Bury Me in a ‘Banshees of Inisherin’ Knit

Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise: The Oscars, after all, do tend to reward a certain kind of film when it comes to costume design. Lavish period extravaganza? Elvis and Babylon have that covered. Epic feats of world-building fantasy? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Everything Everywhere All at Once received richly deserved nods for that. And any film slavishly recreating a moment in the history of fashion itself? Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris hive—it’s time to rise up. 

The work of costume designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh on Banshees may be altogether more subtle, but it serves an equally important storytelling device, whether through the ever-brighter colors worn by Kerry Condon’s Siobhan as she begins to consider a life beyond the island or the ominous gloom of the cloak worn by the mysterious village elder Mrs. McCormick.

And then those knits—oh, those knits. I may or may not have audibly sighed when Farrell first skipped across the screen in a royal blue Donegal roll-neck sweater topped with a charcoal gray woolen striped blazer. I too would cut off my own fingers if it meant I could get my mitts on Gleeson’s black coat, billowing in the frigid Atlantic winds. But the true pièce de résistance was, of course, the ribbed red sweater with a kind of Peter Pan collar worn by Farrell midway through the film. By this point in the film, I was all but salivating.