Jonathan Anderson on Dressing Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in ‘Queer’ and His Friendship With Luca Guadagnino: ‘I Feel Like I’ve Known Him My Entire Life’

variety.com:

Queer,” many of the most formative moments are wordless. Although expat William Lee (Daniel Craig) is more free in Mexico City to drink around the clock, shoot heroin and indulge in his gay desires than in America, there still remains a secretive slyness required in expressing his queerness — even in the slovenly cantinas south of the border.

Thus, much of the communication throughout the film falls largely on the clothes. Achieving this subtlety is “sometimes the hardest thing to do in film,” says Jonathan Anderson, the British-Irish fashion designer who oversaw the costume design on “Queer” and last collaborated with Guadagnino on”Challengers.” He turned to the Silent Film Era to help him master this wordless communication. “You have to be able to read character before they even speak because it’s about the action and the visual.” The slower, more nuanced process on set was a welcome change for Anderson, accustomed to the fast paced, commerce-tied fashion industry of which he is a powerful fixture.

The 40 year-old designer, best known for his eponymous label JW Anderson and as the creative director of the Spanish luxury house Loewe, won the Designer of the Year at the esteemed 2024 British Fashion Awards this past weekend.

But Fashion can also be a creatively claustrophobic environment — one in which you have to “just go bang!” he exclaims, pantomiming an explosion with his hands.