Hard Standing: Harbour Town Winter Drama Costume Board

A costume designer's board for a winter harbour-town drama: the world, fabrics and breakdown, character notes, fittings, small kit and a palette.

Updated

This board was built during prep for Hard Standing, a contemporary drama set in a working harbour town on the Scottish east coast in January. It does two jobs. It is the pitch the director and DP saw first, and now it is the daily tool the costume supervisor, the breakdown artist and the ADs use to keep fittings and ageing on schedule. The first section holds the written thinking: a one-page costume statement, the department brief filed for the first block of the shoot, one film reference with a note on exactly what to borrow from it and what to leave, and a clip of grey sea breaking under an overcast sky so anyone opening the board starts in the right weather. With the writing at the front, every picture after it can be judged against it. The second section is the world before the clothes. It is a grid of the harbour at low tide, boats laid up in the boatyard, rusted bollards on the quay, stacked nets, the harbour wall in an east wind and the fishing village along the front, all in the same flat winter overcast. Next to it sit the palette pulled from those photos and a note on how the camera's light limits what colours the locals can wear. Fabrics come next as a contact sheet of close textures: oiled wool, waxed cotton, orange tarpaulin standing in for oilskin PVC, salt-bleached rope, corduroy worn at the knee and pilled fleece. The breakdown rules and an ageing checklist sit beside them, because in a town like this how the clothes are worn matters more than what they are. Each character gets a note next to a picture of the place they belong to rather than an actor in costume, along with the fittings table the supervisor works from. Accessories shown in place on the quay and the deck, a boatyard field recording played in the fitting room, and a side collection of recce textures finish it. If you are starting your own costume design mood board, settle the light and the place first, then make every fabric and character choice answer to them. Photos by Peggy Johnson Philip Waikoloa, Ellie Burgin, Stanislav Kondratiev, Elena, Earth Photart, Monstera Production, Alexander Popadin, Berna, Rafi Uddin, gong qianlan, withatices ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏, Luis Quintero, Tony Zohari, Jonathan Cooper and Erik Mclean on Pexels. Sound: "WWS Adjustingadrydock" by Work With Sounds / Torsten Nilsson (CC BY 4.0) on Wikimedia Commons.
Close-up of ropes, chains, and equipment hanging in an industrial workshop, creating a rugged and utilitarian feel.

Costume statement

The town in one line

Inverbrae in January is a working harbour that no longer quite works. Half the fleet is up on the hard, the market runs two mornings a week, and everyone still dresses for the boat.

How the clothes behave

Nothing is chosen for how it looks. It was cheap at the chandlery, or it was a dad's, or it is warm. Layers are the story: a fleece under a gansey under oilskins, and you see all three at the neck and cuffs.

Wool, waxed cotton, PVC, fleece. No down puffers on locals.

Colour

Blurred view of a rainy day in Bournemouth, capturing raindrops on a window.
Wooden lobster traps stacked on a rustic dock by a tranquil body of water.

A × visual grid — Harbour, January (4 images) — view it on the board above.

A × visual grid — Fabrics + wear (3 images) — view it on the board above.

Fittings — Block 1

  • Character
  • Fitting
  • Changes
  • Status
  • Ellen Rae
  • Tue 27 Oct, 10:00
  • 9
  • 2nd fitting Tue 10 Nov
  • Dot Ingram
  • Thu 29 Oct, 11:30
  • 5
  • Alterations in
  • Neil Fairbairn
  • Mon 9 Nov, 09:30
  • 4
  • Booked
  • Callum Rae
  • Wed 11 Nov, 14:00
  • 11
  • Moving to Thu 12, 16:00?
  • Shona Marr
  • Thu 12 Nov, 10:00
  • 6
  • Booked; whites on order
A foggy rural cemetery with white tombstones and crosses amid serene silence.
Morven, hull scrape
Morven, hull scrape

Ellen Rae — skipper

54. Skipper of the Morven for 30 years; the boat is on the hard waiting on a refit she can't pay for.
- Her dad's navy gansey, darned at both elbows
- Rust-orange bib-and-brace oilskins, cracked
- Grey fleece under, zipped to the chin
- His steel watch
- Wool hat on the boat, bare-headed in town
On land the oilskin braces come down and hang round her waist.

Callum — back from offshore

24. Two years on wind-farm service boats. Arrives in a clean navy softshell with a company print, branded beanie, good boots.
- All zipped, fitted, synthetic
- Salt and diesel on him from Sc. 12
- Gives the beanie away, Sc. 18
- Last scene: his grandad's smock over the softshell
He is the only one in town who looks cold.

Manchester by the Sea (film)

What to take from it

- Layers for the cold, never for the look: work coat over hoodie over flannel
- Hats pushed back indoors, never taken off
- Nobody changes for the pub or the hospital; same coat all day
- Colour lives in the town, not the cast
Not taking: the parkas and team caps. Ours is the Scottish east coast: chandlery fleece, oilskins, ganseys.

Didn't make the main board. Kept for Kofi's breakdown references and for the funeral day, Sc. 27.

Callum's last rotation
Callum's last rotation

▶ East wind, 4pm swell (plays on the board above)

Dot, Neil + Shona

Dot Ingram, 71, chandlery: housecoat over two cardigans, specs on a cord, fingerless gloves.
Neil Fairbairn, 60, harbourmaster: aged hi-vis over a council fleece, never zipped.
Shona Marr, 33, market and processing: whites tea-dyed to bone, blue apron, white wellies, hair net; a big parka over the whites on her break. She smokes in the apron.

Harbour palette

  • Wet slate — #4a5259
  • Harbour fog — #a9ada6
  • Peat — #4b3a2c
  • Oilskin orange — #c8642b
  • Rope blue — #2f4f6b
  • Kelp — #5b5a3a
Shona's bench
Shona's bench

Breakdown rules

Kofi's breakdown, sign-off Fri 20 Nov.
- Wear where the body works: cuffs, elbows, right hip where the knife sits, knees
- Salt, not dirt: tide lines on boots and hems, white bloom on wool
- Oilskins crack at the folds, never new-shiny
- Two of everything Ellen wears, three where she gets wet
- Sandpaper and pumice only; no bleach on wool

Ageing — still to do

[x] Ellen's gansey x3 matched and darned
[x] Salt bloom test on wool swatches
[x] Callum's softshell: company print, x2
[ ] Oilskin sets cracked at folds (Ellen, Callum)
[ ] Neil's hi-vis aged, x3
[ ] Shona's whites: blood and scale stains, x3
[ ] Wellies tide-lined, 14 pairs for SA
[ ] Camera test pull list to Mei by Mon 23 Nov

Light we're dressing for

Priya is shooting flat overcast for day exteriors, sodium and tungsten for nights. So:
- Mid-tones on locals; nothing brighter than oilskin orange
- Whites go to bone; true white blows out on the market floor
- Navy over black for everyone, until the funeral
- Every exterior coat gets a wet-down at the camera test, Tue 24 Nov

Morven's deck
Morven's deck

Small kit

- Gloves: orange rubber gauntlets on the boat, cotton liners under; Dot in black fingerless
- Hats: one wool beanie each, rolled, no bobbles
- Ellen: her dad's steel watch, a lighter she never uses
- Neil: lanyard with port pass, readers in the fleece pocket
- Shona: hair net, blue plastic sleeves
- Knives on belts only aboard

♪ Boatyard, 6am — 1:15 · 0 BPM · M4A (plays on the board above)

Includes a nested board (open it from the canvas above)