Film Costume: Australia (2008)

By Valentina Franco


The costume for Lady Sarah Ashley, was designed by Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin. The movie is set between the late 1930�s and early 1940�s, and Lady Sarah Ashley, who is a very proper English woman, is perfectly and exquisitely dressed throughout the movie regardless of the places she has to go. When she goes to Australia to make her husband sell his cattle station, she continues to wear her high-end clothes even in an environment that is a lot more primitive and that doesn�t have the same social atmosphere that she is used to. Her way of dressing , which is so perfectly planned and perfect in every detail, undoubtedly gives her status and a power that is aligned to her being the owner of the cattle station in Australia. She is extremely elegant and feminine in her way of dressing but she also utilizes some of the masculine elements such as blazers, ties and hats throughout her stay in Australia perhaps to reaffirm her position in a society that as a woman didn�t accept or respect her so much.