Spotlight on Terri Lamera

Costumer designer Terri Lamera has a special talent for bringing characters to life through wardrobe. It’s an innate ability that has earned her critical acclaim. 

With more than two decades in the Australian film industry, Lamera has an impressive catalogue of costume credits to her name, including H is for Happiness, Son of a Gun, 1%, Hounds of Love, the adaptation of Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, and An Accidental Soldier, for which she was nominated for an AACTA Awards for Best Costume Design in Television. 

On the back of taking out the Australian Production Design Guild’s JMB FX Studio Costume Design for a Feature Film Award for the family favourite, Runt, Lamera reflects on the artistry that makes the magic happen. 

How did you start out in costume design in the screen industry? 

I began in Education, majoring in Art, Theatre, Film and TV in Western Australia. We were lucky to have Geoff Gibbs (later Head of WAAPA) as our drama teacher. He took us to Sydney to see the amazing musicals which were totally avant-garde at the time, including The Rocky Horror Show, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Betty Blokk Buster Follies. They were incredibly inspiring. We came back and did our own musicals. 

In the early 1980s I moved to Sydney and began working as a key standby which I loved and continued until the early 90s. Working on set was a lot of fun and it teaches you about the filmmaking. I started designing for TV in the 90s and found it was a great place to learn what works in terms of design ideas and creating characters. 

Later, I had the benefit of assisting two great American designers, Louise Mingenbach (Superman Returns and X-Men Origins Wolverine) and Jeffrey Kurland (who worked with director Woody Allen on 15 movies including Bullets Over Broadway, Nim’s Island). 

They both came with a lot of film experience, and I learnt about the importance of a workroom and art finishing department in order to be truly creative. 

Above all, I learnt that: The team is the key! Having a combination of experienced people and young people eager to learn makes a great team. 

How do you approach costume design for film? Do you start with the script, characters or overall directorial vision? 

Each project is unique and I like to change genres from one project to the next – it’s good to challenge oneself! Costume is a collaboration with the director and the production designer. We usually decide on a style and a colour palette and commence researching ideas. It’s also a search for the unusual. 

We had a great time on Runt going off on location searches together with the director, writer, production designer – imagining what we could do and seeing what those colours would be. We ended up at my place eating pasta and brainstorming ideas! 

Where do you find inspiration for your work? 

I get inspired by colour, texture, character, layers, old things, handmade things and beauty. I like to believe in finding beauty in all kinds of things. I think of filmmaking like creating a painting and if the collaboration works amongst the creatives it really works. 

Two designers I find very inspiring are Mary Zophres (her work with the Coen Brothers on True Grit, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, No Country for Old Men) and Milena Canonero (Out of Africa, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited). Their many films are layered with knowledge from opera and fashion backgrounds that are important in the richness of colour and texture of a film. 

Let’s talk about Runt on the back of your APDG Award for Best Costume Design. Congratulations! What does this recognition mean to you? 

I’m very proud of this award. I tend to make light of awards but I’m reminding myself of how special and rare this is. It makes you think you must be doing something right! 

You are only as good as your team, and I had a great team! I can only put it down to working with the incredibly gifted John Sheedy who allows me to do whatever I like and always wants more if I offer it to him! Our collaboration on H is for Happiness was the same and ended in another award. 

Working with John, Craig Silvey and Clayton Jauncey was a huge laugh and I totally loved it. We had a lot of fun in our team making this film despite the hard work. 

How much of the wardrobe for Runt was custom-made versus sourced or vintage? 

John and I came up with the costume ideas very early and committed to that vision. We wanted to create timelessness and the visual ability to bring the olden days into the present. 

We made a lot of the costumes including having the patchwork dresses Annie and Susie Shearer’s dresses. We also had the knits made. A lot was sourced from all over the world and aged. Some were vintage finds, rentals and pieces from my own collection. 

I think it was the film we needed at the time to bring some fun and lightness into people’s lives. The best thing is that kids love it. It’s great for them to have a story that makes them laugh and there is a happy ending! 

You have chosen to work a lot in Western Australia. What have been your favourite projects in WA? 

Western Australia has been very good to me and I’ve loved returning here to work. I’ve been lucky to be able to interpret the stories of incredible WA writers like Tim Winton and Craig Silvey. 

H is for Happiness is a unique film and another collaboration with the brilliant Director John Sheedy and one I’m very proud of. It was pure creativity. 

I think Cloudstreet was my favourite TV series as I felt very connected to it and the quirkiness that could only be understood if you came from WA resonated with me, especially as I had just lost my father and we were shooting in my parents’ time. I used a lot of my Mum’s old photos as reference. I would wake up in the night with ideas. 

I loved the 1940s to early 1960s and it was a joy to design this series. It was so great to work with my very good friend Herbert Pinter whom I admire as a Production Designer. 

I have many favourite projects in WA including Breath, Hounds of Love, Mystery Road: Origin, Runt and more recently the series RUN about bank robber Brenden Abbott, which was another collaboration with the incredibly talented Ben Young. 

What is your favourite location to shoot in WA? 

We are lucky to have access to so many beautiful locations here. I love the Great Southern regions of Denmark, Albany and Pemberton. The desert is also a favourite for me and Kalgoorlie is another favourite. I’ve done three projects there, the film Kid Snow is a great example. We also shot Mystery Road: Origin there with Dylan River and Tyson Perkins’s stunning work really showcasing the beauty of the region. I also love filming in Fremantle as a city location. There is character everywhere you look. 

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