Wednesday, January 08, 2025
‘Dune: Prophecy’ Costume Designer Enjoyed the ‘Tricky’ Task of Creating New Looks in an Existing Universe
www.yahoo.com/entertainment: “Dune” is one of the densest sci-fi worlds out there, richly descriptive and sprawling across generations over six books, three movies and two TV series. For Bojana Nikitović, costume designer on the new HBO series “Dune: Prophecy,” that meant delving deeply into researching the world before she could begin any designing.
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I loved the in-depth description of the process for creating the red engagement dress. It’s a shame that the article didn’t show any photos, I did a quick search for them and it’s a really beautiful costume. I thought it was interesting how the designer openly acknowledged how fluid the design was, and how inspiration was found in all sorts of places from all sorts of objects. It’s nice to know that a professional designer will also find a random shiny object and go “wait this would be really cool.” One of the highlights in this article for me was the mention of a “special gluing technique,” which out of curiosity, I really wish was detailed. I know that when I say I “used special tactics” to glue something, that usually just means I hot-glued it, but I imagine that this big-budget movie did not use hot glue. Anyway, despite being someone who is often disappointed by movies based on books for “not being how it was in the book,” I have to acknowledge how challenging it is to be responsible for turning an entirely imaginary world into something tangible.
I have loved science fiction, fantasy, and dystopian fiction in all types of mediums since I was a kid. One of the main reasons I love these genres is the freedom to imagine a world that doesn’t exist yet, or at all. As a theatre artist, working on these futuristic and fantasy projects would be incredibly creatively fulfilling. I watched both Dune Part 1 and Part 2, and I was blown away by the costumes. I have not seen Dune Prophecy, but I enjoyed Nikitović’s explanation of the symbolism behind Princess Ynez’s engagement dress, and the process it took to arrive at the completed garment. I found a picture of the engagement dress, and I could immediately tell that Nikitović achieved what she set out to do. The face veil especially felt like a barrier, a fence, or a closed bag that was intended to show how trapped Princess Ynez is in the show. I will have to check out the show when I have time, and see what the other costumes look like.
I really like when fantasy designers approach their craft the same way that historical fashion designers do, where they have to take into account the time period and customs that would have to exist at that time and construct their clothes accordingly. I think shows like Game of Thrones do this really effectively where the clothing is interesting and fantasy-esk while also remaining grounded enough that the audience can truly believe that the world is real. The new Dune series has an interesting problem where the designer had to reconstruct 10,000 years of history to try and make a design that feels similar enough while still different enough to be in a different millennium. 10,000 years is a long time to consider and the way this designer has gone about creating entirely new processes for creating texture and silhouette is quite inspiring. I especially enjoyed the section where she speaks about finding inspiration everywhere even while she is not necessarily looking for it.
I think the costume designer for dune 2 was extremely clever, but scared to have enough fun with the costumes. Each costume that each character in the film is wearing always makes sense. The clothing always fits the actors well, and seems functional for what they would need to do and who they are supposed to be. When i saw dune 2 for the first time, i was in awe at princess irulian’s dresses and headpieces. I thought they were so thoughtfully done and I loved the execution of her net and mesh pieces to symbolize her physical situation of being trapped. I'm excited to see her costume progression in the next film. Either she will be cut free and hopefully wear more solid and bold pieces, or she will grow more wrapped up, netted, and caught. The thing about her costumes to me felt like she was shying away from being netted, and I wanted her costumes to be more over the top along with lady jessica’s. I loved the visual progression of what she wore, but I just wanted more of it!!!!
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