Fitting Notes: Whitaker Malem
Pop artisans on Barbarella, Issey Miyake's Bodyworks, and Wonder Woman's armor.
Welcome to Fitting Notes, a newsletter from Looks on Screen. As part of the ongoing exploration and archive research into the history of fashion brands in cinema, we bring you insights from the people shaping fashion and cinema today — questionnaire-style conversations about their work practices, personal style, and inspirations.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick and Keir from their London studio while the city was in the middle of a heatwave. They had sent me a DM a few months back, sharing their work on Die Another Day. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with their name, though I of course knew their work. Angelina Jolie's holster belt in Tomb Raider? That's them. Alexander McQueen’s gold bodice for Givenchy Haute Couture? Them too. Countless fashion editorials photographed by the likes of Herb Ritts? Of course. How could anyone not? For nearly four decades, they have amassed an expansive body of work spanning film, fashion, art and music. Renowned for their leatherwork, they describe themselves as "pop artisans". Here below you'll find excerpts from our conversation. They shared fascinating insights, and I learned so much from our conversation that I could have easily turned it into a multi-part series. I'm so thankful to them for their generosity, their knowledge and their impeccable references.
Names: Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem
Profession: Pop artisans
Hometowns: Bracknell and Lydd
Known For: Wonder Woman (2017), longstanding work with artist Allen Jones, and fashion collaborations including Alexander McQueen for Givenchy Haute Couture, Hussein Chalayan and Dilara Findikoglu.
My first fashion memory on screen is…
Keir: Vanessa Redgrave’s wedding dress in Camelot. It’s a long crocheted dress, very sixties, but what I love about it is that the technology would have been completely possible in medieval times. When you see the extraordinary armor that was being made in Spain and Germany in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it is absolutely unbelievable.
The film costume I think about most is…
Patrick: The original Dune by David Lynch and Bob Ringwood’s work had such a huge impact, it is still almost without compare in terms of costume. What’s interesting is that however much people try to avoid it, they always end up referencing it because they so nailed it in their own way, visually. The sets, the costumes, the whole world. It’s one of those films that always comes back, and our own work keeps circling back to those references. Years ago we even made a leather version inspired by Bob’s stillsuit jacket. Things we’ve made end up being connected to Dune, whether intentionally or not.
The costume or accessory from a film that people most associate with our work is…
Patrick: Wonder Woman (2017). We spent nearly a year working on that film and it was a huge project for us. It’s important to say that we inherited the bustier design from Michael Wilkinson, so that’s not our work. Everything around it, however, all the armor and detailing, was our contribution. Michael was aware of our work and had referenced it as well. We were very lucky with Warner Bros, and the film taught us a tremendous amount. All of these projects are experiences as much as they are jobs. It was one of those productions where all the experience we’d accumulated over decades came together.
A piece we created that transformed once worn on screen was…
Patrick: Demerzel’s costume in Foundation. It’s one of the pieces I’m most proud of. The costume designer got in touch and said that all of her research people kept pointing back to one of our existing pieces. She essentially said, “We want something like this.” From there we began developing the costume. We did a lot of R&D on the paint finish and colour. When we work with moulded leather, which is what we mostly do for fashion projects and pop stars, we experiment with all sorts of different finishes, including gilding, which we’d previously used on Alexander McQueen’s Givenchy Haute Couture. We ended up with this purplely iridescent eggplant kind of colour. They could light it in so many different ways that it looked different every time. It was absolutely beautiful.
The most cinematic object we’ve ever made is…
Keir: The knife belt from Die Another Day. It was the 20th Bond film and they wanted to reference Ursula Andress coming out of the sea in the first Bond film, Dr. No. Lindy Hemming put Halle Berry in that lovely La Perla orange bikini and we made the knife belt. It was one of our first ever film gigs. When we first fitted Halle, she’d just won the Oscar for Monster’s Ball and suddenly she was everywhere. People loved that image and it appeared in newspapers for ages.
A scene, photo, or archive image that never leaves my head is…
Patrick: The fitting photograph from the original Casino Royale with Paco Rabanne. Barbarella as well. I saw it when I was twelve and it completely blew my mind. I’d always loved Doctor Who, and Keir had as well, with everything sci-fi, but the whole package was just so visual, and the artistry was so apparent in it. For fashion, it’s Yves Saint Laurent’s gilded sculpture breasts with the flowing fabric. There are so many sublime Saint Laurent moments from that period.
The artist, photographer, or filmmaker whose work I’d collect (or wish I could) is…
Patrick: We have some lovely pieces by Allen Jones, but if there was one artist I’d love to collect more of, it would be Bob Peak, he’s the classic American poster illustrator. He did Camelot, My Fair Lady, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Spy Who Loved Me. We were lucky because we bought a lot of the things we liked back in the late nineties, including sixties prints by Lynn Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi, but we missed out on certain poster artists. There’s a Bob Peak Rollerball original coming up at an auction. His originals do come up, but they’re serious money now.
The exhibition or book that stayed with me is…
Patrick: Issey Miyake: Bodyworks at the V&A. Shortly before I met Keir, my mother, who was a sculptor, took me to see it when I was at Saint Martins. It was just fucking mind-blowing. There were these bodies floating above you, and it completely changed the way I thought about making things.
The movie soundtrack I listen to again and again is…
Patrick: Italian film soundtracks. My mother got me into movie soundtracks as a child. She bought me John Barry soundtracks and she liked Roy Budd’s score for Get Carter, so she had a huge influence on me in that respect. All I’d ever bought was film soundtracks and we have an absolutely epic collection. There are just too many to mention, but we love a lot of Italian stuff. The best thing about it is that it never ends because they’re still releasing things that were never put out on vinyl or CD.
The last thing I watched and loved was…
Patrick: UFO, the Gerry Anderson live-action series from the early seventies. We’ve been diving into old episodes of it at home. It’s the sci-fi show where the women had the mad old purple wigs and the silver dresses on the moon. It had incredibly groovy music and it was made in 1970 but set in 1980.
A recent collaboration that shifted my perspective was…
Patrick: When younger designers come in and want something different. It’s nice to be challenged and pushed. Nadia Lee Cohen is a good example, and I wouldn’t say she shifted my perspective because she comes so much from the world that we’re part of. I know her references very, very well. It’s just so important to realize how circular this thing is between fashion and film and to have gone completely full circle this year with Kim Kardashian, Allen Jones and Nadia Lee Cohen at the MET. And the greatest praise of all was when people would say “Barbarella,” and it was like, “Yeah, you got it!” Kim Kardashian was absolutely amazing to work with. Everyone said she would be and she was. She was incredibly generous, championing us and Allen Jones. It is so important that people realize where art, film and fashion come from and understand what it takes to make things happen. That’s what she said she wanted to do, and she did it.
A material we return to again and again is…
Patrick: Leather.
Thank you Patrick and Keir!
Never heard of this duo, but love that I do know!