While he could be imposing he also had a brittle vulnerability, both of which come through in Daniel Day-Lewis’ acclaimed portrayal in Lincoln (which opened in more cities last weekend). The actor’s performance was aided by the talents of costume designer Joanna Johnston, who became obsessed with the details–from the texture of his top hat to the sheen of his pocket watch–that can make history feel authentic and alive onscreen. The veteran designer says she was inspired to delve deep by the arc of movies she has worked on with Stephen Spielberg: Saving Private Ryan, War of the Worlds, Munich, and War Horse were, in her words, “War, war, war, war.”





So rather than going back to the same well again, Johnson got specific about the Civil War and its colors and textures. Rich shades of brown, black and, of course, blue and gray, drove the design of costumes for scores of men who were fighting and governing at the end of the War Between the States. And what gave the concept shape was a keen attention to silhouettes. Even the poster for the movie shows Lincoln as we have long seen him, in profile. But it’s not only in close-up that moviegoers witness the contours of his figure again and again, sometimes through drapes that partly obscure him, and often shrouded in a blanket-like shawl that was, Johnston says, true to the real man. “Lincoln did wear a shawl,” she reports, citing the president’s modest background. “He was often dressed inappropriately: He didn’t have a topcoat, he wasn’t interested in clothes, he wasn’t a particularly well man.”

Reinforcing Lincoln’s vulnerability, the character cloaks himself in these shawls at moments of deep thought and inner turmoil. “Daniel did a wrappy style with the shawl that had nothing to do with me,” Johnston says, “and it was rather brilliant.”





Of course, costumes exist on a set and the drapes found in recessed windows were used as a framing device that was dressed by the production design team, led by Rick Carter, another Spielberg veteran who has worked often with Johnston, including on films directed by Robert Zemeckis. “We joke that we don’t talk,” says Carter of his colleague. “I know that I messed her up once.” He proceeds to explain a scene in Death Becomes Her, in which he realized at the last moment that the set “looked awful,” so he changed the color of the walls. But he didn’t inform the costume designer. “I had this purplish gray background; she had this peach-colored uniform,” he says of a scene involving characters played by Meryl Streep and Isabella Rossellini. “It wasn’t terrible,” he hedges.

Johnston chimes in: “It was absurd.”

“You’d think that would lead to us talking more,” says Carter, who’s obviously fond of Johnston. “We never talk, but I know to make sure that Jim the set decorator knows what Joanna is doing.”