Dark, Stark and Simple

The Movie: “The Piano.”

The Setup: Ada (Holly Hunter, pictured), a 19th-Century Scot, travels to New Zealand with her young daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin, pictured), and her beloved piano for an arranged marriage to Stewart (Sam Neill). In time, she begins giving piano lessons to a neighbor, Baines (Harvey Keitel).

The Costume Designer: Australian designer Janet Patterson, whose first film was “The Last Days of Chez Nous.” She has also designed costumes for series aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The Look: Lacy, frilly and bright Ada is not; that would be too simplistic for this enigmatic character who does not speak. Instead, her clothes are dark and compelling with a Shaker simplicity. Braids as tight as a horsewhip coil around her ears. Standing in her steel skirt hoop, effectively revealed in a key scene, she is like some strange animal ready to break from its cage. Ada’s dark tartan skirts, black parasol and hard-edged black bonnet create a chilly effect, and she looks more like a widow than a bride. Notice that Flora dresses almost identically for much of the film, until their relationship begins to shift; then, the colors of Flora’s dresses and bonnets lighten up. The cross-cultural Baines is a fantastic sight, an Englishman, probably once a whaler, who has adopted the native Maori facial tatoos and clothing made from materials collected during his travels--mended and patched ikat, paisley and plaid with scrimshaw buttons.

Hit: The film Maori, with their striking tatoos and joyful mix of Western and native clothing, have no preconceptions about gender or correctness. One man wears a shirt upside down on his legs; women wear tail coats, trousers and top hats.

Inspiration: Among the usual period photographs and books of colonial New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Patterson consulted tomes on patients in mental asylums. “I don’t like costumes books so much. They’re limited,” she said. “I loved the books on people who were mentally disturbed. It just gives you a broad sense of humanity and human expression.”

Quoted: The clothing is “a bit of a disappointment for people who love romantic costumes,” Patterson said. “Ada is such a weird-looking character, but such a truthful-looking character for the time. We (writer/director Jane Campion and Patterson) didn’t imagine she’d dress in a flirtatious way or in a way wanting of attention. She was quite an austere figure, and her costumes all have a similar look about them, like she had the confidence to almost wear a uniform.”

Sources: The principals’ costumes were custom-made at the production’s workshops in Auckland, New Zealand; bonnets were made by Rosy Boylan, and boots by Jodie Morrison, both in Sydney, Australia.