Costuming the Extreme: A Critical Analysis of Concentration Camp Prisoner Costumes in 'Schindler's List' (1993)

This paper examines the prisoner costumes in Steven Spielberg’s drama Schindler's List (1993) designed by the Polish costume designer Anna Biedrzycka Sheppard. The film offers ground for a critical analysis of garments, materials and accessories used to portray prisoner characters and crowds on screen, tracing the historical information of their extreme conditions embedded in the costumes. While Oskar Schindler was a man of style, depicted in the film, the costumes of the prisoners, including those for the extras, present even greater interest. The paper examines the costumes for the crowds that represent the prisoner populations in the camp. The costume designer used many original garments collected locally in Poland, where the film was shot. Schindler’s List was filmed entirely in black and white to intentionally achieve a documentary feeling. The analysis offered here provides an opportunity to examine the connections between dress history and costume design practice, and to uncover how the alliance between these two fields can offer exciting and historically informed costume dramaturgies for the screen.