More than most films, the costumes in Toni Erdmann tell the story. Director Maren Ade’s new tragicomedy of manners makes its points as much through what its characters are and aren’t wearing as through anything they say. Set largely in Bucharest, it follows buttoned-up corporate consultant Ines Conradi (Sandra Hüller) and her prankish father Winfried (Peter Simonischek) as they struggle to reconnect as adults. The 65-year-old widower makes an impromptu visit...

Brooklyn, a period drama starring Saoirse Ronan as an Irish immigrant to America, is about love, loss and what Ronan wore. Costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux spoke with me about creating wardrobe for the film's Trans-Atlantic cast: http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/1161/costume_designer_odile_dicks_mireaux_spruces_up Brooklyn was a selection of the New York Film Festival and opens theatrically on November 4. ...

Patricia Norris knows a thing or two about costume design. A half a century in the business will do that. And now the 82 year old is poised to learn something else: whether she'll finally take home an Academy Award after being nominated six times. The work currently under consideration is for Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave, based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped into slavery for more than a decade. To stitch together what went into designing costumes f...