The clothes maketh the film

The fashion in this season's "prestige" films is notable for historical references and inventive approaches to traditional costuming. Here we talk to costume designers about the inspirations and triumphs of working on six stylish new films.

True Grit. Coming in February

Thanks to costume designer Mary Zophres, the look of the characters along the dusty trail is intoxicating. "Men were not wearing belts in those days," Zophres says, "but they had belts that tied their saddle rolls together. So that's how I pitched it, that [Mattie] could have wrapped that around the waist. It was really cute."

The King's Speech. Release date: January 27

Costume designer Jenny Beavan commissioned bespoke suits for Albert and "off-the-peg" tweeds for Lionel Logue. Albert's wife, Elizabeth, wears the charming, softly coloured tie-front blouses, long skirts, fur-trimmed coats and feathered hats of the day.

But the biggest fashionista in the film appears only briefly: Wallis Simpson is dressed for a dinner party in an aubergine off-the-shoulder gown and a necklace with a zipper pendant worn over her bare back. The piece was borrowed from Van Cleef & Arpels and is similar to one Simpson commissioned from the jeweller in the 1930s.

The Tourist. Currently showing in cinemas

At its best, The Tourist recalls elegant 1950s-era Alfred Hitchcock films with Grace Kelly. At its worst, it's reminiscent of the kind of slick perfume commercials you see on TV. But there's no denying that the costumes, in the hands of Colleen Atwood, are resplendent.

Angelina Jolie's sleek look, all neutral colours and rich fabrics, was inspired by Kelly's elegance, says Atwood, as well as the fashion photographs of Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolfe. The sash was pure seduction. "It reminded me of wild animals, how they have a flash of colour."

The Tempest: TBA

Julie Taymor charged Sandy Powell with designing costumes for Prospera and Miranda that looked as if they could have emanated from the landscape.

In some scenes, Prospera wears a rough indigo-dyed cotton-and-linen tunic, a garment that calls to mind the waves of cooled lava that cover the island. "We looked at the work of a lot of Japanese fashion designers — Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe and Yohji Yamamoto — and experimented with texture," Powell says.

Black Swan. Not releasing in the UAE

"The costumes had to play with the duality of a world that is very beautiful and very brutal too," says Laura Mulleavy, who with sister Kate is behind the blockbuster fashion label Rodarte.

The result is a feast of tulle and feathers drawing inspiration from the paintings of Degas and historical essays, including Marianne Moore's writing about the famous Russian dancer Anna Pavlova.

The black swan was meant to resemble "a broken, mechanical bird", Mulleavy says. "To make her seductive, we used burnt copper on her crown in the shape of talons and stalactites."

Tron: Legacy. Currently showing in cinemas

The "grid" in the film is the same digital universe of tyrants and blood sports that filmgoers were introduced to back in the 1982 original. And yet it's completely different, just as today's video games are completely different from those of 30 years ago.

The effects are visually stunning, and in terms of iconic looks, the costumes by Michael Wilkinson and Christine Bieselin Clark should rank with those of sci-fi fantasies Barbarella, Mad Max, Blade Runner, Star Wars and The Matrix. While the costumes worn on the grid in the original film were little more than Spandex bodysuits illuminated digitally in post-production, the new grid suits are illuminated internally, using battery packs worn on the actors' backs.