Fashion Oscar for Rodarte?

Now rumours are circulating that the Mulleavy sisters will be nominated for an Academy Award for their work on the Black Swan costumes. The Mulleavys designed over 40 tutus for the ballet corps in the film, and re-imagined traditional Swan Lake costumes in a darker, more sinister fashion in line with the film's themes of obsession and menace.

The sisters have spoken at length about their work on the Black Swan costumes, and described the commission as a "dream project:"

"We had an affinity for the subject matter...We had, I think, something that allowed us to add to access the psychology of the film in a different way, which was understanding the darker nature and more of the twisted kind of underbelly of that world." The designers used over 250, 000 Swarovski crystals to create their theatrical costumes, and painstakingly researched the "lost couture art” of building a tutu by examining the costume archives of ballets and theatres.

Laura Mulleavy spoke this week about embracing the technical challenges posed by the costumes; the struggle to "make something look realistic as a tutu and function." From the press shots and trailer we've seen, the sisters, who admit they have never practised ballet themselves, have risen to the task with considerable style.