Alison Stewart: You are listening to All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We continue our series The Big Picture. That's when we speak to the creatives who worked behind the camera to make Oscar-nominated films of the past year. Let's talk Nosferatu. Costume designer Linda Muir did extensive research into the German fashions of the age and into the history of Transylvania. The details of Linda's work help tell the story and every choice is important, from the design of corsets to the fabrication of a nightgown. Linda has been working with director Robert Eggers, since The Witch. Her work on Nosferatu earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design, her first-ever nomination.

I began our conversation by asking Linda what the first step is when beginning a new Robert Eggers project.

Linda Muir: The first step is, after reading the script, looking through the incredible lookbooks that Robert provides. Images, and they address atmosphere, they address locations, they address costuming, they can be portraits, they can be images that he's culled over the period where he was writing the script, and he's used them as inspiration for writing the script, so they are key. Then, from that, I start my own research process and add to all of that.

Alison Stewart: Where does the research process start for you?

Linda Muir: For me, it starts with reading about the clothing of whatever period the film is set at. I have an extensive personal collection of books, but I also then start ordering books that are specifically for the period of the next film. Once I understand-- trying always to think of these as garments, as clothing, as opposed to costuming, and then trying to figure out if I have an accurate idea of what garments meant certain things at that period.

I can start to think about, how would that apply to different characters? How can I bring out the character of Ellen, for instance? How can I bring out the character of Harding, or Anna, and how do they differ? You compile it, and you just keep building it and building it, and layering it and layering it, and then consulting with Robert, always.

Alison Stewart: This film takes place in 1838. You said in an interview in Focus Features that 1838 was a very specific year for men and women's clothing. What was unique about that year?

Linda Muir: It's more importantly, very specific leading up to 1838 for women, because earlier in the decade, the gigot sleeve and the women's bodices were really, really large, and they start to actually change. They start to become smaller. The forearm starts to change a little bit. It really is setting up what the silhouette for the 1840s and 1850s become, so in looking at actual garments from the period, it was really fascinating to me to look inside the sleeves and see, "Oh, they didn't take all that fabric out."

Thinking that the fabric would have been an incredibly-- It would have been very dear to people to buy that fabric. Not knowing what was coming up in designs later on, they would economize and do these crazy little pleats and crazy little folds inside the sleeves. It was getting my head around what would-- For instance, Anna, a character who is very wealthy. Her husband is very wealthy, so she has everything. Her children have everything, and they're little tiny replications of what she wears.

She should be dressed right up to the minute, so her wardrobe, she has a change for every script day, and accessories, hair, ornaments, flowers, shoes, jewelry, all of that should be right up to the minute. Therefore, she looks like a fashion plate. Whereas Ellen, clothing is far less important to her. She really just wants to be in love with Hutter, and she really just wants to be rid of Orlok, so she has fewer costume choices, clothing choices.

She has left her home, packed a trunk, and she's now staying with the Hardings, so the script also tells us that she has access to fewer clothing. The colors, what are the colors? Research tells us what are the colors of the day. Then from that, you try to choose what are the colors that that character would choose. What are the finishes in the fabrics? Are they velvet? Are they silk? Are they cotton? Are they linen?

Alison Stewart: It's interesting, because Ellen, who's the object of a vampire's desire, spends a lot of time in a white nightgown.

Linda Muir: She certainly does.

Alison Stewart: What was it made of?

Linda Muir: Her nightgown was made of cotton. There was a really fabulous manual that I discovered that was written by a lady and attributed to a lady, and it was called The Workwoman's Guide To, then it goes on basically to say to make everything that you would need in a household. Within that manual, I discovered the fact that a household would make-- they would buy bulk fabric, cotton or linen, and then they would make six of nightgowns, six men's shirts, six babies' bibs, six babies' whatever.

We took that information and we used it as a model or an idea for how we would approach certain garments for the film. Ellen has the same silhouette nightgown, whereas Anna has two different silhouettes. Anna's nightgowns have far more fabric in them. Ellen's are a more restrained silhouette. What we did to make Ellen's nightgown special for the film is that, because of the circumstance that we see Ellen in her nightgown, first of all, in bed, waking up in her room with Hutter, and that is the most diaphanous, lightest weight.

You can see through it. You can see her skin beneath it. It reflects the beautiful makeup that Traci did, where she looks opalescent, and she just looks dewy. Then in another script instance, we see Ellen rushing out into the rain, so obviously, we want to not reveal Lily Rose too much. We want Ellen to be present and in the forefront, so that has three layers. That's much thicker.

Alison Stewart: Oh, interesting.

Linda Muir: Yes. Then we see her as a somnambulist, so she's walking out into the night. That's very different lighting. Jarin does beautiful moonlight. That required a slightly different version of the same nightgown as well, so we manipulate what is a true fact, but we use certain thoughts or techniques to involve and evoke more.

Alison Stewart: We've got a great text here that says Ellen goes crazy and rips her dress bodice. Can you talk about that costume decision? Was it planned? How does that affect the production if there's more than one take?

Linda Muir: Yes. Ripping, blood, mud, Robert loves it all. The Northman, Nicole Kidman, her character of Gudrún, rips open her dress. That was really, with Robert, the first instance of developing an idea of how to preset the dress and then stitch it up, which is-- this is a theatrical technique as well, so that the actress is not struggling, in the moment, to rip it, it's preset. It was much more difficult in the case of The Northman, because that was a very plain front wool dress.

It was more difficult to obscure that with the case of Ellen. It is a striped fabric. It is a chevron pattern. The two slanted stripes come to the center, and there's a center front seam. The actual period cut of the bodice really did help facilitate that, because it has an existing center front seam. We bound it. We did a piped edge, which also helped in terms of Lily Rose being able to get her fingers into it and really tear it apart.

We added a little, what was called a dickey, which is the lovely linen-- actually, maybe it was cotton and lace, a little piece that tucks inside, so when she rips it open, you-- We've already seen the corset a lot. We've already seen her underpinnings a lot, but then the audience can go, "Oh, that's interesting." That's like a little collar that they added on, so, yes, it was absolutely planned. We go through the whole process of thinking of how many multiples.

I planned to use that dress also in the scene where Lily Rose is getting down and dirty in the mud, in the beach. We had to do multiples for that. We also had to do multiples for the ripping. We used the same dress, which makes perfect sense, because she has a limited wardrobe, staying at her friend's place. Then we went through and thought, "Okay, so the bodice and the skirt are made separately, and then they're stitched together," so we made fewer skirts, more bodices.

Then, every time, Lily Rose ripped it open, and I think we did about 30 takes of that scene, it was restitched in the moment, and then we had another one ready to go. To be honest, Lily needed time to calm down, to preset, and to prepare for the next, as did everybody else on set, so we were stitching away.

Alison Stewart: I interviewed Luis Sequeira, for Nightmare Alley. He said that one detail might not seem like a lot, a little button might not seem like a lot to you, but it's 40ft high on the set. What is that detail for you? You got about a minute and a half.

Linda Muir: That's such a good question. I think that, in the case of Nosferatu, it may not be one detail. It might be all of the buttons, and all of the different buttons. Orlok's costume, I think, probably because he wears one costume throughout the whole film, and because he's obscured for so long, perhaps it is-- The front of his dolman, because that, when we finally do see it, reveals the wealth, and the decay, and his past, his 300-year-old backstory.

Alison Stewart: That was my conversation with Nosferatu costume designer Linda Muir. She is Oscar-nominated for her work on the film. Coming up the next hour, we'll talk with more Oscar nominees, from The Wicked production designer to the substance makeup artist. That's all coming up. Stay with us.