Because Joseph Bologne was not white, we never knew his genius until now. Imagine stifling someone’s legacy and talent because of the color of their skin. In Stephen Williams’ sumptuous film, Chevalier, we finally see how society shamefully left Bologne from the history books, and we can dial into his musical ferocity. Costume designer Oliver Garcia dresses this period piece in gorgeous fabrics and romantic silhouettes, and Bologne’s ambition comes center stage.
I couldn’t help but notice that Bologne is dressed in light blue throughout Chevalier. Imagine being that young and already having a signature color. Some people take years or lifetimes to understand what looks good on their body, but the light shade looks fantastic on star Kelvin Harrison Jr. When Bologne appears from the shadows in the opening scene, he challenges Mozart in the middle of a performance. These lighter hues almost feel like he’s emitting a light we have never seen before.
“I wanted to highlight that Joseph was aware of his appearance and that he understood the power of dressing and how it influences the way in which others perceive and accept you,” Garcia says. “Marie Antoinette was very fond of blue–this is a historical fact–and by Joseph absorbing this color into his wardrobe I wanted to say that he was smart and that he play the game to conform with the norms of the aristocratic society he circles in. He lived in a highly prejudiced society and he must have had to work harder than the rest in order to have the success he enjoyed.”
Garcia was eager to create costumes for Marie Antoinette, Bologne’s early champion. Even though we have seen Antoinette through several films and television shows, Garcia’s costumes go the extra mile. The pinks feel pinker and the blues feel deeper. He wanted to capture her spirit with how she wears her clothes.
“The idea of designing costumes for the iconic Marie Antoinette and to be able contribute to her legacy on screen was very exciting,” he says. “Most of what I know of her is from historical research and I have only watched one other film about her, the 2006 Coppola version. So I wasn’t concerned that my version would be similar to what we’ve seen before on film. I focused my designs around the specific portrayal that was on the script. I used a specific color palette for the different scenes she’s in and I tried to accurately recreate her silhouette, I hope I captured the essence and opulence of her fashion choices.”
Bologne finds a muse in Samara Weaving’s Marie-Josephine, and the delicacy of her patterns draw you in. In one scene, she wears a ravishing shade of yellow that feels meant to be worn on her skin, and there is a tremulous quality in the fabrics that Garcia collected for her. Even after Marie-Josephine and Bologne begin their affair, Garcia never loses the softness in her costuming.
“Marie-Josephine’s costumes were indeed the most delicate. She was young, wealthy and good-looking so I wanted her costumes to represent the latest Parisian fashions at the time. Her color palette is also delicate and indicative of the situations or emotions she’s going through. The yellow was symbolic of optimism, the prospect of her becoming the leading lady on Joseph’s Opera and the white crisscross flower dress was suggestive of the developing love between them. The flowers grow in size and multiply for her Ernestine Opera Dress to fully confirm their love on screen.”
A third woman in Bologne’s orbit is Minnie Driver’s Marie-Madeleine Guimard, an opera diva who hurls racism and spite in Bologne’s direction. When we see Guimard on stage, she is dressed in the most opulent and ornate costumes (during one performance, she wears a spikey headpiece that is to die for), and Garcia takes full advantage to dress her in darker colors that hint at her severity.
“La Guimard’s colors represent a darker personality compared to Mari-Josephine and you’ve explained exactly what I was trying to say with the color in their costumes,” he says. “For the Opera performances, the design approach for her costumes had to be different because she plays various characters and Opera design was a more heightened version of the reality. I researched the Baroque art movement and that informed my design choices.”
Chevalier is, ultimately, a story about identity and how this man was denied a true celebration of his gifts. When Bologne reconnects with his mother, Nanon, he spends time with people that look like him for the first time in his life. He no longer stands out in a crowd just for the tone of his skin color. In one of the film’s best moments, Bologne sits down and drums his hand on a drum. The instrument is on the ground and he feels connected to something, and Garcia puts him in a passionate emerald green jacket–a color we have yet to see him wear.
“From the moment we see Joseph in that scene, he had distanced himself from the Queen and the upper-class,” Garcia says. “They have rejected him and he’s no longer searching for acceptance in that society. I had to make a visual distinction to show that he no longer needed to dress in those colors to fit in. Joseph now is accepting of his circumstances and he embraces the African community that his mother, Nanon, introduces him to. His styling from then on is more relaxed and representative of a connection with his cultural heritage, his color choices are darker and more earthy. This jacket we are talking about is made out of a green dyed cloth that originally was blue and so you still have his original color running through on the underneath, very subtly though. Gradually he wears it less and less until we conclude the film with him wearing purple in celebration of his creative achievements for his people.”
In the film’s final act, Bologne organizes a concert to benefit the anti-royalist faction as the French Revolution begins. He steps on stage with no powdered wig, and he wears a purple jacket to perm in, and we realize that it’s the same color that Mozart wore in the opening scene. This was a completely intentional choice.
“You are the first journalist to mention this” he says. “I think color is such a powerful storytelling tool and I use it as much as I can in my work to define characters. This use of purple, in different shades of, was definitely intentional. I wanted to connect Mozart and Bologne and although the music duel at the beginning of the film is fictitious, their lives crossed at some point in Paris and they must have musically influenced each other. Unfortunately, even though they were contemporaries, historians don’t talk much about them in relation to each other and by using the same color in their costumes I am visually stressing their connection.”
With so many beautiful pieces in Chevalier, it was hard for me to narrow down what I would want to take from set. Harrison Jr. wears a gorgeous pair of light blue suspenders in several private moments, and I could see myself taking his red ring. Garcia and I might have to fight over those suspenders, though…
“I think I would also choose the suspenders and a ruffled shirt, specifically the low cut one he wears in the final scene,” Garcia says.
Chevalier is streaming now on Hulu. Take a look at more of Garcia’s creations below.
