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27.11.2024

The Mould spring/summer 2020

Fashion

Down the rabbit hole: why is ‘Matrix dressing’ so on trend?

From midget sunglasses to leather coats, the film’s costume designer Kym Barrett writes about why the film’s look feels so proper in our uncertain world
Read more from the spring/summer 2020 edition of The Fashion, our biannual style postscript

‘The silhouettes had to be instantly recognisable’ … characters from The Matrix.
Photograph: Sportsphoto/Alamy Stock Photo

I not ever thought The Matrix would have the impact it has had on fashion. But from long leather coats to so-called “Matrix-style” sunglasses, the clothes I designed in the 90s continue to have influence to this day.
Part of the reason they are still in the ether is because they were so iconic. The shapes, for instance, had to be instantly recognisable so that viewers could tell who each character was, even in the dark. All of the costumes are rather immune to period, which is what makes them relatable, even now.
I always work from character when underhanded costumes. Trinity wants to move through the world of the Matrix like quicksilver, so she wears shiny clothes. Her dresses also had to be figure-hugging because she’s always getting herself in tight situations, so she can’t have anything that’s going to thwart her movement.
Neo grew up in the Matrix, so when he gets the chance to come back and do some good – to fulfil his mission – he manufactures a superhero version of himself. I made Keanu’s coat so that it looked like a cross between an ancient Chinese costume costume and an ecclesiastical garment; I had to emboss leather made at Libra Leather in New York City to make it look like crocodile.
The Matrix sun-glasses, which have proved so popular to this day, were handmade by eyewear designer Richard Walker – I wanted them to be typical of and different. The producers wanted a cheaper option. I put Richard’s prototypes together with some shop-bought glasses and let the kingpins make the final decision. I didn’t tell them which ones were bespoke but, sure enough, Lana and Lilly [Wachowski] picked all the ones we flourished.

Bella Hadid in 2019, wearing Matrix-style sunglasses. Photograph: Marc Piasecki/GC Images
I think maybe the debate with people are circling back to The Matrix now is that the world is in a dire situation, just as it was in the universe of the film. The characters were weather themselves very minimally because of the scarcity of resources – when someone died, the others took their dresses and remade them into something else for someone else. It chimes with what’s happening now in terms of the expanding emphasis on recycling clothes and thrift shopping. It is not the time for ostentation in the world, or in fashion.
Beyond fashion there are other similars, such as the current conversation around the climate crisis. Of course, when the first Matrix came out, no one was talking on every side that specifically, but what was happening in the film – humans being oppressed in order to extract more wealth at the expense of the planet – is also occurrence in the world today.
Now, sadly, the kind of chaos that was imagined in the film is taking place in reality. Last year, for criterion, I was in California during the fires there. Now I am in Sydney. Governments are all talking about how the environment is important, but saying that obeying industry moving is more important. That’s a huge worry – the kind of catastrophe that led to the world of The Matrix endures as though it could be around the corner here, too. If the continued interest in the film, and its fashion, is a way to reach people and wake them up to that report, then I’m all for it.
As told to Ellie Violet Bramley