Staying Close to the Magic: Inside the Creative World of Louise Bruun
The acclaimed Hair and Make-up Designer on trusting her instincts and remaining a student of her craft
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Louise Bruun was 19 when Nicolas Winding Refn asked her to work on his first feature, Pusher. She had never done it before, but agreed anyway, kicking off her creative career. One of the actors in her chair was another newcomer: Mads Mikkelsen.
Decades later, Bruun is still saying yes to the creative unknown. Only now, she brings a formidable career’s worth of experience with her.
Her work has moved between the immediacy of fashion and the permanence of film, teaching her to trust an instinct while continually sharpening it. On a major production, she keeps herself close to the lens, where creative decisions can evolve alongside the scene in “reel” time. When a project changes course, she changes with it. After decades spent creating extraordinary aesthetics, she still considers herself a student of her craft.
That willingness to adapt is central to Bruun’s process. She arrives with an informed point of view but remains open to what other artists bring to it, allowing the project to take shape through collaboration.
Her latest film with Refn, Her Private Hell, offers a spectacular canvas for that philosophy. The film draws Bruun back into the horror that first captivated her as a teenager, now with a wealth of experience across fashion and film to draw from.
We spoke with Bruun about trusting her creative instincts and the creative possibilities that emerge when artists inspire one another.
Dressing the Part: Costume Designer Sarah Runnalls on Yaga and the Visual Language of Character
Inside the creative process behind Yaga in anticipation of its TIFF 2026 premiere
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Before Sarah Runnalls was dressing characters for the screen, she was raiding her parents’ linen closet. As a teenager, no bedsheet was safe. Runnalls would take whatever fabric she could get her hands on and turn it into something she could wear, eventually making pieces for friends and selling her creations to local boutiques. She already understood fashion as a form of storytelling: each morning offered another opportunity to decide how you wanted to present yourself to the world.
That instinct would eventually take her from fashion school to Vancouver Fashion Week, where her Sarah Runnalls Collection earned her an Emerging Designer Award. Her work with iconic Canadian drag queen Jimbo introduced another dimension to her designs, beginning with costumes for local theatre before their creative paths led into film and television.
It was there that clothing took on a different responsibility. A beautiful garment became representative of a character’s history and storyline, revealing a world of information before a line of dialogue is uttered. Runnalls became fascinated by the precision of that process and the way a character could evolve visually from scene to scene.
Her latest project, Yaga, gave her particularly rich material to explore. Created by Kat Sandler, the series reimagines a folklore figure whose image has been shaped by centuries of storytelling. Rather than reaching for the familiar visual shorthand of the witch, Runnalls helped create modern women whose power and confidence are embedded in how they present themselves. The female gaze became an important creative guide, resulting in a visual identity that feels contemporary while leaving room for some cleverly placed cinematic references.
With Yaga premiering at TIFF 2026, we spoke with Runnalls about the creative process behind bringing its characters to life and the unexpected path that brought her from making one-of-a-kind fashion to designing entire identities for the screen.