Team Deakins MALGOSIA TURZANSKA - Costume Designer
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Mar 18, 2026 Malgosia Turzanska, a Polish-born costume designer known for Hamnet and Ain't Them Bodies Saints, shares her hands-on design process and career beginnings. She talks about research-driven period textures, collaborating with directors and DPs, fittings with actors, and practical techniques like distressing, dyeing, and balancing made vs. rented pieces.
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Design From Emotional Core Not Just Period
- Start design from an emotional, inside-out response before period specifics so costumes serve character arcs across time.
- On Train Dreams she used natural-light-driven palettes and made key standout pieces while renting most garments to show passage of time economically.
Distressing As Narrative Evidence
- Distressing and dyeing are storytelling tools that show lived-in history, not just age.
- Malgosia dyes garments herself and rubs dust and mud into hems to reflect the shoot's environment and natural-light cinematography.
Share Your Thought Process With Actors
- Share your emotional response and sketches with actors early so they understand your thinking and can collaborate in fittings.
- She found Jessie Buckley responded physically in fittings, signaling what felt honest for Agnes.