At a special Vulture Festival screening of Alice Through the Looking Glass this past Sunday, one member of the audience stood out.
Colleen Atwood, three-time winner for her costume designs, was in attendance to speak to the crowd of critics and fans alike about her work on the film. An action film with such whimsical aspirations seems to contradict itself and in many ways it does. It is Atwood’s blend of functionality and fairytale imagery that tie these two contradictory motives together through her designs.
During the Q&A, Atwood addressed Alice’s first and most controversial outfit: a rainbow colored pant suit given to Alice by the Chinese royal she meets on her travels. Atwood said of it, “I wanted something to convey that Alice is a traveler, that she’s in charge of her choices.” The entrance Alice makes in the outfit surely does this, while also clearly separating her from the dozens of blonde haired, blue eyed extras that act as the royal ball goers.
A distinct difference between this film and its predecessor can be seen in the functional aspect of Alice’s wardrobe. Gone are the frilly dresses that look more constricting than the corsets that were popular at the time. Pants and sneakers are in and Atwood was acutely aware of the need for a change:
“When you design a costume for the kind of action you see that Alice goes through in the film you have to have a practical approach to it. Because she’s going to be upside down, she’s going to be falling around. You have to anticipate all those things. So we sort of worked through it together—like why pants instead of a skirt, her shoes she can run in. We worked all that into all her costumes actually. “
One of the most buzzed about costumes was designed for a new addition to the cast, Time played by Sacha Baron Cohen. The design is large, both in the actual physical space it takes up and the grandeur that is difficult to act through. Atwood’s design was influenced by the actor and grew around his own ideas and contributions. She said, “You couldn’t put that costume on anybody. I mean Sacha’s like 6’4” so that helps. He’s also a very physical actor so he knows how to take a costume like that and bring it to life. He isn’t overwhelmed by it. He embraces it.”
Alice Through the Looking Glass also involved a rather large amount of CGI characters as did the first film. Although Atwood does not do character design she does still design the clothes they wear. “All the clothes they wear I designed and I swatched just like it’s for a real person,” she said. “Then they scan it into their computers. They have to take some latitude with it, for texture and all that because of the scale of it. I try to give them as much as I can so it looks part of the whole movie.”
This kooky group of costumes do feel whole thanks to Atwood’s many years of industry experience. She knows just how to make immensely unique characters look like they’re part of the same world in a way that is masterful in that it looks effortless. While the film itself may have been less than satisfying, Atwood provides plenty of eye candy to distract for the lack of plot. Alice Through the Looking Glass opens May 27th.
-Cara Best
