Joanna Johnston

Joanna Johnston (born 1953) is an English costume designer for film. She is best known for frequent collaborations with American film directors Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and M. Night Shyamalan. She was nominated for both BAFTA and Academy Awards for Best Costume for her work on Lincoln and Allied. In 2018, Johnston received the Career Achievement Award from the Costume Designers Guild.

Johnston's first solo designing job was for director Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The working relationship with Zemeckis continued, through Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), and Allied (2016).

Johnston is also an established member of Steven Spielberg's creative team. She worked with the director on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) as Anthony Powell's assistant, as wardrobe supervisor for the Kenya unit in The Color Purple (1985) and then costume designer on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). They worked together again on Saving Private Ryan (1998), War of the Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012) and The BFG (2016).

Costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis has used Johnston as an example of how costume designers "serve their directors as precisely as possible, along the way making incalculable contributions to the look and feel of those pictures". After a year, she left to work freelance as assistant to a series of renowned designers, who mentored her in her early career. These early credits include Death on The Nile (1978, costume design by Anthony Powell), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981, costume designer Tom Rand) and Out of Africa (1985, costume designer Milena Canonero). In constrast, the Cenobite costumes of black S&M-style PVC with biomechanical detailing were designed by Jane Wildgoose.

1980s-1990s Johnston's first solo designer credit was Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Johnston was initially employed to dress the human characters, but during production she became involved with the design of the animated character Jessica Rabbit, and took the opportunities offered by animation to design "a dress impossible to wear in reality". Nevertheless, she was still constrained by resources: Johnston's original design for a fully sequinned dress was too expensive to animate, so it was changed to a solid red gown.

As costume designer on Death Becomes Her (dir. Zemeckis, 1992), Joanna Johnston created high-camp, hyper-feminine costumes for actors Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Isabella Rossellini. thumb Young Forrest's costume from Forrest Gump (1994), worn by Haley Joel Osment and designed by Joanna Johnston, on display in a themed restaurant in the US.Johnston designed 83 costume changes for the title character of Forrest Gump (1994), played by Tom Hanks and Haley Joel Osment, as the film followed him from childhood to adulthood. Betty Goodwin, reviewing the film's costumes in the Los Angeles Times, noted that Johnston's work achieved "consistency through the decades" by repeating blue checked shirts and military-level neatness, as instilled by Forrest's mother. Johnston designed the blue plaid shirt and khaki suit featured on the film's poster to look cheap, despite being custom-made by Venice Custom Shirts in Los Angeles: the plaid deliberately does not line up and the collar is uneven. Curtis wanted a sexy, cropped outfit with a bare midriff, but Johnston persuaded him that a fitted, sheer over-dress would be more realistic for a church wedding. Johnston has stated that 21st century costume designers need to understand the technical requirements of CGI, and it was essential to maintain "open dialogue with the visual effects team" to achieve the desired costume effects.

Johnston received her first Academy Award nomination for Lincoln (2012), a biopic of the American president starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The development period for the film was very long: Steven Spielberg had been hoping to make the film for a decade, so Johnston was aware it was in the works, but once pre-production started, she had only five months to design and create the required nineteenth-century costumes. Interviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Johnston explained that her "long-standing relationship" with Spielberg meant she could anticipate what the director would like. For example, "it went without saying" that they would take an authentic approach to re-creating historic costumes. Johnston's designs for the 16th President were based on archive photographs and a few original pieces of clothing in the Smithsonian Museum. She wanted to exaggerate the president's slim frame, and designed the costumes to be too big, after becoming "obsessed by the space between the cloth and the man". Day-Lewis's period suits were tailored by Michael Sloan, and finished with Lincoln's characteristic slippers and shawl.

Johnston was recruited to design costumes for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), produced by and starring Tom Cruise. The character of Isla Faust (played by Rebecca Ferguson) needed costumes that would work for stunt sequences, so Johnston designed a blue and chartreuse one-shouldered dress that could be adapted for use with harnesses and safety wear, but would appear unchanged to audiences. Johnston explained that the choice of an evening gown was "unexpected" and the colour was "strong and sexy and light all at the same time". To create the style she called "Hollywood Lift", Johnston studied films of the era, and cited the influence of Hollywood designer Adrian. For the London sections of the film, Johnston brought in domestic tweeds and wools to contrast with the high glamour of the Morocco sequences. The story was re-located from the UK to 1960s Alabama, so she also looked to Marilyn Monroe and Faye Dunaway for inspiration for the film's glamorous villain.

The costumes Johnston designed for Love Actually (2003) gained renewed attention during the Y2K fashion revival; in 2022, Architectural Digest noted the film's "early aughts style" in clothing and interiors, singling out "Keira Knightley's newsboy cap" as an example. Fashion website SilkFred claimed "the festive favourite ... serves some serious fashion inspo". In 2023, Hello! Fashion suggested outfits based on the film's costumes, and in 2024 Real Simple claimed that "Keira Knightley's style in 'Love Actually' embodies Y2K fashion", citing the use of layering and low-cut jeans.

In 2018, Johnston was presented with the Career Achievement Award at the 20th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards. While presenting the award, Sally Field revealed that she had kept a pink cardigan from Forrest Gump, and had made a quilt from pieces of all the costumes she wore as Mary Todd Lincoln.

Personal life Joanna Johnston's father was John Johnston, a Grenadier Guard and member of the Royal Household.

Filmography Film YearTitleDirectorNotes 1987 Hellraiser Clive Barker 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit Robert Zemeckis 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Steven Spielberg with Anthony Powell Back to the Future Part II Robert Zemeckis 1990 Back to the Future Part III 1992 Far and Away Ron Howard Death Becomes Her Robert Zemeckis 1994 Forrest Gump 1995 French Kiss Lawrence Kasdan 1997 Contact Robert Zemeckis 1998 Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg 1999 The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan 2000 Unbreakable Cast Away Robert Zemeckis 2002 About a Boy Chris WeitzPaul Weitz 2003 Love Actually Richard Curtis 2004 The Polar Express Robert Zemeckis 2005 War of the Worlds Steven Spielberg Munich 2008 The Spiderwick Chronicles Mark Waters Valkyrie Bryan Singer 2009 The Boat That Rocked Richard Curtis 2011 War Horse Steven Spielberg 2012 Lincoln 2013 Jack the Giant Slayer Bryan Singer 2015 Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Christopher McQuarrie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Guy Ritchie 2016 The BFG Steven Spielberg Allied Robert Zemeckis 2018 Welcome to Marwen 2020 The Witches 2022 Jurassic World Dominion Colin Trevorrow Pinocchio Robert Zemeckis 2023 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny James Mangold 2024 Here Robert Zemeckis 2025 The Thursday Murder Club Chris Columbus

Television YearTitleNotes 2001 Doctor: Advert for Stella Artois Television advertisement for Stella Artois 2017 Allied

BAFTA Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.British Academy Film Awards 2013 Best Costume Design Lincoln 2017 Allied

Miscellaneous awards + Award Year Category Title Result Ref. Costume Designers Guild Awards 2003 Excellence in Contemporary Film About a Boy 2013 Excellence in Period Film Lincoln 2018 Career Achievement Award Critics' Choice Awards 2013 Best Costume Design Lincoln 2016 Allied Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2012 Best Costume Design Lincoln Saturn Awards 1991 Best Costume Design Back to the Future Part II Back to the Future Part III Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 2009 Valkyrie 2017 The BFG 2024 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny