No Film School: How do you dress a Penguin?
It's a question that's been answered many times, by Tim Burton and DC artists and others.
But in his newest iteration, costume designer Helen Huang was tasked with giving the character and expansive cast of The Penguin their looks, and you might be surprised at some of her inspirations—and how this version of Oz Cobb is dressed as more of a working-class hero, rather than the tuxedoed supervillain we're used to.
3 comments:
This was really interested to think about. I am a huge Batman fan, but I haven't gotten around to The Penguin yet; this made me really excited to watch the show. The way that Huang thought about the characters, the timeless old money look, the straying from the camp Penguin suit into italian mob boss territory, it really showed the thought that was put into getting this character right. I loved the amount of consideration that was put into each look, not just the clothes themselves, but how the fit and hung on the Penguin. Its a whole new level of professional costume design. I'm not a costume designer, but if I ever end up wearing that hat this a lot of very useful advice to take into consideration.
Similarly to the article I read about Colleen Atwood’s design process in ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,’ Helen Huang talks about all the things that inspired her for the TV mini series, ‘The Penguin’. Overall, she was really inspired by the time period she wanted to encapsulate, and used fashion from those eras to tell the story. I am very grateful for the section where they talk about getting a job in the industry. The part where she talks about the importance of being educated in a very well-rounded way to be able to articulate your ideas to the directors is, I believe that that’s something that often go unnoticed when, as an artist, you’re more focused on creating a unique sense of style and putting all of your skills on the table. I also found it very inspiring when she says to make sure you’re telling your own part of the story in the aspect you’re working on, whether it’s costumes or other aspects of production.
This was a super interesting article to read. I just started watching The Penguin and haven't even made it fully through the first episode yet, but am already enjoying it and now I know an extra thing to pay attention to. It was really cool to see where all of Helen Huang's inspiration and ideas came from and how she enacted them on the show. What I found really interesting was the return of the idea of silhouettes for the characters. Helen Huang said in her interview that "We try not to repeat silhouettes", which is such an interesting idea. I imagine it would also bring up some interesting challenges. Such as what to do if two characters have similar builds. How does one make a change to the silhouette that's subtle but distinguishing? Helen Huang was able to figure out how to do it and made some truly amazing costumes in the process.
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