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"For one of the most black-hearted and enduringly frightening characters ever to appear on film, there is something so exquisitely beautiful about Maleficent. Of course, that&amp;#039;s partly to do with the fact that she&amp;#039;s played by the gorgeous Angelina Jolie in the upcoming live action film, but in order to convince as the curiously captivating Sleeping Beauty villain, the actress needed a striking, otherworldly costume too.  Last night (May 8), Jolie, her partner Brad Pitt, fellow Maleficent stars Elle Fanning, Lesley Manville and Sam Riley, and fans from the world of fashion including Stella McCartney and Chloe Green descended upon Kensington Palace to get a closer look at the costumes of Maleficent at a special exhibition. &amp;#039;The World of Maleficent&amp;#039; invited VIP guests to view props and outfits from the film, including Maleficent&amp;#039;s grand wings and Aurora&amp;#039;s (Fanning) sparkling, fairytale princess gowns, in support of Great Ormond Street.  For the film&amp;#039;s lead costume designer Anna Sheppard, the night was the culmination of two years of hard work. &amp;quot;It wasn&amp;#039;t the easiest movie for many reasons,&amp;quot; she told Digital Spy on the exhibit&amp;#039;s red carpet. &amp;quot;It took a long time to actually find out how this character will look in the end.   &amp;quot;It was challenging, it was scary, it was a lot of stress, but I think it&amp;#039;s very rewarding. It&amp;#039;s great being given a chance to work on a movie like this.&amp;quot; Sheppard began working on costumes for the movie just ten weeks before the first day of shooting. A group of young designers headed by Jane Clive, who also worked on wardrobes for Captain America and Snow White and the Huntsman, was formed to work solely on Maleficent&amp;#039;s accessories, shoes, headwraps and jewellery, while Sheppard started to dream about the dark fairy&amp;#039;s outfits. &amp;quot;The film is fantasy, but it&amp;#039;s based on medieval themes,&amp;quot; she explained. &amp;quot;I started from the 14th century, the Renaissance, drawing inspiration from the pictures, paintings, sculptures and colours.  &amp;quot;Her costumes had to be very light and move in the air - there were a lot of special requirements. She becomes a very different character as she goes along, so the costumes are telling the story of change.&amp;quot; Angelina was &amp;quot;very involved&amp;quot; in the design process too, Sheppard revealed, pitching in to help achieve the right look for her fabulously evil alter ego.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m telling everyone it should be &amp;#039;Maleficent costumes by Angelina Jolie&amp;#039;,&amp;quot; she said. The most challenging obstacle that Sheppard faced was how to convey terror through a costume.  &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#039;s the silhouette. The horns play a big role in giving her that character,&amp;quot; Sheppard said. &amp;quot;Her costumes ended up making her like a sculpture. There is no doubt if there&amp;#039;s even a shadow of her on screen that it&amp;#039;s her.   &amp;quot;It took a lot of professional tricks to make the costume scary, but it&amp;#039;s mainly the silhouette. You see it and you know there&amp;#039;s something about her.&amp;quot;  By contrast, Sheppard needed to come up with something pure for Aurora, the sleeping beauty.  &amp;quot;She is like Ophelia to me, something very innocent and light and just beautiful,&amp;quot; said Sheppard. &amp;quot;Elle was very excited about wearing all these flowing gold dresses. She suits the character to perfection.&amp;quot; Maleficent&amp;#039;s outfit naturally takes some cues from the gothic, imposingly sharp cloak dreamt up by Disney&amp;#039;s animators for the 1959 version of Sleeping Beauty, but Sheppard claims this film will have its own distinct style.  &amp;quot;Everybody knows Sleeping Beauty, but I tried to go slightly against the grain,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s the point in doing the same?&amp;quot; Quite. In fact, if the stunning costumes glimpsed so far are anything to go by, Maleficent will be unlike anything we&amp;#039;ve ever seen. &amp;#039;The World of Maleficent&amp;#039; will be open to the public at Sky Studios, The O2 from May 24 until June 14. Maleficent opens in the UK on May 28 and the US on May 30. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/fashion-and-beauty/feature/a569797/maleficent-the-art-of-styling-evil-how-do-you-make-angelina-jolie-scary/>