“The Hours” Suits at the Met: Vintage Wallpaper and 90s Calvin Klein

When creating the costumes for a new operatic adaptation of 'The Hours,' a designer was inspired by archival wallpapers , an English farmhouse and Calvin Klein from the 1990s.< /p>

When British designer Tom Pye first joined the creative team of "The Hours", a new opera by Kevin Puts which had its premiere at the Met on Tuesday, it was just for scenery.

But that was before he learn that the opera, like the 2002 film based on the same novel by Michael Cunningham, pulled out all the stops when it came to playing the lead roles: three women scattered across the 20th century whose fates seem to be united by a mysterious connection with "Mrs. Dalloway. With Joyce DiDonato, the Met has found its Virginia; to Kelli O'Hara, her desperate mid-century housewife Laura Brown; and in Renée Fleming, his powerful Manhattan editor, Clarissa Vaughan.

"When I heard the castings, I thought, 'I do the costumes too, ", said Mr. Pye.

Although he "loved it when it came out", Mr. Pye, 54, had scrupulously avoided the film, which received an Academy Award Nomination for Costume Design from Ann Roth.

"It can be really distracting, if you're trying to design and find your own image for everything," he said.< /p>

In a recent interview, he explained his take on the three women at the heart of 'The Hours'.

Virginia: "Mustards, Burnt Oranges and Olive Greens '

ImageFor Virginia's palette, Mr. Pye relied on earthy browns and reds evoking the English farmhouse where the writer was an inv Frequent ity.Credit...Tom Pye

ImageA length of amber beads complements the colors photos of Virginia's drop-waist dress - a style familiar in the 1920s.Credit...Winnie Au for The New York Times

in which decade.

"In the book, it's very 'chapter, chapter, chapter,'" Mr. Pye said, referring to the episodic structure of Mr. Cunningham's novel. "In the film, they play a little more, and it's like five times more."

Knowing that there would often be several characters singing on stage in same time made Mr. Pye want to be "as simple and straightforward" as possible.

"So I was very, very clear - or, I am trying to be very, very clear - in color palettes and the costume and set worlds," Mr. Pye said, "so that you know you're in Virginia's world, you know you're in Laura's world, so even though the singer isn't exactly in her world, her color palette follows her, and she can be free on stage to be a bit more complex.”