'The Substance' is receiving well-deserved attention after multiple awards and nominations. The body-horror movie is set to be re-released in over 350 theaters nationwide following its success, including Demi Moore's Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture.
Directed by Coralie Fargeat, Margaret Qualley stars as Sue, replacing Elisabeth (played by Demi) in a popular workout television show. After the slew of nominations during awards season, more details about the movie have been revealed, including the inspiration behind the revealing outfits Sue wears.
Emmanuelle Youchnovski, costume director for the movie, shared a glimpse at the pop stars that were used as inspiration to create the character's wardrobe. “I took [inspiration from] the video clip of Beyoncé’s ‘Blow,’ where she had the colors, you remember this one?” Youchnovski said, referencing the 2013 song.
“And I also took a lot of inspiration from Dua Lipa, because she wears a lot of bodysuits," Emmanuelle said. “But the bodysuit, it’s metallic, it’s fuchsia, it’s neon,” the costume director continued, adding that the singer’s look also inspired her to include cut-outs in the silhouette, showing “more skin."
“The most difficult thing for us was to have the same show with different points of view: Elisabeth’s view and Sue’s view, the new one,” she explained. “If we do ‘80s things for Elisabeth, it’s more easy for us to do a new one for Sue, like Dua Lipa, or Beyoncé, or whatever.”
Meanwhile, another pop star who influenced the movie was none other than Charli XCX. Margaret previously told Brut America that she also had a Brat Summer.
“It’s kind of wild timing the way that the universe works because we all just had the ‘Brat Summer,’ right? With Charli XCX. And I was listening to Charli as my ‘Sue’ inspo. Because she has like a lot of good kind of like ‘pump it up’ girl songs,” she said. “I got that kind of Sue energy from Charli’s old music.”