“I always say this, it’s the last sport that’s like the gladiators,” says costume designer Julian Day. A lifelong fan of Formula One, Day grew up going to races with his father, who sponsored F1 cars and was the first person in the U.K. to make replica white metal diecast models of racing cars. The epic rivalries of the sport have always appealed to him, like between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, who were the focus of the 2013 movie “Rush,” which Day did costumes for. So Apple’s new summer blockbuster, “F1: The Movie,” starring Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Damson Idris and Kerry Condon, was a rather easy sell. Plus: “who turns down the chance to work with Brad Pitt?” Day says.
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Known for his work in “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman,” Day found the project somewhat easier to start given the canvas that the real-life world of Formula One provides.
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“It is a very classic look in Formula One and there’s a real uniform that the general public wear: it’s very classy, it’s chinos, it’s very tight jeans, it’s white trainers, polo shirts, blues, pinks,” Day says.
He also was guided by director Joseph Kosinski’s penchance for modern, cool-looking films that stand the test of time.
“Those garages look almost like something from ‘Star Wars.’ They’re incredible,” Day says of the F1 garages. “And that’s what he wanted to do with the costumes as well: create something with a very contemporary, but long-lasting feel to it. It spiraled into the idea of this very fashionable world. I wanted to think about the idea that when you watch this movie in 10, 20, 30, 40 years, it still looks contemporary. It still looks real. Nothing will date about it because the clothes are the clothes. Unless we start wearing spacesuits in 50 years’ time — even then, the pit crew will look fine.”
Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a onetime star F1 driver who lives in a camper van and is pulled out of retirement to save an ailing British F1 team. Hayes may live off the grid, but this is still Brad Pitt, and the character naturally looks exceptionally cool throughout.
“He was amazing to dress. He loves clothes,” Day says. “Sonny is a cowboy, he’s a maverick, he’s a gambler, he’s a chancer. And I think we felt that we wanted to harken back to the days of the ’70s where heroes were heroes. The people in the movies in the ’70s had an edge, they weren’t as clean cut as people [are today],” Day adds. “So I looked at people like Kris Kristofferson, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, [Clint] Eastwood.”
Day calls out the scene where Sonny first arrives back into the world of F1, at Silverstone, and is wearing double denim with a pair of Italian-made cowboy boots by Marsell.
“It’s harping back to the old days, but also using very contemporary clothing,” Day explains. “We used ’60s original Levi jeans, Wrangler shirts, a contemporary Loro Piana jacket. And I used a great British brand called t, which has very classic, beautiful sweatshirts. So there was the use of vintage clothing, but also contemporary clothing that looked vintage.”
At the start of production, Day and his team set up a shop across three suites in a hotel filled with racks of sweatshirts, jeans, shoes, sunglasses and socks, and Pitt brought some of his own items as well.
“We set this shop up, he brought his stuff, and we just went through a whole bunch of it, took the whole day. We tried everything on, photographed it, and he had the photographs and was like, ‘well, I like that. That works,’” Day says.
Day showed Pitt a pair of orange aviator-style sunglasses that had belonged to his father, now deceased, and Pitt fell in love with them and wears them in the film — “it’s a real tribute to my dad being involved in the industry,” Day says.
One of the most important parts of the wardrobe was the socks: Day and his wife, Shaida, who is an associate designer, found a Japanese brand called Rototo that Pitt fell in love with.
“We bought so many socks, and socks would get spirited away — I have no idea where they went. I think Brad’s suitcases must have been quite full of socks,” Day jokes.
Idris, meanwhile, plays the young new hotshot driver, Joshua Pearce, who wears more youthful streetwear clothes. Day sought inspiration for the costumes from the sport’s fashion leader, Lewis Hamilton.
“Lewis is an amazing champion of fashion. It’s not just the big brands that he champions, he champions small brands, quirky brands,” Day says. He translated that into a mix of more established British brands like Wales Bonner as well as smaller brands like Sage Nation and YMC for Idris.
Bardem needed to look polished as the team’s owner. Day took Bardem, naturally a more casual dresser he says, to Zegna, Tom Ford and Gucci to fit him for tonal suits with simple dress shoes.
“Javier is a very charming man, great to dress,” Day says. “It’s probably the best looking male cast I’ve ever had, and some of the best dressed men I’ve ever had to dress.”
It didn’t hurt that the film came with a rather comfortable costume budget.
“I have to admit, it’s lovely going out and spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of not your own money on people who are getting clothes,” Day says. “It was a very good clothing budget. I mean, you can always have more, but it was very generous, and it was right for what we needed to make it look the million dollars that I think we’ve created.”