Marvel: To clothe the coven of Agatha All Along, Daniel Selon had to tap into his inner witch. As the lead costume designer of Marvel Television’s newest series, Selon was responsible for dressing every witch in the show — from Kathryn Hahn’s scheming sorceress to Patti LuPone’s kooky tarot reader. To prepare, he and his team researched centuries of witch-inspired clothing, and they even incorporated some real-life magic into their workroom.
4 comments:
I have mixed thoughts on the costume design of Agatha All Along. I love how Daniel Selon handled the design process—lighting candles, pulling tarot cards, and trying to create a witchy vibe to design witchy costumes is a great way to set the mood. I also love how active the actors were in the design process. Giving actors some autonomy (or at least the impression of autonomy) over their costumes help them better relate to their character and helps create a smoother, more productive relationship between cast and designer. Individually, I think the costumes are really cool! Each one captures the personality of its wearer and has the fun hat-tips and easter eggs that Marvel is famous for. What I struggled with is how AWARE I was of the costumes while I was watching the show. They felt almost too curated, and I was aware that the characters were wearing costumes picked for them and not clothing they chose for themselves. There is a lot of great variance in color and silhouette, but costume can also be a powerful medium for establishing relationship between characters. Because they’re so different, I’m missing the throughline that pulls the entire coven together.
I started this show on the plane to Orlando this morning- I fell asleep about 10 minutes in, but the 10 minutes I did watch were… unexpected. The costumes eat though! I love the sophisticated, eerie-witchiness of Agatha’s costumes, and find the detective-esque costumes of the first episodes very rooted in reality and seem like something from a CW drama. I haven’t gotten to the part/episodes involving these whimsical, very superhero-esque looks yet, but am interested to see how the varying styles featured in the photos of this article will be tied together. I remember the Wandavision costumes, the show that inspired this spinoff, were absolutely gorgeous and although they varied from era-to-era and featured dozens of different silhouettes, they were all gorgeous and interesting. I can’t wait to keep watching the show to better understand the integration of these looks!
I always love reading about the process of making costumes. I think it’s so interesting to hear how many costume designers agree that the story of a character and their persona is often characterized in the clothes they wear every day. Learning about the process that went into every character’s look makes me appreciate it all the more. Even characterization and personal history is told through clothing such as Teenager’s sweater that was conceptualized to be one that he knitted himself as part of learning who he is and what he likes doing. Additionally, motifs and symbolism are placed into costumes such as Agathas with raven symbolism due to the thought that she has “lost her flock” without a coven. Finally, I appreciate the level of dedication to creating an environment which serves the nature of the show. Daniel Selon, the lead costume designer, said they put candles, tarot cards, and other witch-like elements into their workrooms so they would be more immersed into the story as they made the costumes.
I love how Daniel really made an effort to create a creative atmosphere for himself with the tarot cards and everything. That seems like a fairly niche but rather fitting way of doing some research for these designs. Similarly I loved how there was some actor involvement in the design process. It always helps when you can talk to the individual that's putting the most time and effort into developing a character to get their opinion on how they would dress or what the general vibe of their style might be for the costume designer to take that into account. Marvel has always been known for having little tidbits and easter eggs for the viewers and it's nice to see that Agatha All Along is no stranger to this! This has been on my list of things to watch, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the costumes when I get around to it.
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