The first thing that struck me when watching the “House of Gucci” trailer when it first dropped — back in the spring — was Jeremy Irons, sitting alone in the dark, smoking a cigarette, looking elegantly decadent in a silk robe and scarf. Then, of course, there was Adam Driver, in a BIG cable-knit turtleneck sweater, and Gaga in a form-fitting red ski suit, her face framed in fur.

The real-life Guccis dressed with the same kind of exuberance as their on-screen counterparts — like fabulous rich bad-guys, each with his or her own distinct flair. And it was such a blast writing about their flamboyant fashions for The New York Post. I not only spoke with Sara Gay Forden — who spent many years covering the Guccis and whose (excellent) book inspired the film — but also the movie’s costume designer, Janty Yates, who did such a marvelous job capturing these characters’ personalities and styles.

There was quite a bit I couldn’t include, so I’m publishing an edited (annotated!) version of our conversation here. Read on to find out about Jeremy Irons’ pashminas, Gaga’s crazy all-over Gucci-print pants ensemble, and recreating that iconic 1995 Tom Ford collection for Gucci.

Raquel: I loved how each of the main characters in the Gucci family, they all have this Gucci aesthetic, but they all have their own singular style and personality that shines through their clothes.

Janty Yates: Well, that's very kind of you to say so. In fact, we took [their looks] fairly directly from photographic reference. Aldo [played by Al Pacino]* was very sartorially elegant. He was six-foot-two. He was a ladies man. He always had a buttonhole and a boofy silk pocket handkerchief, and non-matching waistcoat and a big tie.

Adam [Driver] — Maurizio, I should say — was always Saville Row, dressed beautifully.

And Patrizia very rarely wore Gucci. She wore Saint Laurent, she wore Dior; she basically just Christmas tree-ed herself up with her jewelry.

Raquel: I was wondering about that! She does wear Gucci a couple times, like that matching Gucci-print tunic and pants set. Did you find that in the brand’s archive?

Janty: Exactly. It was an archival Gucci. We had gone to Florence to see the archives in October, and there were about 18 or 20 outfits. We then had to wait until we could get them sent to LA. And we tried them all on her, and they fit her like a glove. It was fantastic. So we used that one, which is obviously vintage Gucci, and and then we use the Double-G silk print blouse and the leather skirt that she wears to her daughter's sports day when [Gucci lawyer] Domenico de Sole comes with the divorce papers.

Raquel: Her wearing that in that scene has a lot of meaning.

Janty: Exactly. And the whole reason we dressed her in that trouser suit was because she had become a Gucci, and so was horrified when she saw that her maid had this [fake Gucci bag] for $100**. You know, she was just seething! So it was a bit symbolic.

Raquel: When you were in the Gucci archive, did you notice how the brand evolved through the decades?

Janty: No! They had been moving the archive, and we kept ringing up saying, ‘Can we see it?’ No, no, no. And then suddenly there was a room at the museum — which is in Florence, the Gucci Museum — and they basically had 18 to 20 outfits, probably 15 to 20 bags, a couple pieces of luggage, a few scarves, all from the late ‘70s, early ‘80s. I mean, it looked marvelous on LG [Lady Gaga] — she just wears things so well. But we only actually ended up being two lots. It was very valuable to us, but there was no travel through time. There was nothing from Tom Ford — nothing.

Raquel: Wow! OK, I have to ask you then, because [in the film] you show his second collection [for Gucci] — the one that made him a star. … Did you recreate all of that?***

Janty: I didn't — my associate designer, Stefano de Nardis, he created the Versace 1984 from scratch.**** And he created the Tom Ford from scratch. And they found models that look like Amber Valetta. … It really worked. It was a shame that Ridley didn't include the whole show of both of them — it was just the end of Versace [that is seen in the movie].

And also Stefano created a show for Paolo [played by Jared Leto], it was Stefano's own designs, because [Paolo] never really had a show. I think he's quoted as saying, “pastels and browns.” I think what Stefano did was a much more beautiful than, you know, we should have done for Paolo. We should have made them look like, I don't know, potato sacks!*****

Gaga in vintage YSL and a Gucci belt and Jared Leto in a loud custom suit ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection

Raquel: Paolo wears these loud corduroy suits — were these things that you imagined him designing?

Janty: Oh absolutely. The main body of his costume was made by the Attolini Brothers — their factory in Naples is superb. Everything is hand-built. It's quite fantastic. The buttonholes are made by hand. They go to Scotland to choose their cashmere and then they have it woven in particular tweets that they choose the colors for.

They called [Paolo] the dandies’ dandy. We did Aldo tastefully dandy, and we did Paolo tastelessly dandy with clashing waistcoats and big windowpane checks and big billowing ties. It was a shame that you couldn't see — you could only see I think three outfits, and they made at least 12.

And the corduroy — the elephant cord was mine. I went to Costumi d’Arte [the famed costume house in Rome]. They have great tailors there. And I said we need to wait for the Attolinis, could we just run up a couple of corduroy suits? I never thought that I'd have to be talking about them, ever.

Raquel: Well, he’s wearing one in one of the posters!

Janty: I know! It's terrible. I thought, what could be the ugliest [thing]? A Norfolk jacket in elephant cord in pink. And it's become — not quite an overnight sensation, but it's crazy how people mention it.

Raquel: I have to ask about my personal favorite Jeremy Irons. He just looks so amazing with these scarves and cravats — tell me about dressing him.

Janty: Jeremy, I have to tell you, loves a scarf. [During fittings, he would always pick out a scarf] and say ‘Well, what about this, darling?’ ‘Why don't I do that?’ And I went, okay, if you want [to wear a scarf], let's ask Ridley. And Ridley said yes.

And then this cashmere pashmina that he wears in the garden when he's having dialogue with Al Pacino ... Basically, he was in this glorious dressing gown. I was so thrilled that we actually got him into it and it was on the screen. It was a Double-G green silk, and we made two of them for him. And he said, 'Oh, I think it's a bit cold, isn't it?' You know, he wasn't actually playing ill. But it was a very, very crisp spring day —so we just wrapped this [pashmina] around him, and that's had a lot of press and interest as well.

Raquel: He just looked so elegantly swaddled.

Janty: You know, with Jeremy, you're halfway there, because he's a clotheshorse, an absolute clotheshorse. So he looks brilliant in anything that's well-cut and you know with the swag of the cashmere around him — it worked, didn't it?

Raquel: I’m curious about Lady Gaga’s style evolution — what story did you want to tell through her clothes?

Janty: Well, it was very important that she have this huge arc. She had to start off innocent. She was not really innocent — she knew what her body could do, because you have that [scene] of her walking across that tarmac or car park, and [the male workers] are all ogling her. But she's sexy in an innocent way. And then, when she's courting with Maurizio, she's in little cashmere twin sets and little spring dresses, the old Burberry mac — that was her idea, because I said, I thought you might be in a Burberry when you stalk Maurizio. And she said, ‘Oh yeah, why don’t we get one with a check on the outside?’ I went, ‘I don't think that exists.’ And I week later my buyer came up with it, and it fit and it was wonderful. So the costume fairies were with me on that one!

And then of course she marries him and it gets much more complicated. She's wearing four necklaces or two necklaces, four bracelets and you know, she just is egging the pudding, as it were — which Patrizia did.

And then it was again it was LG's idea to wear a leather jacket on the way down because she's fed up. She's been with [her psychic friend] Pina for long enough and she's been away from her ex-husband for long enough. She just doesn't care anymore, so she's wearing her vintage leather jacket and jeans. I was a bit shocked at that, but you know that's fine. I said, ‘What about these nice blouses? I made you hundreds of silk blouses!’ My wonderful cutter made so many garments for her. But she said no.

Raquel: I loved the ‘mourning’ look she wears when she goes to take Maurizio’s apartment from his lover after his death.

Janty: That was a shocking scene. That was Alaia — it was a vintage Alaia shearling coat, and a vintage Alaia dress. It was so ‘80s — it was off the wall, really. And Gaga had rung — or her manager had rung — a few of her favorite designers to see if they got anything in their archives, and it came in very late in the shoot. In the last week or so. But we had some things from some of the designers who hadn't really understood the assignment.

Raquel: Were there any iconic Gucci pieces that you felt you needed to use — the floral scarf that Rodolfo designed, or the loafers?

Al Pacino, power-clashing as Aldo Gucci ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection

Janty: Well, every single member of the family wore Gucci belts, Gucci loafers, Gucci ties, ad infinitum, and Gucci cufflinks. In fact Paolo's [loafers] I had made in electric blue suede. I had pale green and beige suede. I had some beautiful black snakeskin ones made for Aldo. But [Pacino] has some problem with his toes, so he only stuck to one pair of shoes that were comfortable, so we never got to see the black snakeskin. And Maurizio had one brown suede, one black suede, one brown leather, one black leather, we just alternated more or less.

We completely [pillaged] eBay daily of anything with a Gucci logo. We had about 60 ties, as many cufflinks, and watches. We had about 15 to 20 watches. [Gaga] doesn't wear a watch that often. But Maurizio wears about three different watches. Aldo wore a Gucci watch, Paolo wore a Gucci watch. We just got it all off eBay.

Raquel: I loved Maurizio’s look. That first scene, where he’s sitting drinking a coffee and he stands up to get on a bicycle and everything just looks so beautiful on him …

Janty: [Adam Driver] is a clotheshorse like Jeremy. He’s 6-foot-4 — he’s a 46” chest believe it or not, and a 32” waist. So he’s fabulous to dress. He has no interest in clothes at all! It was great because he and I worked on ‘The Last Duel’ [before this], so we had an easy relationship. But he’d always go, ‘Hi, Janty’ [Janty puts up her middle finger] on Zoom from New Orleans or wherever he was shooting whenever my tailor would plop down there to try another cashmere coat on him. I think he had about 40 suits in the end.

Raquel: Did you have a favorite Gucci item that you came across?

Janty: Well, there were a lot, but now I can’t really look at Gucci. I can’t! I did buy a couple pairs of loafers. Oh God, I would never wear anything else, even though they’re so expensive. They’re like gloves — so do invest one day.

*Primer on characters: Aldo Gucci: the gregarious, larger-than-life leader with a penchant for women and tax evasion. Aldo’s son, Paolo (Jared Leto): the wayward heir who betrays his 81-year-old dad and put him in prison in 1986. Tragic matinee idol Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons), who would disown his only son, Maurizio (Adam Driver), when he decided to marry beneath his station. And Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga): the nouveau riche villainess who captured Maurizio’s heart, drove him to take over Gucci and had him killed in cold blood when he had no use for her anymore.

**Aldo had made deals with manufacturers to make Gucci knock-offs, which cheapened the brand in the 1980s.

***The movie actually depicts a mashup of Ford’s second womenswear show for Gucci and his men’s show, which debuted the now-infamous Gucci thong.

****Versace was part of a new wave of Italian designers, including Armani, reinvigorating the Italian fashion scene in the 1980s — and making Gucci look passé.

*****Though he’s treated like a joke in the movie — and by all accounts really was a weird, eccentric dude — Paolo was Gucci’s first ready-to-wear designer and created several of the house’s hottest items in the 1970s, like its leather mini skirts and scarf dresses (made by sewing the house’s scarves together).