The plane gang: costume designer Sandy Powell is the queen of period films. Her latest is Scorsese's The Aviator.(Fashion Flash)

W, December, 2004 by Mistry, Meenal

On the set of a film, a director's list of potential fears is infinite: a production-crew strike, a seriously ill star or even a stunt gone badly awry. According to Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, you can add actors in hats to that list. "Hats are always an issue. So many directors just don't like them," explains Powell. "You put a hat on the head of an actor, and people just go into a panic." But that wasn't the case on the set of Powell's latest project, The Aviator, a biopic based on the life of Howard Hughes and directed by Martin Scorsese. "Marty is one of the few directors who actually loves hats," she says with a hint of admiration.

The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes, charts the life of the eccentric billionaire...