The two very different sisters both love and resent one another, Alberta is highly strung while Gabriella is gentle and distracted. Enter Oscar-winning costume designer Bianca Vega (Vanessa Scalera) who is irrational and demanding… and choosing an atelier for her next film. Channelling a little Almodóvar, director Özpetek’s world is loaded with many a melodramatic twist and turn: loneliness, passions, anxieties and unbreakable bonds permeate the film. This is a love letter to cinema’s leading ladies as well as the tremendously talented women who have costumed actors and extras throughout film history.