TDKR: Costume Designer Lindy Hemming Talks In Detail About Her Work On The Film

On The Design Of The Costumes Worn By Bane And Catwoman:

Bane’s character was to develop throughout the film, and his story, where he came from, why he is injured, is shown from early youth to the ‘film present’. He is given some reality, as with all things Nolan, thus making him more interesting and believable. This is how I like to work, and why Chris is such an interesting and exciting director to collaborate with. The same process applies to all leading characters. When my research began, I had never heard of Bane. Catwoman of course I knew a little of, especially Michelle Pfeiffer’s costume by the great Bob Ringwood (with Mary Vogt). However, as usual, we soon abandoned that path, and embarked on looking for real life parallels for both of them. The catsuit worn by Anne Hathaway is actually a two-piece, separated by a low slung, fitted utility belt; her serrated heels double as weapons. The suit’s outer material is polyurethane coated Spandex with an embossed hexagonal pattern. Catwoman iconography is referenced subtly by night vision goggles (also functioning as a jeweller’s loupe) that flip up to form ‘ears’ when not in use.

Because of my research for this character; he is a man who has travelled the world as a kind of mercenary. I was looking at two main areas, firstly his military surplus scavenging, which has gone into making up his entire wardrobe and breathing equipment; I fell in love with a very old, matted Swedish army sheepskin arctic wear coat with huge collar and lead weights as buttons, a great characterful garment. Secondly his idealistic, romantic, revolutionary aspirations, which was how Chris Nolan had explained an aspect of him; this lead me to think about the French Revolutionary style / military greatcoat look with ample collars. We also has a feeling that this garment could be a ‘sign/signal’ of the change for the mania in his behaviour of and his worsening destructive megalomania as he enters the football field. Obviously this combination of ideas in a garment did not exist so I decided to set about designing it and having it made in L.A. It was a very difficult project, and there were the issues of multiples, the non- matching aspects of sheepskins, and, for poor Tom Hardy as Bane, an extra hot, heavy horror, as he was already facing torture by face and mouth with the covering mask.

The padded vest was made as it would have been in the story, from a collection of surplus tent canvas, old webbing belts, metal plates from the door of a jeep, military meshes etc., and was designed to be worn both with and without the leather and canvas back support belt, which Bane needs due to his torture in prison as a child/teenager. These pieces were also needed in exactly identical multiples, and were a very important part of achieving his extreme silhouette; tinkering with his proportions to help make him look more bulky, animalistic and aggressive. Bane’s costume is intended to resemble a hotchpotch of influences from different parts of the world he has visited as a mercenary. The mask’s design is intentionally animalistic but functional; it masks his identity but also keeps him alive by pumping a painkilling gas into his body. It was digitally mapped to Tom Hardy’s face as a prosthetic but intended to look metal. It had to appear completely different to Batman’s cowl and could not be black.

The trickiest character to nail down was Marion as Miranda Tate, who must not be given away during the course of the film, but who needed to look ethnic in some way that might relate her to Ra’s A Ghul by the end quarter of the story. Very Difficult.

Yes, something like that. She is now, like Bruce Wayne, living in the ‘normal’ world, and should look like any other holidaymaker in Italy. To her (Anne Hathaway) and myself, that kind of blue signifies happiness and has good connotations. Wish we had seen more of it, but it’s a mysterious scene.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ "The Dark Knight Rises" is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster "The Dark Knight." The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.