The 2020 Oscars awards were delivered. Jacqueline Durran won the award for Best Costume Design for the film Little Women (Greta Gerwig). But Mayes C. Rubeo treasures the honor of being the first Latina in the history the Oscars to be nominated for this category, for her costume design work in Jojo Rabit, by Taika Waititi.
When Rubeo received the news, she was working in the costumes of her next project, Marvel’s WandaVision. She first thought it was a prank when she read the congratulatory messages that came on her phone, she said in an interview with Margy Rochlin of the Los Angeles Times. She was used to not being nominated. “I always try not to pay attention because I never get nominated for anything I do,” she said.
It’s not because I haven’t made a name for myself. Rubeo, born in Mexico City in 1962, educated in Guadalajara, is the author of the costume designs for the films Apocalypto (Mel Gibson) Avatar (James Cameron), Warcraft: The Beginning (2016), World War Z (Marc Foster) and Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi).
Jazz Tangcay reports for Variety magazine that the customes Mayes Rubeo designed for Jojo Rabbit are “a world away” from the ones she designed by computer for Avatar or Thor. Since Jojo Rabbit tells the story of Nazism through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Rubeo opted for “vibrant colors” to dress the characters, and used color “to symbolize the evolution of Jojo’s [the protagonist] world view,” Tangcay writes.
Rubeo told Be Latina that she used her own textile collection for the movie. She chose the best and most appropriate pieces to portray the fashion that was used at the time. She also looked for costumes in vintage stores in Berlin, Rome, Prague and Los Angeles.
In the interview with Margy Rochlin for the Los Angeles Times, Mayes Rubeo detailed that she has her textile collection in her residence in Trevi, Italy. “I have many pieces, some from the 18th century. Lots of really old Chinese textiles. Mexican embroideries, embroideries from Northern Europe. I was very happy to give it to the movie. I don’t want them on my shelf like a good wine. If I can contribute to the costume design of the movie, they can live forever.”
Mayes C. Rubeo moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, Be Latina reports. There she studied at Los Angeles Trade Tech. After graduating, she moved to Italy to work with costume designer Enrico Sabbatini, who would become her mentor. That’s how she began her career as a costume design assistant and a costume supervisor, also with designers like Shay Cunliffe, Erica Edell Phillips and Ellen Mirojnick.
Rubeo’s first major films were those of director John Sayles in Men With Guns and Sunshine State. According to Be Latina, it was her work with Gibson that led to her greater recognition by other directors.
Rubeo’s biography on IMDb, the renowned website with film content and reviews, says the she has led teams from five continents and continues to take her work to “new territories, turning technological and technical challenges into creative opportunities.”
Mayes C. Rubeo’s designs have been shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and at the Hollywood Costume exhibition curated by Deborah Nadoolman.
Her work is instinctive, she told Be Latina.
“I’m very instinctive in my life. I follow my gut feeling,” said Rubeo. “The moment that I divert from that, things go wrong. So I learned to really follow my instinct and go for it and it has always worked for me.”
Rubeo did not win the Oscars, but after her historic nomination she received others from the BAFTA and the Costume Designers Guild awards.
“I’m very happy, excited, euphoric. All of the above,” says Rubeo. “It’s a wonderful time for me.”