathic heir to the family's fortune; Bolkan first appears wearing a tan suit with curved pockets, and is worn with a wide brimmed hat and brown, white and orange patterned scarf.

Bolkan is also briefly seen wearing an orange-red nightgown with pink furred lining around the lapels and cuffs - it doesn't get good screntime due to Bolkan either sitting in bed or moving fast when wearing it.

When Olga is finally a part of the Essenbeck family, a silvery cocktail dress with glittery lining around the chest and back, worn with silver high-heels.

Lastly, is of course the drag costume sported by Helmut Berger during Martin's drag routine as Marlene Dietrich at the film's start - with glittery lining around the chest and over the front, topped off with a silver top hat and feather boa!