In style: dressed to kill

The Hunger Games is a visual smorgasbord of a movie, a cast of hundreds dressed in everything from utilitarian garb with Depression-era grit to glam-gone-grotesque Gaga get-ups inspired by the latest haute couture. Then there's that dress worn by the young heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) that goes up in flames.

It may seem as if it doesn't get much better than this for a costume designer. But the pressure is on to please fans of author Suzanne Collins's young adult trilogy, who have purchased millions of copies of the books and have already broken the record previously held by Twilight Saga: Eclipse for advance ticket sales for the film.

"I tried to stay as close to the descriptions in the book as I could," says costume designer Judianna Makovsky. "When I was doing Harry Potter, I changed to an unlisted phone number because I was so terrified I was going to disappoint people."

She needn't worry with this film, which depicts a dystopian universe of haves and have-nots, with a glittering Capitol that is the seat of "let them eat cake" power and the outlying districts, including the drab, impoverished District 12 that is Katniss and Peeta's home. The annual Hunger Games require 24 participants, a boy and a girl from each district who fight to the death. And the "show" is broadcast live, watched by everyone in the land with the same fervour real-life viewers have for reality TV.

A study in trends

The costumes in the film are wonderful to look at, but they are also an interesting study because of how they reflect today's fashion world. The simple beauty of the clothes in District 12, for example, recalls fashion's never-ending fascination with vintage work wear, authenticity and Americana, which is seen in "heritage" brands such as RRL and LL Bean. And the outrageous clothing in the Capitol brings to mind the see-and-be-photographed blogger culture that thrives on peacockish personal style and celebrates the kookiest among us, from Nicki Minaj to Bryan Boy.

There's also the legion of Hunger Games stylists — led by Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) — who help the Tributes (as the Hunger Games contestants are known) dress to impress.

In the past decade, styling has become an industry unto itself. Makovsky put as much thought and consideration into the low-key costumes for District 12 as she did for those in the Capitol. She started her research by looking at photographs of working-class people from the turn of the 19th century to the 1960s in Appalachia and other places in America, particularly images by Lewis Hine and Mike Disfarmer. "We took the basics from that, the simple shapes of the clothes and the colours."

A pair of striped pants Katniss wears to hunt were made from an 1870s Levi Strauss pattern. Her caramel-coloured leather jacket was modelled after 1940s styles plucked from costume houses for inspiration. It's not oversized, as specified in the book, where it is described as a hand-me-down from her father. "We tried that, but it didn't look good, and she couldn't move her arms to shoot," Makovsky explains. The Sunday-best blue dress that Katniss wears at the Reaping, as the lottery for the Hunger Games is known, was also difficult to get right. "We made dozens of different versions, some sheer, some not. Originally we thought it would be cotton, but rayon looked better.

Taste of the Capitol

For inspiration for the Capitol costumes, Makovsky looked at Italian fascist architecture and the work of 1930s and 1940s fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Filmgoers get their first taste of the Capitol when Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), the ambassador to the Hunger Games, arrives for the Reaping dressed in a fuchsia dress and a pink wig with a vintage 1930s flower hat stuck on. Her gold booties are from Alexander McQueen, whose work comes to mind when looking at the Capitol dwellers. Effie is part Marie Antoinette and part Isabella Blow, and she can barely walk in her shoes — which was intentional. "She is a fashion victim," Makovsky says.

The stylist Cinna, on the other hand, is more understated. "I wanted a simple elegance for him. I found the black Lurex Prada sweater he wears, and we built on that."

Cinna, whom we meet in the Capitol, conceives of the outfits that Katniss and her partner Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) wear to represent District 12 in the parade that opens the Hunger Games, and help curry the public's favour.

Aiming for the subtle

For the "girl on fire" dress Katniss wears when she's interviewed on TV on the eve of the games, Makovsky was inspired by Orry-Kelly's transformative gowns in the 1962 film Gypsy, starring Natalie Wood as an awkward tomboy who transforms into legendary burlesque stage performer Gypsy Rose Lee.

"I wanted the dress to be red, but not so covered in stones that it would look like something out of Dancing With the Stars," Makovsky says.

"I didn't want the clothes to overwhelm Katniss," Makovsky says. "We wanted to go crazy with the costumes, but it was better to be subtle. It was important to be able to see the characters through the clothes."