The Costumes: Back in time, far afield

For “Made in Dagenham” costume designer Louise Stjernsward (“Wimbledon,” “Sexy Beast,” “Stealing Beauty”), returning to the film’s setting of 1968 was pure pleasure. “I was 19 in 1968. It was a great time in London.”

To outfit most of the leads and extras playing the working-class folk from the London suburb of Dagenham, involved in the 1968 Ford Motor Co. sewing machinists’ strike, Stjernsward needed to paint with a subtler palette, which made the one knockout knockoff — a stunning red dress designed by Biba, London’s iconic fashion house — that much more fabulous.

Let’s start with the red Biba dress. It tells an important part of the story because Sally Hawkins’ character borrows it for her triumphant meeting with the Labour secretary. Was it an actual Biba dress?

I bought the Biba book, because it was in the script, the Biba dress. I looked through it and did lots of research on Biba and I saw this red thing, and I had it made. The design was definitely Biba, and I have a wonderful maker, and no one would know that it wasn’t a Biba.

How did you choose it?

I myself wore Biba when I was 19 or 17, so I remember the Biba era. I went to the library and I researched magazines of that era. I liked the red, so I thought, great. And I liked the [square] buttons.

The dress didn’t really fit Sally Hawkins. It was a little big on her. Was that deliberate?

It was supposed to be because she borrowed it from the character played by Rosamund Pike. And, obviously, Rosamund Pike is a bigger woman than Sally because you’ve seen them together. So I made two, actually. One to fit Rosamund perfectly, and the other slightly big for Sally. She’s much smaller.

How else did you use costumes to tell the story?

Sally’s costumes stem from the fact that she’s a working woman, she’s a mother. You read the script and you understand who the characters are. Like Andrea Riseborough’s character is much more cheeky. It was based on someone who was more into fashion, trying to be different, younger, without a family, whereas Sally has a family. She was a more serious character, so her clothes are simpler. And as she progresses and gains in confidence, she gets a little bolder. It’s not that she has much more money, so she doesn’t suddenly go out shopping, so I had to do it with color.

The character played by Geraldine James, the older woman, she’s not in miniskirts. Some of her things are edging on being from the ‘50s. These people are poor, so they’re not up to the latest fashion, except for the girl played by Jaime Winstone, who aspires to be a model. Her character would have looked in the magazines and seen Twiggy at that time.

Some of the factory women stripped down to undergarments because of the heat. Were those vintage as well?

Yes. I used to get up early and go to Portobello Market on a Friday. If you go there early in the morning you can find some very good things. Also, I know some of these people from other jobs, and you get to know the people in the markets who sell vintage. And you say, “I’m looking for this kind of thing,” and the next week you get in touch with them wherever they are, and they’ll have four or five. I also used costume houses, but a lot of this was found in markets and secondhand shops and dealers in vintage clothes.

Bras actually have to fit the actors, so that sounds like it was quite a task.

It was. We were on the run, but it was such a fun film to do. I had six weeks, seven weeks prep. Me and my assistant, we worked incredibly hard. I often worked on my day off on Sundays, because some of these vintage fairs they had in the summer often fall on a Sunday. But it was fun.

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