Cruella: Disney's Latest Version Draws on Design for Power

Emma Stone as Cruella in Disney’s live-action CRUELLA. Photo by Laurie Sparham. © 2021 Disney Enterprises Inc.

By Kate Mazade

“Cruella” is like the filmy shimmer on top of spilled gasoline. Ruby and gold marble over greasy blackness. That oily rainbow is the film’s fashion and architecture—or in this case, costuming and set design—that rises through the murk, showing that something dark can be both beautiful and powerful.

Yet another rendition of the Dodie Smith’s 1956 children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, “Cruella” is the origin story of the Disney villain we love to hate. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the live-action film stars Academy Award winner Emma Stone (“La La Land”) as Cruella de Vil and two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) as the Baroness von Hellman—an impeccably dressed duo whose power plays are punctuated by winged eyeliner and half smirks.

While both Stone and Thompson can topple confidences with a skeptical raised eyebrow, their performances were overshadowed by the film’s design. The real geniuses behind “Cruella” are costume designer Jenny Beavan, production designer Fiona Crombie, and set decorator Alice Felton—all of whom transformed the infamous two-toned nightmare into a daring and inventive victim of circumstance.

“There's grit to it,” said Felton in an interview with The Movie Times. Described by Felton as an “indie Disney film,” “Cruella” has a low-light cinematic filter that follows young grafter fashion designer Estella through her metamorphosis to dalmatian-clad chaos in 1970s London. With each set and costume change, Estella/Cruella and her rival couture designer the Baroness try to upstage each other.

Emma Stone as Estella in Disney’s live-action CRUELLA. Photo by Laurie Sparham. © 2021 Disney Enterprises Inc.

From Converse high tops with rainbow laces and a bottle cap-studded jacket to tortoise-shell cat eye frames, a black beret, and dark red shag haircut, Estella’s wardrobe adds just enough personality to force a double-take while letting her slip anonymously through Regents Park to her attic hideaway. With patchwork quilts and thumbtacked drawings, the attic is a sort of urban tree house that evolves with its resident. The scavenged bits and newspaper clippings change, but the rooftop window continually provides Estella a raven-like view from above, a perspective over the city.

In the House of Baroness Warehouse, monochromatic white surfaces with sharp black accents are encased by spindled columns and squinched arches in a soft sage green. The Viollet-le-Duc-meets-Victor-Horta vibe gives the couture house art nouveau elegance with bespoke rigidity. The Baroness’s glazed mezzanine office says, “You can't touch me.” As does her black and gold asymmetrical houndstooth peplum jacket and black silk headwrap. Each of the Baroness’s elevated but decidedly English looks are paired with different geometric gold-rimmed glasses, red-lipped pout, and dead-eyed unbotheredness.

The first head-to-head showdown takes place in the House of Baroness ballroom. Its all-white neoclassical forms are decorated with intricate plaster reliefs, gold draperies, and flounced chandeliers—exuding decadence and class. Enter the Baroness in a black and white column dress with a stiff throne-like collar, accessorized with three threatening dalmatians.

That should be the clear winner until a masked figure in a hooded white cape steals the show. In a halo of fire, Cruella is revealed in a ruched scarlet mermaid complete with wild black and white curls.

Emma Thompson as the Baroness in Disney’s live-action CRUELLA. Photo by Laurie Sparham. © 2021 Disney Enterprises Inc.

And thus starting gun is fired. Cream one-shoulders with heart-shaped wings oppose junkie military jackets and red ruffled mega skirts. Patterned silks pare newspaper cathedral trains. Jewel-tones rival steampunk face paint. In each face-off the Baroness glares from the top of staircases while Cruella smirks from cobblestones—the upper echelon versus the average joe—of course if the average joe happened to drive a bronze 1974 Panther de Ville as a getaway car.

With each gilded doorframe and smoky eye, the Baroness and Cruella claim power—albeit not the same types. The Baroness is elevated by status, Cruella through vantage. One rises with gold-plated history, the other by leather-clad ingenuity. The strength in everyone knowing your name versus the freedom and anonymity of no one knowing it—that is, until they do.

”…Cruella de Vil…Cruella de Vil…if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will…”

Disney’s “Cruella” is available for purchase on Disney+ (Premiere Access).