Patricia Norris: The undervalued master David Lynch called a “great genius”
Look at any still from a David Lynch movie, and you’ll probably be able to tell that it belongs to the iconic director, whose surreal style has allowed him to become one of the most accomplished auteurs cinema has ever seen. From chevron floors and thick red curtains to moody, seductive lighting, Lynch’s movies always retain a distinctive look, even when he’s working across different time periods and places.
With every film, he crafts a world that wholly inhabits itself. Watching a Lynch movie is an immersive experience, a chance to step into an alternative reality defined by uncanniness and confusion, where nothing is quite as it seems. Enter Twin Peaks and expect to find characters who speak backwards, a woman who holds a log like it’s her baby and various unnerving doppelgangers. Then, head to the world of Blue Velvet, and you’ll be greeted with a deranged gas-huffing sexual deviant and a criminal with an affection for Roy Orbison.
Lynch possesses the genius ability to create bizarre characters and write mind-bending screenplays in which events often happen out of order, and certain scenes initially appear to have no relevance, leaving the audience to figure out their importance. His direction is masterful, with the filmmaker presenting worlds where corruption runs wild and the American Dream is depicted as a futile ambition.
Yet, it’s the costume and set design that significantly helps to bring these ideas further to life, giving his movies a visual identity for audiences to identify with. Lynch once told Interview Magazine, “When it comes to wardrobe, I work with Patricia Norris, and she has a great genius for dressing a character so perfectly.” He also added, “On Blue Velvet, she wanted to know if she could do production design as well, so she did both. I think she did both with Wild at Heart, too. So, Patty’s really great.”
Norris started her career in the 1970s and soon worked on movies like Days of Heaven and Scarface, the former of which earned the costume designer her first Academy Award nomination. She was nominated again when she worked on The Elephant Man, Lynch’s second film. The black-and-white film allowed Norris to demonstrate her ability to create beautiful costumes for a Victorian-era production, while her next collaboration with Lynch, Blue Velvet, saw her work back in the present era of the ‘80s.
Clearly, Norris could adapt to any time period, and with Blue Velvet, she proved that she was equally capable of executing the role of production designer. Blue Velvet is perhaps one of Lynch’s most stylish movies, with much of its aesthetic borrowed from the ‘50s. Laura Dern’s character appears as the perfect image of the girl-next-door (something she comes to subvert in her behaviour), and who can forget Isabella Rossellini’s gorgeous outfits, like the dresses she wears as she performs in front of a red curtain?
Norris also worked on Twin Peaks, borrowing a similar’ 1950s-influenced style, which included long plaid skirts, thick jumpers, and saddle shoes for many of the female high school characters, like Audrey. She worked on all of Lynch’s movies until 1999’s The Straight Story as a production designer, costume designer, or sometimes both. Without her, Lynch’s cinematic world might’ve looked very different.
