Qumra Master Anna Terrazas.
Doha, Qatar: Qumra Master Anna Terrazas, the award-winning costume designer from Mexico said that costumes “are like a second skin for the actors and help create characters” that are authentic.
Terrazas, who has designed costumes for Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G Iñárritu, and Sam Mendes among others, said costume designers have a huge responsibility. “From a script we create characters and help actors become who they need to be.”
Sharing her journey from a a small town near Mexico City to being part of some of Mexico’s seminal cinematic works, she urged emerging filmmakers to “always try to look for things that will give way to creating what they are looking for in their films.
After studying art and design in London, she moved to New York to study fashion. When she returned to Mexico she found a mentor in a theatre costume designer. “That is when I discovered costume design; it taught me how to create a project from start to finish and to work in a team.”
Terrazas says collaborating with the director, cinematographer, production design and practically every member of the crew is important in order to “speak the same cinematic language and to deliver what we are trusted to deliver.”
A defining moment was working on The Deuce (2017), the American drama TV series created by David Simon and George Pelecanos. Set in New York City in the 1970s, the series, featured James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal. “I read the script and fell in love with it,” said Terrazas. “I flew to Los Angeles with a crazy presentation and convinced the directorsto give me the job.”
What followed was painstaking research to recreate the era because “watching a film is creating real life, and you have to spend time consideringcolours, textures and every little aspect to bringthe characters to life.”
She would go on to work on Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning Roma (2018); Alejandro G Iñárritu’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) and with Rodrigo Prieto on the adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo (2024). These films challenged Terrazas to demonstrate her ability to replicate costumes of bygone eras as well as to merge realism and imagination.
Her advice to emerging filmmakers is to create strong teams. “Films are not done by one person. Creating a team is most important because you are going to live with them for a long time. You need to have the right heads of department who can deliver the information that is in your head.”
