All the secrets behind Cleopatra’s wardrobe, the most lavish in the history of cinema

On June 12, 1963, it was released for the first time. Cleopatra, the biggest blockbuster in the industry to date and a critical and public failure that, however, has made a name for itself in the history of cinema. The film had a rocky start, an even more complicated development and a bitter end, since Although it was the highest grossing film of that year, it only raised 24 million dollars of the 44 that the production cost. A failure that brought the 20th Century Fox studio to the brink of bankruptcy. Its first director, Rouben Mamoulian, left the film when the tape had already eaten 5 million dollars, the part shot so far was scrapped and new actors were chosen for the role of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton they were selected. None of them managed to outshine their great protagonist, elizabeth taylor in the role of Cleopatra, work for which signed a million dollar contract of the time.

An Oscar locker room

Finally, Joseph L. Mankiewicz assumed the reins of direction and was in charge of finishing the editing of a pharaonic film that had an initial direction of six hours, to be reduced to four hours at its premiere. The criticism was not favorable but Cleopatra won 4 Oscars, including Best Costume.

The costume designers in charge of replicating, with their historical licenses, the costumes of the film Cleopatra were Irene Sharaff (West Side Story, The King and I…), Vittorio Nino Novarese (Torment and ecstasy, Cromwell) and the costume designer renie conley. Not only did they devise the dozens of looks of the most famous queen of Egypt, all of them with great profusion of details, but they had to emulate the attire from the time of the thousands of extras and dozens of secondary characters that follow one another throughout history.

Sharaff was the one who was specially in charge of Cleopatra’s costumes, adapting the changes to the evolution of the story (curiously, the designer was in charge of creating Liz Taylor’s wedding dress at her first wedding with Richard Burton, whom she met on the set of this film, but that’s another story).

The monocolor dresses with a flowing look, with a neckline and straps are repeated at different times in the film in colors such as egg yellow, blue or bottle green. The tunics and caftan-like designsrichly decorated with embroidery and metallic threads, define a good part of the outfits of the powerful Cleopatra.

The initial lookswithout being strictly simple, are less ostentatious than ceremonial designsincluding the golden costume worn by the queen in one of the film’s key scenes, the set “Phoenix”. During her solemn triumphant procession in Rome in the company of hers her son hers Caesarion, Cleopatra appears on a sphinx in a scene that reflects the scale of the production and the number of extras involved in filming. We see her dressed in a tight golden metallic dress. Above this, a 24-carat gold cape that emulates the feathers of a phoenix, made with golden leather straps, adorned with beads and sequins. To this is added a large crown with snakes facing the sun, a tribute to Ra, the god of the sun and the origin of life in Egyptian mythology. In 2012, the cape was sold at auction for $59,375.

Record change of looks for Liz Taylor

A piece of information that allows us to understand the scale of production is found in the 65 costume changes that Liz Taylor had in the film. The actress entered the Guinness Book of Records for such a featsurpassed five years later by Julie Andrews in the film The star (Star!). Of those 65 costumes, “only” half appear on the screen, the rest were left out of the editing despite the high budget allocated to the costume item, the highest to date for a single character.

Although Cleopatra captures all eyes during the four hours of film, the The wardrobe of the hundreds of extras who participated in the film also contains a colossal job. It is estimated that a total of 26,000 costumes were created while the army soldiers featured in the film wore more than 8,000 pairs of shoes.

One of Richard Burton’s uniforms, as well as some of Liz Taylor’s silverware, have become museum relics, and several are on display at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, where part of the film was shot. Other of the costumes from the film ended up in the actress’s own closet, being sold at auctions after her death.

Pieces of jewelry and wigs everywhere

The countless wigs that Cleopatra wears show the queen’s interest in showing a powerful image, since, as can be seen in the film, she wears the wigs over her own jet-black hair. For To increase that halo of majesty, the wigs are decorated with all kinds of golden decorations, shiny beads and headdresses.acquiring new doses of ostentation in each scene.

The crowns and headdresses, as well as the jeweler’s that adorns Cleopatra’s wardrobe, also has an essential weight. The references to Egyptian symbology are constantly repeated: the uraeus serpent -representation of the goddess Wadjet, something that only the pharaohs could wear- from her coronation headdress, the bangles that adorn his arm, the large gold earringsthe necklaces of coins or the belts and pieces that are located under her bust, are some of the most remarkable pieces. In fact, during the promotion of the film, Taylor was photographed with one of the jewel looks worn in the film in one of the most remembered images of Bert Stern. We do not know if some of the jewels ended up in the personal collection of the interpreter, a great lover of high jewelry.

Makeup, key in the image of Cleopatra

The work of the makeup team also deserves a separate mention. He black eyeliner, taken to the extreme in the film version with a sky blue eye shadow (with a glossy finish in the most lavish moments), is part of the image that comes to mind to all of us when thinking about the character of Cleopatra. The artist Albert De Rossi was in charge of making it, while the hairdressing was carried out by Vivienne Walker. A mammoth job for a historical film that 60 years later continues to amaze moviegoers and fashion lovers in equal measure.