Phantom Thread's Poignant Glimpse Into the Designer Mind

In Phantom Thread Daniel Day Lewis plays dress designer Reynolds Woodcock whose Georgian townhouse in 1950s London is frequented by only the most elegant women: princesses, actresses, debutantes and muses. Although the most-repeated inspiration for the character has been Charles James, the actor himself admits to researching the lives of designers including Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hardy Amies, Norman Hartnell, Michael Sherard, Digby Morton, Edward Molyneux, Victor Stiebel, and John Cavanagh.