If asked the most stylish musician of all time, most people wouldn’t name Bob Dylan. That’s not to say that he didn’t have a sense of fashion, but rather, he wasn’t as experimental with his looks as other artists of his time, like James Brown or even The Beatles. Still, there was a political and meaningful nature to Dylan’s stripped-back wardrobe, which is brought to life in the new James Mangold biopic, A Complete Unknown.
In the film, we see the early years of Dylan’s career, from his debut in 1961 all the way to his controversial set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he and his band shocked the folk-loving crowds by performing with electric instruments. While watching the film, you feel like you’ve been transported to this time, thanks to incredible performances from stars like Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro, as well as strong direction from Mangold. However, it’s the costumes from designer Arianne Phillips that really help to set the scene.
“It was just a really incredible opportunity to dive into research,” Phillips says of getting to recreate the looks of the legendary musician. “We don’t know a lot about him because he’s famously been a bit of an enigma and he’s press shy... so I’ve been hunting and gathering images and reading books about him.”
Despite fewer photos of Dylan in the beginning of his career, Phillips found one through-line across every era of his music: his jeans.
“He has worn jeans consistently throughout his life,” she says, noting that this was a strong stylistic statement at the time. “Denim was really relegated to the workplace... You couldn’t wear denim to school. You couldn’t wear it to work if you weren’t working blue collar. And you certainly couldn’t wear it to church.”
But by the time the Summer of Love rolled around in ’67, Phillips notes that you’ll see all kinds of photos of teenagers in denim. “The jeans are really, to me, representative of a youth culture movement that started,” she says.
Of course, Dylan was no stranger to leading movements, or influencing trends in America, the nation that was one of the strongest subjects across all his writing. So, it should come as no surprise that the singer’s go-to denim source was actually an American heritage brand: Levi’s.
“I was speaking to Paul O’Neill, who is the head of the vintage collections department [at Levi’s] because I needed to vet if these were indeed those pants,” Phillips says. “And they were like, ‘He famously wore these version of 501s at that time in ’63 and you see so many pictures of him at Columbia Records wearing them in so many places... So thankfully, the kind people at Levi’s agreed to manufacture them for us based on the original ones, and that was beyond thrilling.”
Fans of Phillips’s work shouldn’t be surprised to learn of her attention to detail, given her history of award winning costume design for period-specific movies like Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and A Single Man.
Notably, this was also her sixth time working with Mangold, and she says the two share a trust in one another that helps feeds the artistic process. “One of the [reasons] I keep coming back to the work with him is because I feel so valued and my voice is very encouraged, not only specifically with the costumes,” she says. “I mean, [costumes] are the tool for character development and world building, so Jim really engages me on all levels, whether it’s casting or collaborating with the set designer. So, it is more than a safe space with Jim.”
In the end, Phillips’s meticulous work shines through, from Dylan’s crunchy suede jackets and (of course) his jeans, to the drop-waist dresses and pieces worn by Joan Baez and others.
“You know, this time period—it’s such an awesome time for fashion and style, and it's a real reflection of change,” Phillips notes. “Like Dylan’s song says, ‘The times they are a-changin.’ And so I think for the design, [it was about] keeping it rooted in reality... You know, the center of our story is about a man, a young artist who’s only 19 to 24, finding his voice and refusing to be boxed in by one thing.”
A special capsule collection will be released by Levi’s to coincide with the theatrical release of A Complete Unknown on December 25. You can shop it here.
