There is a scene in “Back to Black” where Marisa Abela, who plays Amy Winehouse, is in a car crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. On her neck, she wears a Star of David. It was one of the few items Abela wears that actually belonged to the singer.
With the full cooperation of Winehouse’s estate, costume designer PC Williams was given full access to the late singer’s wardrobe, and she picked out a few items for Abela.
“Marisa wears two items of clothing that belonged to Amy. She wore Amy’s pink ballet cardigan when Blake breaks up with her for the first time in the pool hall. And she wore Amy’s pink lady jacket which has hand embroidery that says ‘Amy Woo’ on the chest.” Williams told Variety. “It was like holding a piece of history. It felt like I was holding an artifact.”
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, “Back to Black” is named after Winehouse’s Grammy Award-winning 2006 album, which had a deeply personal yet relatable message about returning to old flames. The film tells the story of Winehouse’s addiction to love and the tragedy that followed, as she died in July 2011 at the age of 27 due to alcohol poisoning.
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Abela fully immersed herself in embodying Amy’s physique and distinctive style. The production shot out of order, with Winehouse’s final days being among the first scenes to be filmed. To accurately portray Winehouse during this time, Abela lost a significant amount of weight before the start of production. She then worked with a personal trainer and nutritionist to put the weight back on for filming the “Frank” era, according to Williams.
The fluctuation posed a challenge for Williams.
“Things like the Grammys dress, I remember we sent off the measurements to Dolce & Gabbana and a week later I thought ‘Oh my God, we should maybe add in an inch just because she might be bigger by then’ because she’s adding on weight and you’re constantly guessing,” Williams said.
Most of Winehouse’s wardrobe in the film consists of sourced vintage pieces. “It felt right to do that because she was known for vintage shopping and for mixing and matching things and [she] had that sort of London edge,” said Williams.
Williams also collaborated with key fashion houses which offered to recreate some of Winehouse’s most iconic looks. Dolce & Gabbana remade her black dress from the 2008 Grammys, and Christian Louboutin remade the heels Winehouse wore in her Glastonbury performance.
That dress was the most challenging for Williams to work on. “That Glastonbury dress is three dresses hand-sewn into one. The materials were made and developed in India and then brought over here and then the workroom started putting the three layers together,” she said.
Abela constantly collaborated with the artisans on the team. “I’m hoping she did that because she felt like I created a space where as much as it’s my costume design,” said Williams. “My costume design means nothing if she’s not able to wear it and perform in it and it helps and enables her performance rather than hinder it.”
With the film shooting its end sequences first, Winehouse’s iconic beehive was at its highest. It was up to hair and makeup designer Peta Dunstall to find enough black extensions to add to Abela’s hair.
“Lucky for me, Marisa has amazing hair and I tried to incorporate as much of her hair as possible. I had to work on her texture to try and make it the same,” Dunstall said. “Pretty much anything that was around that was black went in it. Especially in the very beginning. I couldn’t seem to put enough hair in it. I couldn’t buy enough hair.”
Dunstall went into further detail about the products used in creating the beehive, including fishnet tights. “We created the shapes with different forms of padding, some made with crepe hair, some with synthetic hair pushed into net stockings. We used different techniques at different times to help anchor and create the different heights of the beehive. On top of all that scaffolding, we added a huge variety of real hair and synthetic in the forms of clip-in weft and pieces.”
The film also nods to the singer’s grandmother, Cynthia, by addressing the creation of Winehouse’s signature look. “Sam Taylor-Johnson and I discussed it a lot. That scene, when I read the script was the part that was the most touching, and I loved it. So I wanted it to look authentic,” said Dunstall.
Every morning, Dunstall had about an hour and a half to complete hair and makeup and recreate Winehouse’s 14 tattoos. Williams and Dunstall both joined the project only a few days before the start of filming. They didn’t have a lot of prep time. However, since the singer was photographed frequently, they could reference those images.
Dunstall believed it was Abela’s dedication to the role that made her believable as Winehouse — beyond just the hair and makeup. “You could put her in a blonde wig and she’ll still be Amy Winehouse.”
As the film progresses, the audience watches Winehouse’s health decline as her drug use increases. Dry lips, acne and self-harm scars on her upper arms were all fabricated. “We did a lot of texture on the skin and the face for those scenes to try and tell that story,” Dunstall said.
However, the imagery of the last scene of Winehouse in a pink room, with a white streak in her non-beehive hair and lighter makeup tells a story of hope.
“The idea really was just to make her look healthy and on top of things,” Dunstall said. “[That scene] felt like, we were all hopeful. That moment in time, things were looking ahead.”