Style Icons: Male »Danilo Donati

Amazing Costume Designer

Becoming a crazy warlord queen has never been at the top of my list of things to do – but if it was guaranteed that all my extreme headgear would be designed by Danilo Donati, I might just reconsider my priorities in life.

It was, funnily enough, one of his least revered films (Red Sonja) that got me into the man’s work. Featuring an achingly bad performance by Sandahl Bergman and a lanky Bridgitte Neilson who is out-shined by her monumental mullet (seriously it’s so long and crazy it takes mullets beyond ugly, beyond so ugly it’s kitschy and cool, and brings them to someplace special), Red Sonja is no masterpiece, but the costumes are the stuff of big necklace and golden spiked dreams.

With a little research I found that Donati was also responsible for the costumes in some of my favorite Fellini films, many of the films of Pasolini, and the disappointingly boring but visually wowing Caligula (see stills below/after jump). He also was behind the Roberto Benigni Pinocchio, right before he passed away, but before you judge him for it, you have to admit that funky suit is phenomenal. In 2007, Italians got to see his work in the Costume a corte exhibit, of which I found a few photos online here. I am so in love!

danilo donati