Life & Style Weekly, December 20, 2004
The gang’s all back for Ocean’s Twelve, with the addition of Europol agent Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who is hot on their tracks as they try to pull off heists across Europe. This sequel takes Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his gang of slapstick thieves to Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Rome and Lake Como, and they’re all dressed up with places to go! “The characters have more money now, and they have evolved and matured, so [director] Steven [Soderbergh] wanted to make sure that they didn’t look the same as they did three years earlier when we first met them,” explains costume designer Milena Canonero. Matured, she says? One wouldn’t know it from the hijinks both on set and off— Brad Pitt telling the crew that George Clooney wanted only to be addressed as “Mr. Ocean,” Clooney putting pine nuts and gravel in Pitt’s luggage. While filming in Lake Como, several cast members stayed at Clooney’s 25-room villa. “It was like summer camp, unbelievably fun and relaxing,” says Julia Roberts, as she reminisces about days spent lounging by the pool. “We did manage to get an enormous amount of work done, which is the baffling mystery of this group. I don’t know how we have so much fun and get so much accomplished at the same time.”

Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt)
“I would like to say that I had the time of my life on this film, but I can’t,” Brad Pitt says jokingly. “Crappy locations. Rotten food – especially in Italy. And horrible company. It was really frustrating.” Throughout the movie, Pitt’s character Rusty changes from one flashy outfit to another—he is after all being pursued by a woman, albeit a Europol agent who says she’d like nothing more than to see him in jail. “Rusty is more vain and more into his clothes,” says Canonero. “I used lots of satins and shiny material to give a shimmer and slickness to his look, just like lightning.” She also dressed Rusty in several different trench coats both for practical reasons—“it’s the ideal item for Italy in the spring, when there’s a lot of rain,” she says—and to create an imperceptible link between Rusty and Isabel, as she too has a wardrobe full of trench coats. Canonero got most of Rusty’s rings and other accessories from Tiffany & Co. and chose mainly platinum and white gold: “It suited his character; he likes to spend money and this jewelry is all very chic,” she says.

Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon)
Unlike the rest of Ocean’s crew who’ve been living it up with the proceeds of their $160 million Vegas heist, Linus (Matt Damon) has been thrifty and is still living with his parents. You can tell by his outfits that he wants to emulate the older, more experienced members of the gang; Like Danny, he sticks to black and gray often monochromatic ensembles, but he also tries to add some pizzazz a la Rusty by wearing leather jackets and funky shirts and ties. Despite his efforts, he never really quite captures either of his idols’ panache. “Linus very much aspires to be running a crew like Danny and Rusty, but he’s not quite ready yet,” says Damon. Canonero agrees: “At the beginning of the movie Linus is juvenile and a bit confused, and he can’t pick between Danny and Rusty’s styles. But then he becomes more self assured and at the end of the movie we see him in this beautiful linen suit.” She paired the suit with a crisp white Brooks Brothers shirt and a striped silk knit tie. “It’s very thirties, very continental; I call it the “Quiet American” look,” she says.

Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones)
It’s no surprise that the two most stylish characters, Rusty and Isabel, had a fling a few years back. But the relationship between the debonair thief and sexy agent didn’t last, and now she’s hot on his heels, trying to stay one step ahead of Ocean’s gang. Canonero wanted to create stylish yet professional outfits for Isabel, who as a Europol agent has been trained to track master thieves. She designed most of Isabel’s wardrobe herself: “I went with what I call the ‘hero look’ and repeated elements of her wardrobe, like trench coats, which I felt gave her a ‘detective’ air,” says Canonero. “Catherine liked that we repeated the coat in different colors. It was a happy coincidence that just after I had them made, trench coats became a hot fashion item.”

Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts)
You can tell by Tess’ casual outfits and minimal jewelry that she’s really been trying to lay low and live a normal life. “Julia likes to bring a lot of ideas to her fittings, and she wanted to play Tess a little bit freer in this film, and not quite as arch as she had been in the first,” says Canonero. Canonero bought Tess’ jewelry at small boutiques in Los Angeles: “I picked delicate gold accessories that went with Tess’ cool, understated look.” Tess does get glammed up to help the boys with a robbery, but since her outfit is put together by Linus and Basher (Don Cheadle), it ends up being a bit over the top. Roberts’ pregnancy meant double the work for Canonero, who had to go back to the drawing board and re-design her wardrobe weeks into production. Ironically, Tess was five months pregnant in the initial version of the script, but once Roberts became pregnant in real life, Soderbergh decided to write the pregnancy out of the story.