‘TÁR’ Costume Designer Bina Daigeler On Expressing Lydia Tár’s Complex Personality

Bina Daigeler is responsible for bringing to life the fashion of Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár. So much of her work lives in designing the world of a high level composer, but she also strongly considers what those outfits say about Lydia Tár herself. As Daigeler explains here, Tár’s complex personality, persona, and status give her these elegant outfits yet they are not a major aspect of what she thinks about herself. Bina Daigeler captures these contradictions and provides insight into Lydia Tár.

Awards Daily: Lydia Tár exudes power in her outfits. They are stylish but not very colorful. What went into the creative process of making her look?

Bina Daigeler: A lot of research and a lot of script reading. Analyzing who Lydia Tár is. Discussing it with Todd (Field) and Cate (Blanchett). Very deeply figuring out her inspiration. What is the music and who is the conductor she is taking from. Just trying to get the bigger picture of her character.


Awards Daily: I read in a previous interview you had to be part psychiatrist in designing Lydia. What did that entail for you, and what insight did you get into this closed off character?

Bina Daigeler: Well, I think that’s the interesting thing about Lydia Tár. There are a lot of secrets and points of view. That I think at the end when the movie finishes, and if you see it a second time or even a third time, there are more and more questions. And you doubt your first opinion about her and perhaps you were not right. Perhaps there is a deeper, different point of view. All these mysteries are somehow a little bit sewn into her costumes. We created a wardrobe based on a lot of tailoring. It’s a very detailed process, I think, that makes it somehow so interesting, settled, and grounded.


Awards Daily: I’ve read many people consider her outfits to be androgynous. Was there a specific choice behind that?

Bina Daigeler: I think in my process and in Cate’s preparation, we went through the conductor’s world and we were somehow driven more to the male conductors’ end for inspiration. Perhaps that is part of it. That is the reason it looks androgynous, but I think it’s also inspired by Berlin and as a different style to dress .


Awards Daily: As things start to change for Lydia, she is going through hard times. She becomes disheveled and yet she is still wonderfully dressed. What went into those decisions?

Bina Daigeler: I think you always adapt to different stages of a movie in your costume design. She starts off as a very powerful woman and then somehow her life falls apart. Obviously that’s something that can happen to us. If we have more power we dress perfectly versus a day we don’t feel well we dress shabbily. That is something that I absolutely wanted to reflect on. In the way Cate and I work together making decisions we have the full closet, which gives us a lot of options. Sometimes we know exactly what we need at that moment. But there are other times where we want to see how we feel in that moment. What are the emotions at that moment on the set? Then we decide okay, we’ll go with these pants with this top. It’s a very organic and team process.


Awards Daily: Speaking of your work with Cate, you have worked with her a few times now: Manifesto, Mrs. America, and now Tár. As a fan I want to ask what she is like. But for you particularly, how has your experience with her been, and has it changed over time?

Bina Daigeler: It gets only better! I think there was a connection from the beginning, but like all good relationships it’s nice when they grow and evolve. It gives me a huge shortcut in my work that we know each other, that makes it very easy. She is just amazing. I love to work with her, to create with her, and to dress her.


Awards Daily: I read you were obsessed with a black cashmere coat from The Row that was used in the film. What spoke to you so much about that coat?

Bina Daigeler: Because it was exactly the coat I wanted. I thought I would find this coat everywhere because it’s just the perfect coat, and then I couldn’t find it and it was so strange, and I realized that I needed that coat. It was so beautiful. It was from The Row and they used this amazing cashmere. It was the perfect length, it was just perfect. Also I don’t know if I would say I was obsessed but I was super thrilled definitely.


Awards Daily: That was how the other article referred to it, so that’s what I went with.

Bina Daigeler: No, no, that is how I express myself. I could be obsessed. I say things like that. You never know. (Laughing)


Awards Daily: In the emailed description of the work that I got, It touched on how the outfits subtly go into her lesbianness. How did you try to touch on that aspect?

Bina Daigeler: I have to say I don’t think there’s any way we can say how lesbians dress. It is not the question. Luckily now it is less of a question than ten years ago because there is no same lesbian woman. It doesn’t work for me because a hater of women could dress like Cate and like Tár. Obviously how I dressed Cate and Nina Hoss I wanted it to make sense that they were a couple. And yes, they are a lesbian couple. and I wanted to empower them both and make them look perfect in what they wear. They are both women in very powerful positions in the music industry, in the classical music industry that is very male-driven. That is a stronger point–how would a woman, any kind of woman who is in a very male-driven position, who has to be very respected by a lot of men dress? Because in the orchestra there are also a lot of men. That was something where I placed a lot more emphasis. And yes, I definitely wanted to show, let’s say, an attractive homosexual couple. I took care but I didn’t dress lesbian. I dressed Lydia Tár, who by chance is in a relationship with another woman.


Awards Daily: I wondered about that description when I got the email because I didn’t notice that myself. I feel like I might have offended you and I apologize if I did.

Bina Daigeler: No, not at all. I find it a very good question because my thoughts behind that make sense. And I think it is important to speak about it. And if we don’t speak about it it’s all so good.


Awards Daily: Obviously Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár is the focus of the costumes. But what went into the costume design for the people around Blanchett?

Bina Daigeler: It’s not so much a decision like who we have in front. Nina is an extremely beautiful woman and she’s in an extremely powerful position in the orchestra. I thought a lot about where she came from. I think she comes from a well-situated German family and she had a very good education, she is super intelligent and she knows Lydia. She’s not a woman who will be fooled. They also live in this beautifully designed loft. All of this is part of the wardrobe. They are very well-dressed, they like beautiful things. Nina’s character is the one who buys a lot of the things and is very much into her home and makes a lot of the decisions there. Then with Sophie Kauer, she is the young spirited musician who comes to Berlin so she has a younger wardrobe but she knows when she goes to work she has to be a little more settled and dresses up to fit into this musician’s world. Noémie (Merlant)’s character travels a lot and is part of Lydia’s life, and is also someone who takes care of how she dresses. They are all women who know how to dress. It is not random. With Lydia she has nice things but she puts them on more randomly. For her world the most important thing is the music; she sees herself so comfortable that she just puts anything on.

Awards Daily: Any final thoughts?

Bina Daigeler: They should just enjoy the movie! See it twice because there are so many hidden things. There was an amazing article in the New York Times where they wrote about all these hidden things that people didn’t see. I found it very interesting. (Though there were spoilers.)