While working on Midnight Express as a wardrobe mistress, Yvonne Zarb Cousin was asked to whip up two dresses for a couple of extras acting the part of ground hostesses during an airport scene.

“Four days later, we were at the airport but there was no sign of the ground hostesses. The first assistant director asked me whether they had arrived, and I told him no – and it was getting late. 

“But he turned to me and said: ‘Yvonne, you have to put the costume on.’ It turned out it was all planned,” she says with a hearty laugh.

Sitting in her St Julian’s living room, Ms Zarb Cousin flips through a folder of pictures and autographs of actors ranging from Charlotte Rampling and Geena Davis to Brad Pitt and Daniel Craig – actors she worked with in Malta during her 44-year-long career as wardrobe mistress and, later, supervisor.

Aged 79 and having just completed some preparatory work for Michael Bay’s The Tempest, Ms Zarb Cousin has decided it is time to retire from the film industry.

She fell into the business by accident, when Pulp was being filmed in Malta in 1971. The crew was staying at the Hilton and the costume supervisor was asking for people who could sew. Someone mentioned her.

“At first I was reluctant but they insisted that I give it a try. In reality, my job was that of a glorified maid,” she chuckles.

“But I worked my way up.”

Brad Pitt was all right, I suppose,but different from what I’m used to

Luck came her way, because the wardrobe supervisor of the film, Philippe Pickford, returned to Malta for a further two films: Shout at the Devil and Orca the Killer Whale.

“For Orca, he phoned me from Canada and told me: ‘I’m not bringing anyone with me, you will have to look after Charlotte Rampling’,” she recalls with a stunned expression. She was initially frightened of the actress, as she had sacked both the make-up artist – because she disliked him – and the hairdresser for arriving late.

From Ms Zarb Cousin’s archive: top, “Popeye” with Robin Williams and right, Midnight Express – her “favourite” – with Brad Davis.

However, it seemed she took a liking to Ms Zarb Cousin, who insists that she did her a lot of favours. She refuses to elaborate further, saying only that at the time the married Rampling was having an affair with Jean Michel Jarre (who later became her second husband). It was also on Orca that she was told off. Actress Bo Derek had a stain on her jumper and the director pointed it out to Ms Zarb Cousin, who said she would rush to the wardrobe department to fetch a replacement.

“The producer started shouting at me: ‘You should have had them on you, you’re costing the production a lot of money!’ I didn’t know I was meant to have replacements on me at the time.”

Many people at the wardrobe department were “prima donnas”, she chuckled. The necessary survival skills comprised knowing how to sew, how to command, organise and being nice to people.

Yvonne Zarb Cousin, wardrobe supervisor, has decided to retire. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

However, the film industry is no longer how it used to be, she sighs nostalgically. In the past, she would scour shops for items, while nowadays, the wardrobe supervisor works mostly from a computer. Actors have also changed, she adds.

“Brad Pitt was all right, I suppose, but different from what I’m used to. When you have an actor accompanied by his personal dresser, his security, his make-up and a person who gets him his food – you don’t really get to know them.

“Nowadays, they eat in the caravan – not like we used to, in the canteen, with everybody grouped together.”

Despite working on glossy films such as Gladiator, Troy and Munich, her favourite film by far remains Midnight Express, released in 1977. Having read the script, she instantly knew the film was going to be a good one.

It also gave her the opportunity to work with top costume designer Milena Canonero.

Two dogs formed part of the production – called Patrick and Woofie. They were strays, probably picked off Strait Street, she says. “When the film was over, (main actor) Brad Davis asked me to take Woofie home. He was taking Patrick to America. “I refused at first, telling him I couldn’t afford to keep him, in a bid not to have to take him in.

“But Brad said he’ll send me money for his food. Woofie had followed me all around the wardrobe department so I couldn’t really say no.” To her surprise, the actor actually kept his word and mailed her a couple of dollars in an envelope addressed to “Mr Woofie Wardrobe”.

She flicks through a heavy album, replete with hundreds of photographs from different productions.

“Please allow me to thank the people I have worked with, especially Rita Galea, Marcelle Genovese, Mavis Formosa and Winston Azzopardi,” she says, closing the album with a slight thud.