#MCM: THE PEAKY BLINDERS

The Peaky Blinders is" a gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) , who means to move up in the world." (imbd)

Who: "The Peaky Blinders"

Where: United Kingdom - Birmingham, England - 1919

View: Season 1 & 2 on Netflix

Written and Created By: Steven Knight

Directed By: Otto Bathurst, Tom Harper and Colm McCarthy

Why we're crushing: We love the shows plot line but being lovers of style as well we couldn't help but notice these bad boys dapper style. These boys are fitted from their heads to their toes wearing rounded collars, tweed suits, slick boots, directional haircuts and their trademark- blinder caps. Plus, every good girl loves a bad a boy, especially ones with british accents.

Fun Fact: The Peaky Blinders was a real gang who hid razors under the caps, that why they're called The Peaky Blinders!

Peaky Blinders: Clothes on Film Q&A with Costume Designer Stephanie Collie

Costume designer Stephanie Collie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Look of Love) "was on board to recreate the era in, her own words, “a heightened way”. Peaky Blinders is not intended for school history lessons, it’s a ‘Hollywoodised’ vision of 1919 with a TV budget. The costumes you see are accurate, but more significantly they’re relatable to a contemporary audience."

(Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby)

Clothes on Film: How did you undertake your research? Did you look at the real life Peaky Blinders gang?

Stephanie Collie: The real Peaky Blinders were about 20 years earlier, actually. The media released a lot of photos of the real gang to help promote the show. I think they looked really good; they were really stylish. Because we went 20 years later, I researched lots and lots of photographs – Getty Images have a great archive, very useful. There was also a book we loved called Crooks Like Us by Peter Doyle, which mainly focused on Australian convicts. That’s actually where the haircuts came from. The photographs gave us a feel but what we wanted to do was heighten that look, exaggerate it slightly. Normally, of course, a man would have always worn a tie with a stiff collar, but we thought with Cillian Murphy especially that we wouldn’t do that, to keep everything sort of paired down, plus he’s got that beautiful face – what else do you need?!

CoF: I did notice that Arthur Shelby (Jnr) always wears a bow-tie though. It drew me to him being the obvious leader of the gang.

SC: That was initially what we wanted you to think. You realise quite quickly though that Tommy is the power behind the throne.

(Joe Cole as John Shelby)

CoF: You weren’t slavish about historical accuracy?

SC: No, because, at the end of the day, you want it to be entertaining. I mean, I would never want to use anything that’s historically wrong, but we heighten things to make them more relatable. So, trousers were quite short then, but we just thought we’d lift them a bit more. It’s not the end of the world if that’s not exactly how they were worn. Everything had to be sharp and smart for us. These men probably only had maybe one or two suits, which is how we worked as well. Cillian has literally only got one or two suits throughout, but hopefully you don’t even notice that because you’re engrossed in the story. The clothes are there to be part of the story, but you don’t want anyone to go “oh, wow!” when they see them. They can never be more important than what’s going on in the scene.

(Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby)

CoF: It was important that the clothes were relatable now, wasn’t it?

SC: Yes, exactly. What I like about this period is that really, it could almost be now. Most of the clothes seen wouldn’t look that out of place. You can go out now and buy stuff like that, and wear it like that. I’ve said this before, but fashion always repeats itself. Three-piece suits look good on everyone

(Tom Hardy as Alfie Solomons)

CoF: Were the suits all especially made for the main cast?

SC: Yes. Cillian’s were all made by a great tailor called Keith Watson. He is amazing. I’ve been using him for years and years. He started off in the 60’s, working in Savile Row. This is where he learnt his trade; he’s a brilliant cutter. Cillian went to him to do all his fittings and they worked out perfectly. Cillian is a perfect model size too, so that was helpful. The best thing was how much the boys loved their clothes, and I think you get a feel of that by the way they walk; they have a swagger about them.

For some of the other cast, the suits were hired from a mixture of Angels and Cosprop – we found great stuff. We tailored in a lot of the trousers to give them a narrower look. We were lucky enough to find some of those big overcoats, but we had to have some of them made; Paul’s had to be made. The shirts were all hired. As per usual, we had very little money so had to decide where to spend it. Obviously the suits for Cillian were very important so the money went there.