Why the costumes in Rebecca were inspired by Wallis Simpson - and how to do the glamorous 1930s look now

Whatever you think of Netflix’s new adaptation of Rebecca, the Daphne Du Maurier novel, there’s no denying it’s a visual feast, filled to the rafters with Thirties-style glamour. Some might quibble about casting Lily James as the naive second Mrs de Winter, but who among us, upon seeing promo shots of the actress in a neat tweed suit with a burgundy polo neck and beret, didn’t think, ‘I want to wear that’?

And that, says the film’s costume designer Julian Day, was the point. ‘This is a retelling of book for a cinematic audience, as opposed to a literary audience. There will be plenty of people that will have never read the book or seen the original Hitchcock film. The idea is to show it to a new, modern, younger, more savvy audience.’

The seduction of the Netflix generation - who are used to being ‘bombarded with imagery’ - began, for Day, with a look back at the thirties fashion icons who are still referenced today, their looks as right-for-now as they were then.

‘I was really looking at the leading ladies of the time, people like Coco Chanel, Katharine Hepburn, Wallis Simpson, Greta Garbo, or Marlene Dietrich,’ Day reflects, citing a roll call of style icons who have long been labelled rebels and trailblazers; Chanel for her revolutionary boyish shapes and liberating yet elegant cuts, Hepburn for her impeccable trouser looks and Simpson for her dedication to sharp, chic, cutting-edge glamour.

‘In the beginning, you see this innocent young girl in the first flushes of love through to the more dominant woman she becomes later on in the film where she takes control of herself and Maxim,’ says Day of James’ character’s style evolution, which plays out in a transformation from ‘a very romantic use of of cottons and voiles, floral prints, linens and silks’ as love blossoms between the tale’s narrator and Maxim de Winter, the dashing widower she meets in Monte Carlo, to the ‘harder fabrics which are more appropriate for Manderley,’ de Winter’s Cornwall estate which is overseen by the frightfully polished (and rather Mrs Simpson-esque) Mrs Danvers, played by Kristen Scott Thomas. Towards the end, James wears a neat bouclé suit which Day made using original Chanel fabric.

Maxim, played by Armie Hammer, has been costumed with similarly elevated references, from Simpson’s beau the Duke of Windsor to dashing men who epitomise the English gent-meets-Hollywood cad aesthetic - Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, David Niven.

Day isn’t concealing his bemusement at Rebecca’s reviews. ‘It’s really funny,’ he says. ‘I put Armie in this gold-coloured suit. And a couple of people have really remarked on how disgusting it is. Someone likened it to puppy poo.’

In fact, the ochre suit (which looks like it might be colour-matched to Farrow and Ball’s Sudbury Yellow) came from ‘the idea of him as a golden statue. We talked about it being like an Oscar. He’s her prize.’

It’s a perfect example, says Day, of how he wanted to update and refresh the Rebecca visuals, keeping it thirties-tinged but with a contemporary relevance beyond Hitchcock’s legendary, Oscar-winning 1940 interpretation. ‘I could have easily put him in a pale linen suit and that would have been perfectly acceptable, but we're trying to break the mould a little bit. And, you know, some people don't like that. Some people are very stuck in their ways. You often get reviewers that are middle aged or going into old age, and they don't understand a younger audience. Younger people will instantly grasp that it’s more fashionable.’

Looks from the Choose Love Rebecca collection

For anyone watching who falls in love with James’ Hepburn-like trousers and bias-cut slips or Hammer’s dapper tailoring and traditional tweeds, Day has collaborated with refugee charity Choose Love on a collection inspired by his Rebecca costumes.

‘The thirties was such an influential period, so much of what came after was because of that - you’d never have the seventies without the thirties,’ notes Day. ‘We wanted to make it wearable for someone to walk down the street.’

There’s a beautiful zig-zag knit (£290) which echoes the jumper James wears in the film’s pivotal beach scene and a sweet Miu Miu-meets-Alessandra Rich collared tea dress (£450) which you could imagine her wearing to roam the gloomy corridors of Manderley.

Looks from the Choose Love Rebecca collection

But if prim, ladylike elegance isn’t your thing, then try one of the slogan hoodies instead - there’s one bearing Du Maurier’s haunting opening line, ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ and others with the simple question ‘beach?’ and ‘come for a drive’.

‘Everybody loves a slogan t-shirt or a hoodie. It immediately shows what you're interested in, you don't have to wear vintage inspired pieces of clothing,’ adds Day. Du Maurier-meets-Supreme? It shouldn’t work but…

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