Inside the fashion of Elvis biopic on show at the National Film and Sound Archive, and how Catherine Martin recreated iconic looks for the Baz Luhrmann film

Each is only on screen for a minute - if that - previewing what's to come, during a montage of the singer's life. But still, there they are - Hank Snow's bedazzled Nudie suit, Elvis in a pink and black suit at the beginning of his career, and finally, the Blue Wheat jumpsuit, with matching cape, worn during the King's third Las Vegas residency.

However, when the archive was adding the items from the Baz Luhrmann film to the Australians and Hollywood exhibition, these 10 minutes were not part of the criteria. The three costumes - along with Priscilla Presley's "divorce costume" - were chosen because together, they represented not only the craftsmanship that went into the costumes but the film's overarching story.

The fifth and final costume - the white Mexican sundial jumpsuit - was added to the archive's front foyer in the past month, completing the style evolution with the last jumpsuit Elvis ever wore on stage, both in the film and in real life.

Without context, it's odd to see a costume worn by a singer who is so iconically American - or, at least, the actor who played him, Austin Butler - in the front foyer of an Australian institution. But while Elvis and his story are so undoubtedly American, arguably no one other than Australian husband and wife duo, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, could have done it justice.

It's for that reason that not only has a selection of the film's costumes, design sketches and props found a home at the National Film and Sound Archive, but that same institution is spending this weekend celebrating the birth of Elvis, who would have been 88 on January 8. It's an unofficial sister celebration, in a way, to that happening in Graceland, with more of the archive's costumes loaned out to the home of Elvis for a new exhibition focusing on the film.

In a way, it's a return to where these costumes began. Not just because many were based on outfits worn by Elvis, but also because for Luhrmann and Martin, Graceland was home to a lot of their research; if you're going to make a biopic about the King, having the help of Graceland is a must.

Elvis was the biggest creative venture for Luhrmann and Martin - and their production company, Bazmark - to date. The costumes for the extras alone clocked in at more than 9000 individual outfits - consisting of shoes, underwear, socks, pants and jackets. Elvis himself had 90. And in true Catherine Martin style, many were so detailed, the audience never had a chance of taking it all in.

Take the green frog Nudie suit, worn by David Wenham as Hank Snow. The green, woollen Western-style two-piece has a shawl collar, frog and waterlily motif hand-painted by artist Maria-Rose Payne before it was bejewelled with multi-coloured diamantes.

As for the yellow shirt underneath, you only get a hint of its elaborate design peeking out from the collar and sleeves. Bought at Rockmount Range Wear - a more than 100-year-old store in Denver, Colorado that Hank Snow was known to have shopped at - the shirt has embroidered wagon and cactus motifs customised with diamantes by the Elvis costume team.

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The costume itself is only on screen for minutes, but it immediately captures the Hank Snow persona as the king of the Hayride music scene, while emulating the style that the country singer did wear at the time.

"If you have good costumes, you should be able to read more into it than just that person is wearing a red shirt," Martin said at the time of the film's release.

"You should be able to feel who the person is and where you are."

And in the case of a biopic, costuming is not just about replicating what was historically worn.

According to National Film and Sound Archive curator Tara Marynowsky, there is no record of Hank Snow ever wearing a green suit. He was known for pink suits, however. And who else was known for wearing pink suits at the time? An early-career Elvis Presley.

"I imagine there were compromises or thinking around colours, depending on the rest of the set, and designs that they're working on," Marynowsky says.

"You don't know where the line is between what is a replica or recreation, and Catherine's extra expertise coming into play.

"But with Elvis's pink suit, and Hank Snow's, they're not only thinking about the time period but about what's going to lift the film. I think there was a real conscious decision to fit something that Hank Snow had in the past, which was a beautiful pink suit, and make that green so that Elvis's suit would shine more. It's about the contrast and the balance, and trying to create that between the characters."

Then there are the film's costume designs that are based on real outfits but used at different times. Like the outfit that has been dubbed the "divorce costume".

In the film, it's the jacket and trousers worn by Priscilla in the Las Vegas tarmac scene, as she and Elvis are exchanging custody of their daughter, Lisa Marie. But it's a near-perfect replica of the real-life, highly photographed outfit Priscilla wore to the divorce court in 1973.

It's a mid-calf leather coat of different hides, giving it an almost patchwork effect, over camel leather boot-cut trousers, a cream sheer lace high-neck sleeveless top and a tan leather satchel with stitching detail and real fox-fur feature.

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"The handbag is hilarious because when things come into the collection, we have to survey them and do a condition report and make sure that condition's OK - there might be pests and things. We have pests in our homes and things like that," National Film and Sound Archive's Pippa Thorogood McLennan says.

"So when they were looking at the handbag, they found that there's a whole animal inside of it. It's not padding. It's just the hide of the animal.

"From my point of view, I do a lot of maintenance in the gallery and we have to check that there are no pests in there every time we come in just because moths love that kind of stuff."

Elvis's Blue Wheat jumpsuit - named after the outfit's bright blue material and the golden embroidery featuring images of wheat - is another example of repurposing a real-life design. In reality, this jumpsuit with a matching cape was worn at a 1972 performance at Madison Square Garden. In the film, it's worn in Las Vegas's International Hotel showroom, during the "You're fired" scene, when Elvis calls out Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks) on stage.

The jumpsuit itself is a great example of the King's iconic style - the high collar, wide, flared legs, large belt buckle and deep v-neck, not to mention the blue and gold cape (a style inspired by Elvis's childhood hero, Captain Marvel Jr). But when the outfit was put on actor Austin Butler, design changes needed to be made, with Martin and her team adjusting the height of the collar, the position of the pocket and the length of the embroidered details.

The same goes for the Mexican sundial jumpsuit, worn in real life in the famous 1977 TV special Elvis in Concert, as well as other concerts that year (including his last live performance in Indianapolis). And it's this jumpsuit that concludes the film.

"That jumpsuit had padding sewn into it for the film, and the scarf had a towel sewn into it because they would have known that the actor would have been sweating or just needed a bit more padding because he wasn't as large as Elvis was at that point in his life," Thorogood McLennan says.

"They do adapt the costume for whatever scene it is in. And it's really interesting, delving deep into the costumes for that, and finding out how they adapted it."

The costumes are in a lot of ways, a reflection of the plot itself. Elvis is not a strict biopic, attempting a chronological biography in the process. Rather it's a film that dishes up touchstones of the singer's life. And Martin does that through costuming as well, curating different iconic looks to help create the characters rather than an historical account.

There is an encore screening of Elvis at the National Film and Sound Archive on Sunday, February 19. For tickets, go to nfsa.gov.au.

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