In director Marc Forster’s screen adaptation of “The Kite Runner,” the costumes are more than props: They play an important role in storytelling. The film, based on the best-selling book by Khaled Hosseini, tells the tale of two Afghani friends from different social classes. The film opens in Afghanistan in the early 1970s, when traditional and contemporary clothing could co-exist in public. In the movie, the costumes illustrate the economic distinctions between Amir, a son of a wealthy business owner, and his boyhood friend Hassan, whose father works for Amir’s family. Amir wears jackets and jeans that any American boy in the 1970s might have worn, whereas Hassan wears a traditional Hazara kit.

The clothing later comes to illustrate the reversal of fortune that Amir and his father, Baba, endure when they arrive in America. In the beginning of the film, prior to the Soviet takeover, the leading male adults are outfitted in crisply tailored suits. To get the look, Hollywood turned to high-end menswear label Domenico Vacca. Along with costume designer Frank L. Fleming, Domenico Vacca created the colorful yet refined suits for Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) and Baba’s business partner, Rahim Kahn (Shaun Toub). Once Baba and Amir land in America, the absence of such finery makes the transition all the more real. And Rahim Kahn, who stays behind in their homeland, ultimately trades his Western suits for traditional Afghani robes.