When costume designer David Crossman, who specializes in military clothing, first knew he would be working on “Napoleon” (in theaters Wednesday), Ridley Scott’s epic starring Joaquin Phoenix, he felt a “little panic.” because of the hats. It wasn’t like he had to recreate Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous headdress, for which collectors pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was that he would do it with certain restrictions. Phoenix follows a vegan diet and avoids animal products, which meant Crossman couldn’t use wool felt. “I immediately felt like it was going to be a problem of what to make the iconic hat out of, because it’s going to be all about the hat,” Crossman said in a video call.
Luckily, they found a solution: a fabric made from tree bark from Uganda, which turned out to be an ideal texture for the task at hand. “I thought, ‘Oh, good, we’re out of trouble,'” Crossman added. “I was just really afraid it was going to be some polyester synthetic thing. What it actually gave us was a great surface structure on the hat.”
Once Crossman had overcome this hurdle, the work could begin. For the research, Crossman looked for originals. He examined objects from a private collection as well as examples of real Napoleon hats in the Musée de l’Armée in Paris. The Phoenix’s hats may have been made of bark cloth, but they were true to size.
Over the course of the film, Phoenix sports a series of two-horned horns of varying size and magnificence as he goes from aspiring officer to famous emperor. According to Crossman, there were three key versions for the character that were reproduced many times, as well as a magnificent selection of hats for various generals, allies and enemies. Here, Crossman discusses some key looks.
In the film, Napoleon turns his hat sideways just before he launches his attack on the British forces at Toulon in southern France in 1793. Although bicorns were traditionally worn face forward, Napoleon popularized wearing them this way. The change occurs shortly before a decisive victory, which illustrates both Napoleon’s development and his personal style. It was also an acting decision. “It was a decision by Joaquin because he knew it had to happen,” Crossman said.
He wears this simple hat as a young, inexperienced officer from Corsica. “It keeps him out of trouble on the streets of Paris, it has a little revolutionary tricolor cockade so you know which side he’s on,” Crossman said. Although some of Napoleon’s rank at the time would have worn feathers on their hats, Crossman explained that he decided to keep it simple. “He took a backseat, watched the revolution unfold and looked for his opportunity,” Crossman said.
General and First Consul Hat
Perhaps the most outwardly striking hat that Napoleon wears is the one he wears during the period of the film in which he is a general – a period that coincides with his meeting and courting of Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby) – and also, when he is First Consul. Its gold border detail is reminiscent of the painting “Bonaparte Crossing the Alps” by Jacques-Louis David, which shows him astride a rearing horse.
But even with this glamorous headgear, Crossman wanted to symbolize a man at a low point. “There was an interim phase in which Napoleon met Joséphine [at the Survivors Ball]”He was so worn out at that point that he just had no money left, so I didn’t want to put him in an embroidered uniform for that,” Crossman said, “so he has a much plainer uniform, just with gold trim.” He added that he based the uniform on an etching he found. “The most striking thing about him is probably his hat, which Joaquin always wanted to wear.”
Yes, you will notice that Phoenix often covers his head indoors. “Not for comic effect, but for any effect, he just left it on indoors in certain situations,” Crossman said. As Napoleon became more established, his uniform became more elaborate to match the gilding of his hat with embroidery.
Emperor’s hat
When Napoleon became emperor, including the decisive Battle of Austerlitz, he wore a large but relatively unadorned bicorn hat. “That’s the hat he loved,” Crossman said. “He did a few of them a year and had them refreshed. He always had new hats sent to him. That’s why there are so many Napoleon hats today.”
Based on Crossman’s research at the museum, he found that after Napoleon’s coronation as emperor, his hats became larger as he became more politically powerful. “I’ve seen a lot of very nice versions of Napoleon, including ‘Bill and Ted,’ but I’ve never seen the hat that big,” Crossman said, “so this was the first one we did.”
Various hats of generals and marshals
While Napoleon’s hat remained plain during his time as emperor, the actors who play his generals and marshals, such as Ben Miles as Armand-Augustin-Louis de Caulaincourt, have white or black plumage depending on their rank. In addition to the feathers, these two squirrels also have gold details.
And again Crossman wanted to make them big. He said that actors and directors in a production would typically request that they reduce the size of the hats from their historically correct proportions to what they consider more appealing. But that wasn’t the case with “Napoleon.” “I expected more hat issues during filming,” Crossman said, “because vanity plays a role. But we didn’t experience any of that, which was great.”