Catherine Martin spent a decade listening to her husband, Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, obsess over "The Great Gatsby," without initially sharing his obsession with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of excess and moral decline.
After filming 2001’s "Moulin Rouge," Luhrmann had set off on a "debriefing adventure," taking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing through northern Russia and then continuing on to Paris. He had with him two audiobooks, and alone in his cabin, he started listening to "The Great Gatsby," pictures of the narrative forming in his head. By the end of the story, he was convinced he had to tell it on film.
Martin, an Oscar-winning costume and production designer, wasn’t immediately won over by the project, which follows narrator Nick Carraway’s move from the Midwest to New York City in 1922, a time of loosening morals, youth culture, bootleggers and skyrocketing stocks. There he’s drawn into the world of the partying millionaire Jay Gatsby, who aims to win his love, Daisy, from her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan.
"I first knew of the book as a teenager, but growing up in Australia, I didn’t connect with some of the themes," Martin said by phone last week from New York, where she was on a media tour to promote the film, which opens Friday.
But listening to Luhrmann’s take on the story and the parallels to today’s society and economy, she said she eventually became the book’s No. 1 fan and started convincing people it was her idea to make the film. After all, what costume designer wouldn’t relish the prospect of bringing the decadent glamour of the 1920s back to life?
Martin has never had trouble realizing her husband’s visions. She designed the productions for all his films over 20 years, including "Strictly Ballroom," "Romeo + Juliet," "Moulin Rouge" and "Australia."
"Baz, as a director, is a visualist. He always has strong ideas of what he wants his films to look like, so always has sketches, philosophical perspectives, and wanted something as visceral and dynamic as the New York of Tom Buchanan," Martin said. "I always have my own input. My job is to be a strong, energetic collaborator. He doesn’t want a person who says yes to everything, but one who can take an idea, run with it, challenge him and find unexpected solutions. He wouldn’t have kept me around if I didn’t surprise him."
Martin approaches her work like an anthropologist, collecting photos and images from the era.
"We’re blessed because the photographic image and also filmmaking was extremely prevalent in the ’20s, so the time was captured not only in illustrations and drawings — cartoons of the times — but there are extensive photo archives. It’s very exciting because you see the birth of our modern contemporary culture."
Martin’s research led her to Brooks Brothers’ extensive archives, dating to 1875, and there she discovered Fitzgerald was a lifelong customer who referenced the haberdasher in many of his books.
"We just had a kind of perfect collaboration," she said. Brooks Brothers provided more than 2,000 garments for the film, both formalwear — 200 tuxedos — and daywear. The company recently launched its Gatsby Collection, inspired by the menswear in the film.
Another collaboration with commercial application was Martin’s work with Tiffany & Co., which she deemed "extremely appropriate" because "the first design director (Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of founder Charles Lewis Tiffany) was a doyen of Long Island," where "The Great Gatsby" was set.
In the late 19th century, Tiffany promoted pearls as the ideal gift for women, and Fitzgerald described Buchanan’s gift of pearls to Daisy valued at $300,000.
Martin said Tiffany was able to reproduce gems out of its archives as well as create new pieces and loan archival pieces, some with daisy motifs that have been part of the company’s design iconography since its inception.
Like Brooks Brothers, the company was inspired by the film to create its Ziegfeld Collection, named for the Ziegfeld Theatre, a model of Art Deco architecture. The collection reflects the era’s elegant style with elongated strands of pearls, diamonds, black onyx and sterling silver.
Martin also worked with Prada designer Miuccia Prada, a friend since they collaborated on "Romeo + Juliet," who came up with the elegant garments that filled the film’s party scenes and "connect the past to the present in a very visceral way," she said. "Filmgoers will recognize the high fashion that is a part of that world."
She said many aspects of the cautionary 1920s tale are reflected in contemporary society that seems to have lost its way on economic and moral grounds. "I think we’re caught up in a cycle of greed, and only the existential philosophy of putting people first will save us," she said.
