Legendary Costume Designer Collen Atwood spoke with The Knockturnal about her 11th collaboration with Tim Burton, “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.”
Not only is “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” set partially in the 1940s and not only are many of the actors children, but the film is set in a universe where people have magical peculiarities. That’s quite a lot to fit into a movie where many of the lead actors only have one costume. Of course, Director Tim Burton had to call on legend and longtime friend Colleen Atwood to design these very complic
ated ensembles.
Each costume aligns with not only the character’s personality, but their peculiarity as well. Atwood told us that these custom costumes had to be made to withstand the required stunts as well as general childhood mayhem as each actor was in costume for much of the day. Each child had between ten and twelve costumes depending on how often they’re shown and how delicate their costume was. Emma (Ella Purnell) is one of the film’s peculiar young leads. She has the ability to control air and would float away if not for her iron shoes. The shoes, Atwood says, were inspired by irons. “I like to think that her father made them from irons for her,” she explains. The intricate, larger than life shoes play off of a light blue dress made out of three layers of thin silk. The dress is lightweight enough that as Emma walks the dress fills with air, alluding to her peculiarity.
The other costumes give subtle nods to their child’s peculiarity as well. Hugh, who has bumblebees living inside him, sports a brown and yellow striped jumper with a subtle honeycomb texture. The choice to use brown and yellow as opposed to black was to avoid looking like an “SNL sketch” as Atwood puts it. Olive, the fire user, wears elbow length patent leather gloves that look fit for a welder in order to contain her fire. These pair with an orchid dress to highlight her “old lady” persona. Jake, the seemingly normal Floridian, tends towards vintage bowling style shirts that somehow seem modern and vintage all at once. Atwood wanted Jake to be a sort of reincarnation of his grandfather and used the shirts to make a physical connection.
The real brilliance of Atwood’s designs come in the details and this is apparent most in the design of the titular character played by Eva Green. Miss Peregrine’s peculiarity involves, amongst many things, her turning into a bird. Rather than covering her in feathers and winged imagery, Atwood opted for subtle tells. Miss Peregrine’s costume features sharp, delicate features like a peplum jacket, pointed shoulders, and a skirt that tapers to a point. All of these details were meant to make Miss Peregrine’s transition into a bird make sense without being too obvious. Atwood also included a detail within her sleeve that is iridescent to mimic the way “wild animals sometimes have this thing that’s almost like a signal to each other, but isn’t in plain sight.” Onscreen, her sleeve plays off of the light in much the same way as a bird in the wild.
One of the most impressive elements of Atwood’s designs is how each costume works so well as part of a group dynamic. Together, the children look as if they’ve lived in their magical world together their whole lives, which in the film’s universe they have. As always, Atwood’s work is a beauty to behold. You can see all of the gorgeous costumes for yourself September 30th when the movie is released nationwide.
