A movie doesn't have to be jampacked with cinema style to have a memorable fashion moment or two, and in the course of screening the slate of holiday-season films, we found all kinds of clothes, accessories, hairstyles and makeup worth a mention.

'The Iron Lady'

The costumes in "The Iron Lady," the unconventional biopic about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that opened in limited release Dec. 30, say a lot about political power dressing. Meryl Streep, who plays Thatcher, has nearly 40 costume changes in the film, and almost all of what she wears is Tory blue, a color the PM favored because it set her apart from a sea of men in gray suits.

"She used blue in all forms, from the most pastel and girlish to the most deep," says the film's costume designer, Consolata Boyle. "We used blue in a very deliberate way in the film, as a metaphor and a tool to convey Margaret's emotions and her ideas."

In the movie's depiction of her early career, Thatcher takes advice from political consultants who tell her to lose her ultra-feminine, fussy style, particularly her hats. She agrees to all but one thing: "The pearls are nonnegotiable." That double strand of pearls, a copy of Thatcher's own, is one of many pieces of her jewelry re-created for the film. "She was a great collector. It's such an iconic look she had with the pearls and the brooch on the shoulder," Boyle says.

'My Week With Marilyn'

The transformation of Michelle Williams into a 30-year-old Marilyn Monroe was no small task. It required the actress to spend three hours a day in hair, makeup and wardrobe to look not like the heavy-lidded glamour girl with a crimson pout who is most familiar to the public, but like the pared-down woman behind the icon.

"My Week With Marilyn" focuses on the tense working relationship between Sir Laurence Olivier and Monroe during the filming of the 1956 movie "The Prince and the Showgirl," as well as on a budding friendship between the voluptuous actress and a young director's assistant.

Though the film captures an "off-duty" side of Monroe, her wardrobe is still tailored. But it has an ease that draws a strong contrast to the constricting, sexy dresses we're used to on her. Costume designer Jill Taylor used ladylike pieces including ivory silk button-down blouses, camel-colored pencil skirts and classic trench coats punctuated by chiffon head scarves and oversized sunglasses. All are worn with an air of insouciance that brings out a more vulnerable and down-to-earth side of Monroe.

Jenny Shircore designed Williams' makeup to look like no-makeup makeup. Shircore used shadowing and contouring to reshape the actress' face to appear less round and longer, like Monroe's.

'War Horse'

Have you ever heard of an equine makeup artist? Neither had we, until we read the production notes for "War Horse." But it makes sense. Steven Spielberg's epic film is about a young Englishman named Albert (Jeremy Irvine), who enlists in World War I after his beloved horse Joey is sold into the cavalry, and the horse's journey through war-torn Europe. The cast of horses was every bit as important as the cast of humans.

There were 12 horses that played Joey, each one trained to do a different action, and they all had to look identical — with four white socks and a white 'star" on the forehead. That's where equine makeup artist Charlie Rogers came in. Apparently, it took 45 minutes to get each horse into makeup.

With all the battle scenes in the film, making costumes was an enormous task for Joanna Johnston. She fashioned 1,400 military uniforms for British and German soldiers.

Another piece of the costume puzzle was wardrobing Albert's rural farm family, including his mother, Rose (Emily Watson). Johnston enhanced the simplicity and the texture of their costumes to match their environs in the Devon countryside.

"Strong but feminine, that was Rosie. I wanted that make-do-and-mend mentality," she says. She had a special wool woven in Scotland to use for Rosie's long skirts and designed original prints for her feminine blouses.

In a respite from the war, the horse stops briefly to live with a French farmer and his granddaughter Emilie (Celine Buckens), who wears sweetly embroidered dresses. "I had a whole back story about her mother having been an elegant woman. When I'm designing costumes, I love to have a back story, whether it really exists in the script, or I just make it up."