How 'House of Gucci' costume designer helped Lady Gaga, Adam Driver transform into character

In a film as fashion-focused as "House of Gucci," the costumes play a starring role. It was up to Oscar-winning costume designer Janty Yates to help Lady Gaga, Adam Driver and the rest of the cast transform into the opulent, cutthroat members of the Gucci fashion dynasty. The outfits featured throughout the movie, in theaters Wednesday, coincide with the arcs of the different characters including Gaga's Patrizia Reggiani, whose humble beginnings became a distant memory after she married into the Gucci family. "She would live the scene," Yates told the Daily News of Gaga. "She had her accent all the time. I'd be Paulo or Maurizio or Aldo (Gucci), or somebody, and she'd just live the scene and say, 'This is what I want to wear for that.' "And we'd do it. We'd accessorize it completely, to the shoes to the bag to the belt. She had 54 looks, so we had a lot of fittings." Gaga never repeated an outfit or piece of jewelry in the film, which depicts the power struggle within the Italian fashion brand — and subsequent murder plot — that occurred after Patrizia wed Maurizio Gucci, played by Driver. Yates and her team made many of the costumes from scratch — a process that included recreating clothes worn by the real Guccis. "There's a huge amount of reference, photographic reference, and also there's the Gucci museum, which is a fount of knowledge, really," Yates said. "They had things going back to the '70s, costumes that were wonderful, that I'd never seen before. They had so many portraits on the walls, so much footage of (former Gucci chairman) Aldo. There are two documentaries out — one which is about Patrizia Reggiani — but it has a huge amount of footage." The costume team put together about 40 suits for Driver, and another 15 outfits for Al Pacino, who portrays Aldo in the film directed by Ridley Scott. Yates, 71, has frequently worked on Scott's movies over the years, including "Gladiator," which earned her the Academy Award for best costume design in 2001. "This was a whole different piece of cake," Yates said of "House of Gucci," adding, "This was several pieces of cake, because it's a hugely respected fashion house, even though at the time of our (movie), which is 1975 to 1995, it really wasn't big in fashion. It was very conservative in their fashion. "You would see all the press of people leaving the store, and people buying stuff there. They would only buy accessories and luggage. They wouldn't be dressed in Gucci, extraordinarily enough." Yates credits former Gucci creative director Tom Ford with revolutionizing the company and generating new excitement for its clothing during the 1990s. The British costume designer believes the brand's appeal is "sky high now," and describes the Gucci legacy as "ongoing." "It's evolving. It's changing," Yates said. "I mean, I wouldn't wear any of (current creative director) Alessandro Michele's designs, but the whole millennial gang would in a heartbeat. Billie Eilish is never out of it. Harry Styles is never out of it. Jared Leto is never out of it. Everybody wears Gucci now. It's extraordinary."