The look of The Dark Knight Rises' Catwoman was influenced more so by a classic foreign action film than by her comic book counterpart.
Clothes on Film interviewed TDKR costume designer Lindy Hemming who said, "Selina Kyle we decided was a kind of female version of Bruce Wayne, she is a cat burglar and an opportunist, so must, rather like James Bond, be able to ‘pass’ or be ‘hidden in plain sight’. My influences were La Femme Nikita, and Audrey Hepburn, with a medium dose of Thierry Mugler thrown in for theatricality. All her clothes were designed by me, and made by / in our workshops, including all her underwear which needed to be worn under the cat suit. Whatever event she decided to be at, she could invent a look that would work, from Maid at Wayne Manor, to Woman Going to a Funeral at the airport."
And for the film's climactic scene (SPOILER!) featuring Selina and Bruce at a European cafe, Hemming said the character's blue dress was a symbolic choice: "She is now, like Bruce Wayne, living in the ‘normal’ world, and should look like any other holidaymaker in Italy. To her (Anne Hathaway) and myself, that kind of blue signifies happiness and has good connotations. Wish we had seen more of it, but it’s a mysterious scene."
Hemming also said the "trickiest character to nail down was Marion [Cotillard] as Miranda Tate [aka Talia Al Ghul], who must not be given away during the course of the film, but who needed to look ethnic in some way that might relate her to Ra’s A Ghul by the end quarter of the story. Very Difficult."
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