The Atlantic: According to Barrett, every film is rooted in a distinct psychology. The costume designer must be a psychologist who investigates the material world the characters inhabit in order to pull their deepest motivations to the surface. “You’re trying to work out why people did things, where they lived and why they lived there, and what happened to them,” Barrett said.
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While I was reading this article, while I was blown away (but not necessarily surprised) by the amount of meaning behind little choices (from the 'above-ground' families shirts, to the developed gloves worn by the Tethered), I just kept thinking about Susan Tsu. As Susan likes to comment, "Everything is rife with semiotics." It's sometimes difficult to put that into perspective for just a project, but in this article alone, it displayed how the use of specific semiotics really helped create the costumes themselves. Especially for designers, pop culture can be used to help create connotations between ideas, and colors are especially helpful in setting mood. Red is a color that can represent passion or anger, or more physical things, like in the movie, things like blood. The use of a single color helps create unification among groups of people, but also can express a lot about a character, their motives, their past, anything. Especially with a director like Jordan Peele, there is so much information and exploration within the movie, but he doesn't give it to us, he builds a story that forces the audience to do some work.
I feel like the costumes in this movie are one of the strongest attributes as a whole. It really did convey everything that the designer wanted to in her design. It is both extremely utilatarian and aesthetically appealing at the same time which is not an easy feat to pull off. It is really impressive to have created such an iconic look with one's design. I know for a fact that this combo is going to be one of the most popular halloween costumes of the year. It is just such a sleek look that conveys so much fear and power. It is clear that this costume design was very thouroughly thought out. There is not a piece of it that was just happen chance or an unjustified decision. Barrett did an extremly good job of bridging the gap between the actors and their characters through the use of her costumes. It really does feel like a natural extension of who they are and what is motivating them. All in all, I feel like the movie was lacking in cohesion and plot, but the costumes were definetly not a part of this issue. In fact they were one of the most unifying parts that really did help to tie the whole film together.
After watching “Us”, I am thoroughly impressed by the costume designers ability to tell the story through the subtleties of their artistic choices. After watch “Get Out” and being completely floored, I knew that in watching “Us”, I would need to keep an eye peeled for every last detail to the costumes or the rather realistic scenic elements and even then, the show still completely surprised me and had me shaking. I like the notion in this article about costume designers being a psychologist for a character, and especially with shows like this, it’s important to use those tactics to reveal everything about the character while also revealing absolutely nothing. I think that the designer did a great job incorporating Jordan Peele’s distinct style of subtle color blocking to show a characters true nature through colors that the makes the audience wonder, “I should have noticed that”. Overall this movie is a perfect demonstration of how costume design can and is being used as one of the primary devices in storytelling.
Sometimes before watching a movie I enjoy looking into analysis of design choices in it. While avoiding spoilers. I find myself spotting what they have pointed out, and that adding to my experience of the film. I haven’t watched Us yet, but it is on the top of my list since I have heard so many good things about it. I'm excited to see where Jordan peele has gone after his movie get out. After reading this article I can say it has moved to the top of my to watch list, after hearing how much thought went into the detail of their clothes. Design aspects such as “Adelaide’s outfit” creates for such a strong story when not just the story line but her “outfit functions as a window into her true identity”. I’m excited to see how this films strong visual aspects uses things like color theory to make the story even stronger.
This is exactly what costumes should do. Build character and subconsciously spoil the movie for you. Really it took a second to fully understand the genius of the Adelaide character design. Usually I think of the female lead as being in all white or blue as fairly cliche by now, but the level to which the style of clothing was decided as character building is a talent I hope to acquire in the foreseeable future. One forgets when watching, if it is done well that the characters before us are not wearing costumes, they are wearing clothes that they chose and deeply reflect their personality. Also I forget the amount of work it takes to distress something like a sweatshirt so that it does not look brand new, but something personal and well loved. I guess it would look odd if there was not a single stain, because everyone does.
I have very mixed feelings about Us. On one hand, I think the casting and performances were phenomenal and the production design was very thoughtful and effective, which is evident in this interview with Kim Barrett, however, I thought that the story needed a lot of work. They touched on a few of the plot holes in this interview – like how the heck the Tethered even made these jumpsuits or acquired all the matching scissors – and I’m happy to know that the production team designed a way to justify those choices… but then why leave them out of the film?
On the topic of costumes, though, I thought that Barrett’s choices were thoughtful and well received, the costuming was not “obvious” in a way that would have actually spoiled the movie, but it was hinting at the deeper truth, which in re-watching the movie, is a detail I think would be more noticed and appreciated.
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