CNN
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If fashion is a language, Arianne Phillips, costume designer in James Mangold’s latest film, “A Complete Unknown,” is a polyglot.

In 2005, she mastered the visual lexicon of Johnny Cash’s style for Mangold’s “Walk the Line,” dressing the rockabilly legend in Western work shirts and all-black stage clothes. For 2019’s “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood,” Phillips scoured Sharon Tate’s real wardrobe to outfit Margot Robbie in the same snakeskin trench coat and yellow hot pants the actress and model wore before her shocking death in 1969. But for the past five years, Phillips has been studying Bob Dylan and is “fluent” in both his worldview and his wardrobe.

A Complete Unknown will be released in the US on Christmas Day and stars Timothée Chalamet as Dylan. It traces the musician’s meteoric rise from his arrival in New York at the age of 19 to real stardom at 24.

“We recreated well-known events that have been extensively documented,” Phillips told CNN in a video interview. “That was the starting point for me, especially when it came to research. Digging up the script and forensically breaking it down to known events.”

The film spans the years 1961 to 1965 and covers pivotal moments in the folk rock star’s early career, including the now-iconic photo shoot of his “Freewheelin'” album cover in 1963, his turbulent tour with Joan Baez in 1964, and his divisive performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Costumes for these occasions were easier to create because Phillips faithfully recreated them. Take the leather jacket and red button-down shirt Dylan wore to his performance in Newport, where he was relentlessly booed by the crowd for playing electric guitar, or his green and white polka dot blouse from the same weekend. But Chalamet made more than 65 costume changes, depicting behind-the-scenes moments in the film when Dylan was either not yet famous or off duty at home, Phillips explains.

“You know (his) stage persona, you know the news reels,” Phillips said. “But what we don’t see are many photos of him in his private time when he’s not on stage or promoting something.”

To fill in the gaps, she had to impersonate Dylan, imagining what jeans he would choose to walk around Manhattan, what shirt he would wear when he went to the studio, or what jacket he would grab for a road trip on his motorcycle Triumph Tiger 100.

“We didn’t have access to personal photos. So my entry is becoming fluent in Bob, in research…understanding his aesthetic, how he dressed and also learning from the people who knew him,” she explained.

According to Phillips, Dylan Mangold gave notes on the film’s script, but that was the full extent of the rock star’s involvement. Access to his personal wardrobe was also not granted, so Phillips resorted to various biographies and books about his life.

The 2008 memoir A Freewheelin’ Time, written by Dylan’s former girlfriend Suze Rotolo, was also particularly helpful in capturing the essence of those early years.

“I learned a lot from her,” Phillips said of Rotolo, who died in 2011 and is played by Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo in the film. “How Bob dressed and how he wanted to present his personality to the world. I think it’s the story of a young person finding his way in the world, figuring out how people should perceive him, (experiencing) freedom and moving away from home. I think we can all relate to that when we find our own personal style at 19 or 20.”

After receiving the call to take part in the film in 2019, Phillips spent years exploring her new subject and building an extensive visual image archive. Bob Dylan’s fashion formula slowly emerged.

“My main theme was the denim that he wore,” she said. Phillips teamed up with Paul O’Neill, head of vintage collections at Levi Strauss’ San Francisco headquarters, to locate and verify Dylan’s favorite pair of jeans. At the beginning of the decade it was the classic 501s.

“On the cover of Freewheelin’ you can see him with the 1963 version of 501,” she said. “They were able to help me source a lot of vintage Levis for the film.”

But it didn’t take long for his fashion taste to change. After spending time with the Beatles in Britain in 1965, Dylan was influenced by the chic Mod look often found on London’s Carnaby Street. He swapped out his loose-fitting jeans for a thinner pair.

“They were called Super Slims and they are collectible and very hard to find,” Phillips said of the jean style. “So lucky for us that (Levi’s) recreated them and made them custom for us, which was exciting.” Earlier this month, Levi’s announced that they were remaking Dylan’s favorite 1955 501 jeans, as well as his classic suede trucker jacket, for a limited time would hang up.

Dylan’s experimental style and playful approach to clothing meant many costume changes for Chalamet. “We had a very ambitious shooting schedule,” Phillips said. “Some days we did looks from 1961 and 1962, then 1965 all the way to 1963. It was crazy. Really, really busy. So part of my job that I love is being able to support the actors by helping them adapt to the times we were in when we were filming these scenes. Costumes really serve as a tactile experience for an actor and help them get into the character.”

Chalamet has dabbled in historical dramas and memoir adaptations before, but “A Complete Unknown” marks the actor’s first foray into celebrity biopic territory. Although he was under a lot of pressure between music rehearsals, vocal training and performance preparations, Phillips praises Chalamet’s patience through the many adjustments.

“It’s a very intimate job, costume design,” she said. “We’re the only department on (set) that says, ‘Hello, nice to meet you.’ Undress yourself.’ It takes a lot of trust.”

Since the start of the press tour, the cast and crew of A Complete Unknown have been blessed with a note of thanks from Dylan himself. “A movie about me is opening soon,” Dylan, 83, tweeted, adding that Chalamet was starring in it (which the actor promptly shared with his own 19.3 million Instagram followers). “Timmy is a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’ll be as believable as I am. Or a younger me. Or any other me.”

“It’s a different experience working on a film about a living person,” Phillips said. “I hope he (Dylan) sees the film and I hope he likes it.”

Still, she doesn’t regret that her team didn’t have access to the star’s wardrobe; as she noted, “We’re not making a documentary.”

“And filming is pretty hard,” Phillips added. “I wouldn’t expect Bob Dylan to have clothes that would last 60 years, and if he did it should be in a museum, not a movie.”