How Layla costume designer used fashion to explore queer identity

Amroo Al Qadi’s feature film directorial debut Laylathe clothes worn by the titular protagonist (played by Bilal Hasna) tell much of the story.

Leila, a non-binary Anglo-Palestinian drag queen surviving in London’s queer underworld, makes a living like any other drag diva. But during a particularly sad job at a ready-meal company (with a perfect cameo from Self-Esteem’s Rebecca Lucy Taylor), Leila’s life changes forever.

There she meets Max (Louis Greatorex), a straight-laced advertising executive, who slowly but surely begins to fall for her. Their relationship develops, but it soon becomes clear that their worlds are too far apart for smooth sailing.

In telling the story, costume designer Coby Yates played a pivotal role in reflecting how the different worlds Leila exists in both make her whole and tear her apart. .

The first outfit, a Hawaiian-print gown that Leila wore to a corporate event, was “the most difficult” to get right, especially considering Hasna had never done drag before. But Yates says the costume was liberating for Layla.

“Who Bilal’s character Leila was, I feel like I miss that girl so much in my heart,” he exclusively told Pink News. “They’re incredibly confident when they need to be, but incredibly vulnerable when they need to be. But with this costume and other everyday costumes, there’s a lot of skin involved.” Ta.”

Yates sat down with Hasna to make sure she was confident in her looks, and explained that the ultimate purpose of showing skin was to express how “liberated” Layla felt while in drag.

“I think that was a really interesting part of the journey for him to unlock and come to terms with his character.” [with] I thought about what it would be like to frolic around the room in a thong, and how he would play to see if it would work. ”

The Hawaiian dress was used to symbolize how two people begin to warm each other’s hearts as soon as they meet. “When Leila first met Max, she was like the perfect package with a little bow on her shoulder,” Yates explains.

“When you see them on the bus, the first thing that comes off is the bow. So it’s like he’s starting to open the box and find out who this person is.”

As their relationship progresses, it becomes clear that Max is secretly uncomfortable with Layla’s eccentric appearance, and Layla expresses her “exhausted, sad, sis” to show her adaptability. They begin to dress in “clothes that suit their daily routine.” Later, on his way home to see his family, he sees her off drugs in a traditional religious thaw.

“So who are you?” Max asks Leila. movie trailer. What’s the answer? There are all kinds of people.

“There are so many different areas and elements to this person and their discovery. They often mask or hide their emotions, and they often dress in very extreme clothing.” Yates explained, adding that in some scenes, plain joggers, jeans, and a T-shirt were used to symbolize the “stripping off” of identity.

“That’s all the areas of young love that we wanted to represent, and how you can fight yourself against different emotions and versions of who you want to be and who you want to be.”

In addition to showing different aspects of Leila’s identity, Yates, who was just named one of this year’s Breakthrough Fellows at the BAFTAs, used costume to showcase London’s vibrant queer scene.

“I just wanted to highlight how creative this city is and what the queer spirit is like. People are so expressive,” he says. Placing Leila and her friends in London during the day paints a very clear “us and them” picture where queer people seem like “fish out of water.”

Still, he hopes the depiction goes some way to showing that the city’s queer culture is ubiquitous.

“When I saw them on the bus, when I saw them in Canary Wharf, I wanted to nod to that spirit in the film and just celebrate it and normalize it.”

Coby Yates is one of 42 creators receiving industry support through the BAFTA Breakthrough Initiative, backed by Netflix. Full list of recipients is available here.

Layla ‘ will be released nationwide from November 22nd (Friday).

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