Playing dress-up: Hamnet costume designer found inspiration in tree bark, paper cuts, and burial ...

Designer Malgosia Turzanska shares her three favorite costumes and personal sketches from the Chloé Zhao movie, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Playing dressup: Hamnet costume designer found inspiration in tree bark, paper cuts, and burial shrouds Designer Malgosia Turzanska shares her three favorite costumes and personal sketches from the Chloé Zhao movie, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. By Clarissa Cruz Clarissa Cruz is an Executive Editor at and cohost of The Awardist podcast.

Designer Malgosia Turzanska shares her three favorite costumes and personal sketches from the Chloé Zhao movie, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

Playing dress-up: Hamnet costume designer found inspiration in tree bark, paper cuts, and burial shrouds

Designer Malgosia Turzanska shares her three favorite costumes and personal sketches from the Chloé Zhao movie, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

By Clarissa Cruz

Clarissa Cruz is an Executive Editor at and co-host of The Awardist podcast. She has also appeared as an entertainment expert on the Today show, The CBS Early Show, Good Morning America, E! and Access Hollywood.

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December 4, 2025 11:30 a.m. ET

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Jessie Buckley in 'Hamnet'. Credit:

Agata Grzybowska / FOCUS FEATURES

When it came to the earthy yet vibrant costumes in *Hamnet* — a fictional account of Anne Hathaway (known as Agnes in the movie and Maggie O'Farrell's book upon which it's based) and William Shakespeare's marriage and the death of their 11-year-old son, which inspired the Bard's play, *Hamlet* — designer Malgosia Turzanska was ruled by emotional truth, not historical accuracy, an approach that had Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao's blessing.

"Chloe straightaway said that we are not making a museum piece or a document, we're focusing on the story," Turzanska (*The Green Knight, X*), who thoroughly researched the period's styles, and used them as a starting point for stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, tells **. "It was Agnes and Will, not Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare….I felt like it was easy to just go from scratch and forget about the more stilted images that we might have of them."

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Below, Turzanska shares personal sketches and insight into three of her favorite costumes from the movie.

'Hamnet' costume designer Malgosia Turzanska's sketch for Agnes' red dress.

Malgosia Turzanska / 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Turzanska took her cues from the fiery energy Buckley channels for her character, Agnes.

"I saw her as this beating, living heart that is so undeniably alive and connected to nature," she says. "So from that image came these pulsating reds and oranges." The shades reflected Agnes' emotional journey. "As she's going through the story, her vibrancy decreases. It goes into rusts first, then into browns and grays as she [experiences] incredible grief and loss."

For this look specifically, Turzanska drew from the modularity of Elizabethan clothing, which allowed women to change skirts and sleeves on the same bodice — this one is made of wood bark cloth — creating new looks each time.

Joe Alwyn and Jessie Buckley in 'Hamnet'.

Courtesy of Focus Features

"I love how practical it was. She's wearing a leather string tied about her wrist [that] lives and ages with her. That is her look. There's mud on her, she's not scared to get in the weeds and do what she needs to do, collecting the herbs and doing her magic."

Paul Mescal is a grieving William Shakespeare in 'Hamnet' trailer

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Gray matters

'Hamnet' costume designer Malgosia Turzanska's sketch for one of Will's costumes.

Malgosia Turzanska / 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Mescal's look is a nod to Will Shakespeare's fraught relationship with his abusive father.

"They live in this quite dark house, so their colors are all on a grayscale," says Turzanska. "They're kind of blending in, so they're not provoking the father." For the inner jacket in this look, the costume designer found a laser-scratched leather in Rome that is meant to mimic the countless "paper cuts" Will received from his dad emotionally. The outer jacket had an "elephant skin texture" that foreshadows the clay shroud Will wears in the movie's final scene.

Paul Mescal in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska / FOCUS FEATURES

As for the details, Mescal already had a pierced right ear, but in order to stay accurate to images of Shakespeare, who wore his earring on the other side, the actor pierced his left ear for the role. Finally, on his belt, where men of that time would usually carry a dagger, Mescal suggested he wear a quill instead. "He just fell in love with it," says Turzanska. "He said, 'I don't need a dagger, all I need is this.'"

Ghost writer

'Hamnet' costume designer Malgosia Turzanska's sketch for Will's 'Hamlet' ghost costume.

Malgosia Turzanska / 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Mescal's ensemble in the film's final scene was the costume designer's favorite.

"I didn't know for the longest time what it was going to be," she says of the depiction of Will as the Ghost in *Hamlet*. "The cape was the shroud that we see Hamnet being wrapped in after he dies," says Turzanska, who researched historical renderings of ghosts. "Where did we come up with the ghost and the sheet with the eyes? Of course, it is the shroud that you get buried in. And cracking and shedding that was a part of [Will's] emotional journey."

The heavy clay and linen cape aligned with the anachronistic treatments in the rest of the play within the movie: Turzanska painted the players with flat latex paint to connect the actors with the contemporary audience. "I thought, oh, if I was designing *Hamlet *in Brooklyn, this would be something I could do."**

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Source: Drama

Published: December 09, 2025 at 08:38PM on Source: ANDY MAG

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