She has designed the costume for the most beloved Spider-Man for Spider-Man: Homecoming and has just wrapped up Ant Man and The Wasp. Costume designer Louis Frogley, who is currently working on a film based on an astronaut, says India is one of her favourite places in the world and it will be an honour for her to do a film in the country.
"I just love India and I love the textiles. Indian fashion is really fabulous and beautiful and the country is my best place in the world. I want to work in India, do a film the country. It will be an honour to do that," Frogley told IANS in a telephonic conversation from London.
Spider-Man: Homecoming made its Indian television premiere on ZEEL's &flix, which brings one hit Hollywood movie premiere every Sunday through its property Flix First Premiere.
Frogley, who began her career by working in London and Paris as for various commercial companies, started her journey as a costume designer as assistant in the department on Hugh Hudson's Academy Award-winning Chariots of Fire.
Since that initial foray into cinema, Frogley has dressed over 20 feature films, including Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, Ron Shelton's Bull Durham and many more.
Talking about how challenging was it to do one of the most iconic costumes for Spider-Man, she said it was technically very difficult.
"Technically, it was very difficult because we were trying to get back to the earlier years and it was hard to create. We had to get the scale absolutely right and we did a lot of camera testing to visualise the final product. We did close to ten tests before we finally go it right and it was very important to get the technical elements of it right... Marvel (production house Marvel Studios) was really good in content for the testing.
"We had a very brilliant cutter finisher too who make the actual patent-like suit. We were very lucky that we had very gifted people working with us. We wanted to make it fresh but very classic because it's the beginning of the Spider-Man as a young man.
"Marvel researched very thoroughly and they were very clever about the decision and decided it should be pretty simple. As a young guy, he had his homemade suit and then he has this beautiful suit that Tony Stark gives him, which is pretty cool," she said.
So, is she doing costumes for Spiderman: Homecoming 2 too?
"I am not actually working on that film but the costumes will have very big changes because in the film, Spider-Man becomes more like man and not teenager," said Frogley, who is also working on a yet untitled film based on an astronaut.
"I have also finished Antman and the Wasp," she said.
What is the biggest challenge as a costume designer?
"I think the biggest challenge is to be sure that the director (who) is on board with what you are doing and so is the actor of what the director wants, so that everybody can forget about their clothes and do their jobs. You must be very careful to listen to everybody and include their thoughts or point out why something won't work. You have to be very clear that they are feeling comfortable and happy," she said.
She feels fashion is peripheral and bilateral.
"Fashion really follows the socio-economic climate and represents what's happening in the world. You have to be very careful in fashion because a lot of it made for runway but it is not fashion, its restricted to music videos. Fashion is very interesting, convoluted and it is very marvellous."
Any advice for the costume designers who want to get into the film industry?
"I think work hard, you can get what you want. Work on the costumes, spend time on manufacturing, style. You need to go at all level. It is all about dyeing, manufacturing and you need to get to the bottom of every level," she said.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)