Together, they landed on a wardrobe for Sylvie that felt eclectic and youthful. “I did my fitting before we even did a table read, so that was the place to find out who she was,” says Fanning. “We went through different phases of what Sylvie should look like. We sourced a lot of jeans from the ’60s, and they just fit different—they’re just better! There’s also this amazing vintage shaggy fur coat that I wear, and in [Suze’s] memoir, she actually describes it as a coat that Bob got her.” Phillips saw Sylvie’s costumes as a reflection of the young woman’s interests and activism. “For me, she embodied this kind of young, free-spirited New York girl, who is very sophisticated and artistic, yet unpretentious,” says Phillips. Fanning’s favorite look? “There were these great pattern combinations of floral sweaters with striped shirts—it looked so Prada,” she says.
Another pivotal character in the film, meanwhile, is Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). For Phillips, it was a return to the character: She costume designed Jaoquin Phoenix’s Cash in 2005’s Walk the Line. “Boyd Holbrook is a different actor than Joaquin Phoenix—they’re both brilliant and both have a different physicality, so we approached it a little bit differently,” she says. Though the looks were (not surprisingly) all-black, Phillips had fun exploring how Cash’s personal style bled into Dylan’s this time around. “I really learned about the influence that Johnny Cash had on Bob Dylan,” she says. “After Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash probably had the biggest influence on Bob’s style state-bound. Bob ended up wearing a lot of black in the sixties—and Johnny, of course, was the Man in Black.”
Photo: Searchlight Pictures
Reflecting on costuming the film, Phillips says working on the project was unlike any other she’s done so far. It combined the research and depth of a historical biopic, with the creativity and freedom required when depicting a pop culture icon. “We had so many fittings—I don’t even think I can count how many fittings,” says Philips. Her favorite memories were the special moments she shared with the cast through it all. “We were all kind of in bootcamp—we would have these sessions just pulling pieces,” says Phillips. “Timmy would show up with a guitar, and we would play music. He would be rehearsing in our fittings.” Fashion and a show.
