{"id":117908,"date":"2025-09-06T05:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T05:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/117908\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T05:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T05:11:09","slug":"caught-stealings-costumes-are-a-love-letter-to-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/117908\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Caught Stealing\u2019\u2019s Costumes Are a Love Letter to New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Austin <\/p>\n

\n Photo: Niko Tavernise\/Niko Tavernise\n <\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any lesson to be had from the movie Caught Stealing,<\/a> it\u2019s to never say \u201cyes\u201d to pet-sitting for your neighbor unless you really trust them. Set in 1998 New York, Hank (played by Austin Butler<\/a>) gets dragged into a mess after agreeing to watch his neighbor\u2019s cat while he returns to London. While Hank\u2019s city skills get tested as he\u2019s thrown into the criminal underworld between cops, mobsters (including a red-haired Bad Bunny<\/a>), and the Orthodox Jewish community, through it all, he leans on his kind-of girlfriend, Yvonne (Zo\u00eb Kravitz<\/a>), an EMT and real New Yorker, until he can\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n

While the plot is entertaining and fast-paced, the best part of the film is how it serves as a love letter to the East Village in the \u201990s. And with that, the costumes created by Amy Westcott have a chance to shine. Some key moments of the film hinge on the clothing and props, including when Hank traces a lost key back to a pocket of an unhoused neighbor or discovers a murder based on a lighter. (Just see the film; it will make sense.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ironic to see some of these trends come full circle,\u201d says producer Dylan Golden. \u201cWe would work incredibly hard to make sure our costumes and sets were accurate to the period, but then we would be shooting in the East Village or Chinatown, and it would be impossible to tell who was an extra and who was just a fashionable passerby.\u201d Between the clothing and the replication of some notable establishments, we venture back to a time that the filmmaker, the production designer, and Westcott all lived in, which is why it all feels so real. With the resurgence of \u201990s fashion, it felt even more important to make it authentic to Westcott and the team.<\/p>\n

\"Austin <\/p>\n

Photo: Niko Tavernise\/Niko Tavernise\n <\/p>\n

What were your initial thoughts when you were approached to do this movie?<\/p>\n

\u200bIt didn\u2019t take much convincing. It\u2019s quintessential New York in the \u201990s, and we were all there. I hate to age myself, but Mark Friedberg, Darren Aronofsky, and I all lived through this time in New York history. So I read the script, and I wrote him back, like, \u201cBaseball, cat, boy who loves his mom \u2026 I\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theater in which I saw the film, people literally cheered when Kim\u2019s Video<\/a> popped up. Obviously, the \u201990s were a big influence, but in terms of clothing, where else did you look for inspiration?<\/p>\n

\u200bI used a lot of real photos: of me and my friends, of anybody else who would give me photos of themselves, and of people in bars. The \u201990s styles are coming back now, but it\u2019s different. It\u2019s like a cleaned-up version. So, it was about getting back to the gritty \u201990s and how things were in New York at that point, and what people did differently than what they do now.<\/p>\n

What are some of the things you think are the big differences between the actual \u201990s and today\u2019s \u201990s style?<\/p>\n

\u200bNow it\u2019s almost like a cuter version, because back then, things were a little awkward. This was before low-waisted jeans came in, so jeans didn\u2019t fit the same. They were a dumpier fit. That reminds me that another place I drew a lot of inspiration from was music. Not only things that were happening in New York, but what was happening throughout the country and London. Russ (Matt Smith\u2019s character) is from England, and he listens to a whole different kind of music. So what does that look like when he switches back to New York, and that atmosphere, because that was when bars were filled with live bands.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s so interesting, because in the first scene, when they\u2019re at the bar, I remember Hank is like, \u201cNo dancing in the bar.\u201d And I was like, That\u2019s weird. Was that a thing, that you couldn\u2019t dance in bars?<\/p>\n

There was an actual law; you could not dance. I used to go to a bar in Alphabet City where you\u2019d go to the basement and you\u2019d be dancing, and they would flick the lights if the police were coming in because you weren\u2019t allowed to dance, so everybody had to stop what they were doing. It was illegal. It was like Footloose.<\/p>\n

I did not know that. Everyone\u2019s always like, \u201cOh my God. We love the \u201990s.\u201d But now I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d like that so much. Was there a character\u2019s outfit that was really hard to figure out?<\/p>\n

\u200bThere was a tough one, and it was probably not what you think it was. It was actually the Russians, the two guys who were played by Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin. We didn\u2019t want to have stereotypical Russian tough guys always in a black jacket. Instead, it was, What would they spend their money on? They\u2019ve been in America for a little while. What are they gonna buy? Nikita did a lot of research, and we decided his character would be flashy at times. My favorite costume that he wears is at the very end, when he has the shiny leopard shirt on, and he takes off this leather jacket, and he has black leather pants on, and it was just like, This is exactly right. This is how somebody would dress when they were spending their money in America, and it\u2019s new money, and they had a lot of it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Austin <\/p>\n

\n Niko Tavernise\/Niko Tavernise.\n <\/p>\n

\n Niko Tavernise\/Niko Tavernise.\n <\/p>\n

I want to ask about whenever Russ takes Hank to his little bunker, and he has all these leather jackets. Where did you source all of that? Was that all vintage leather?<\/p>\n

\u200bWe bought a few great punk jackets at Search and Destroy.\u00a0I ended up going there with Matt and with Darren at various times, because it\u2019s such an amazing place. A lot of it we just sourced from other vintage stores. It was all in New York. That was important for me, that it felt real and came from here. The only time that we had to diverge from that was if we needed multiples of something, like if somebody got bloody, but really all the principal things, and most of the background stuff, came from New York.<\/p>\n

Was there something that was really hard to find?<\/p>\n

\u200bMatt\u2019s jacket was no easy feat. We made a few. We got a few from Search and Destroy. We ended up finding a great one and added studs and things to it. So it was just this sort of evolution.<\/p>\n

Was there one specific item you hope people take away from this film, almost like the Challengers \u201cI told Ya\u201d tee?<\/p>\n

\u200bDefinitely the Giants hat. We had several of those, and we aged them so that they looked like they were several years old. Even though we had so many of them, Austin used the same one almost the entire time; it was just part of his thing. Sometimes, you give an actor a bracelet, a necklace, a lighter, or something, and it helps them become the character. In Austin\u2019s case, it was definitely the hat, and it helped him become Hank.<\/p>\n

Here are some portraits by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for your viewing pleasure:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

\n Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

\n Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n

Stay in touch.<\/p>\n

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