In the 20 years since Kill Bill: Volume 1 premiered, it’s all but impossible to make it through Halloween without seeing someone dressed in a canary yellow tracksuit with a black racing stripe, a schoolgirl with blood seeping from her eyeballs, or an old-school nurse with a conspicuous eyepatch. For costume designer Catherine Marie Thomas and director Quentin Tarantino, that is high praise (maybe even moreso than an Oscar). “He felt like the biggest compliment was that he always saw them at Halloween,” Thomas says. Beyond costume parties, the film’s impact still radiates through the zeitgeist. From the more androgynous approach to a female heroine in a sea of sexy catsuits, to the once-defunct sneakers that are threatening to dethrone the Adidas Samba as ‘It’ shoe, the sartorial longevity of Kill Bill is impressive.
The costume designer—who has since worked on 27 Dresses, The Proposal, Mr. Robot, and The Flight Attendant—worked in tandem with Tarantino to create some of the most instantly recognizable costumes. “Not all directors have such a love for costumes. He truly does,” she says. “And he knows that it not only affects how the viewer feels when they see them, but it also affects how the actors feel in those clothes, because it changes so much about their performance and how they approach the character.” ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett CollectionThere is probably no greater example of this than The Bride, played by Uma Thurman. (Thomas was good friends with Thurman’s husband at the time, Ethan Hawke; Thurman pitched the then-unknown Thomas as costume designer to Tarantino.) Initially, Tarantino had envisioned The Bride as a femme fatale in a sexy, tight catsuit, à la Halle Berry in Catwoman. But Thomas was interested in taking it in a different direction.
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