Maxance Vincent
Costume designer Jany Temime previously worked with Young Sherlock actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin on the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In his first major film role, the young Fiennes portrayed the child version of Tom Riddle in flashback scenes, who eventually grows up to become Lord Voldemort, and was played by his uncle, Ralph Fiennes.
Upon reuniting with him a decade later, Temime recalled a funny anecdote with the actor when he went in for a fitting as Sherlock Holmes, as she tells Awards Radar during a Zoom conversation:
“When I saw him again last year and began fitting him, I said, “Do you remember me?” And he said, “No.” [When we were doing Harry Potter], he was a kid. He was quite unhappy when we had to cut his hair. He had long, brown hair and was very proud of it.”
When it came to designing the look that Fiennes would have as a younger version of Sherlock Holmes, the BAFTA-nominated and Emmy-winning costume designer explains that, since nobody had made a series on Andrew Lane‘s Young Sherlock Holmes, the proposition was extremely enticing for her to become a part of this project:
“I had not read the book. I met the writer after that, when we were shooting. But the idea of how you become Sherlock Holmes and the balance between family drama and his intelligence is a very good balance. The charm of Hero and Dónal Finn also makes the story. They are so beautiful, funny, sexy, and are exactly the right type for a young public. I think everybody adores them.
When I met Guy Ritchie, I was just starting the job and asked him how he would like the costumes. He said, “I want them to look like everything has been bought in a shop around the corner, because I want the kid to be able to want to be dressed like that, and to think that they have the possibility that they could buy it and look like that.” I was constantly obsessed with making it look modern while still respecting the Victorian era, because Sherlock Holmes is a Victorian story. It could not happen now, because it would be different. It would not be the society they are in. That is very important, because it is the story’s background.
What can we take from Victorian times to make it look modern? It was a modern time. There was a revolution, electricity, transport, trains, women were working, doing sports. That helped me a lot in creating the costumes. I tried to add as many modern elements in it, which could appeal to the public. I always thought of the show’s fans as being at home, trying to look like that. To want to look like that, they have to like it and find elements of a costume they can relate to. I think we succeeded because I have a lot of returns from many kids who have said, “Oh, we love the shoes. We want to wear them and the cap.” So that’s good. It worked.”
Of course, there was much more to discuss in our conversation, including giving the audience an idea of who these characters are through their designs, some of the challenges that arose in crafting the costumes, and how her designs track the evolution of Sherlock’s emotional journey throughout the series.
Listen to the interview below and stream all episodes of Young Sherlock on Prime Video today:
[Some of the quotes in this article were edited for length and clarity]
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