The Brutalist costume designer reproduces Adrian Brody's Brutalist Sweater

Costume designer Kate Forbes has recreated the grey sweater worn by Adrien Brody in The Brutalist film for fans to buy.

Forbes, who was the costumer designer for the Oscar-winning film, worked with British knitwear designer Ilana Blumberg to make the Brutalist Sweater.

She decided to recreate the piece after seeing the reaction the public had to the vintage garment, which was worn by actor Brody while playing fictional Hungarian architect László Tóth in the film.

"Just seeing the reaction to that sweater made me feel like I needed to bring it back to life," Forbes told Dezeen.

"I loved seeing the response to a modest piece of vintage clothing being plucked from anonymity and finding its way onto the big screen and becoming so talked about," she continued.

"I also love costume houses like Theatrekunst, who are trusted custodians of so many of these rare and irreplaceable period garments, and it just felt like a fitting way to celebrate it all by making it so that everyone who loved this sweater as much as I did could have one themselves."

Forbes discovered the light grey sweater, which she describes as "perfection", in Berlin costume house Theatrekunst.

She was drawn to its architectural qualities, which made it an ideal piece for Tóth.

"I have always loved knitwear and the collar and structure of this knit just really struck me – it just felt perfect for László as an architect and modernist designer," she explained.

"The collar, the structure of the knit are both so special – you really don't see this much in contemporary knitwear, that density of knit. The ribbing at the waist that sits and fits snug to the hip gives such a flattering shape to the batwing structure of the sleeve and body – for me, it really is perfection!"

It is these architectural qualities that Forbes believes attracted others to the sweater.

"It's the architectural quality of the sweater," she said.

"How it really has its own structure, which is unique to this design and rare in this world of fast, cheap fashion – I think people are craving really good design and construction, and this sweater exemplifies those qualities."

Forbes collaborated with Blumberg to reproduce the sweater after being introduced to the knitwear designer by her brother, who was the composer on The Brutalist.

The pair aimed to retain the essence of the original, while adapting it to a contemporary audience by creating a deeper rib cuff and longer sleeve length than the vintage piece.

"I decided to make the sleeve length longer and to match the cuff length to the waist rib, which were personal aesthetic choice and I really feel it really benefits from these choices," said Forbes. "I never wanted to detract from the original, but I could see a way to improve it just slightly for the contemporary clientele."

"The one area that we had to keep pushing on was the density of the knit, our first few samples were so limp in comparison to the original, and I can only think this is due to today's manufacturers anticipating that you would use the minimal amount of yarn you can get away with to make it as cheaply as possible," she continued.

"But I wasn't prepared to compromise and by the final sample, we had almost doubled the yarn count, which finally delivered the structure and silhouette that makes it such an iconic piece."

Released in 2024, The Brutalist film placed the brutalist architectural style at its centre and in an interview with Dezeen, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet said "there is no more controversial style of architecture".

However, in an opinion piece, critic Edwin Heathcote argued: "The Brutalist somehow manages to get the architecture all wrong".

The main image is courtesy of A24.

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