Oscar-winning actor Catherine Zeta-Jones recollects assembly “Chicago” costume designer Colleen Atwood in her studio earlier than filming on the musical started.
“It was a dressing up explosion, with dancing fishnet tights hanging from each hook,” Zeta-Jones stated. “I keep in mind assembly her for the primary time, her designs, being stuffed with anticipation, her imaginative and prescient, and going, ‘Wow! That is nice.
Zeta-Jones instantly developed respect and admiration for Atwood and her expertise. She’s not the one one. Administrators Rob Marshall and Tim Burton made her one among their go-to division heads and collaborators once they started engaged on new movies. I would like the identical crew from ‘Chicago’ as a result of we’re utilizing the identical language and shorthand at this level,” Marshall stated. He forged Atwood in Disney’s 2023 live-action movie “The Little Mermaid.”
Atwood will obtain the Selection Artistic Influence Award for Costume Design for her efficiency on the SCAD Savannah Movie Pageant. For greater than 4 a long time, Atwood created costumes for a number of characteristic movies, together with “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Avenue,” “Beetlejuice” and “Grasp of the Air.”
When Atwood introduced Melissa McCarthy’s sea witch Ursula to the large display screen in “The Little Mermaid,” he selected some beautiful but darkish parts to go together with the character’s cave. “As we all know from science, octopuses change shade to adapt to their surroundings, so we wished one thing darkish,” Atwood stated. She wished to create the impact of Ursula surrounded by glamorous lights as a result of she is “the showgirl at coronary heart.” Atwood ended up utilizing a purple sequined cloth for Ursula’s costume, overlaid with a layer of black suede laser-cut leather-based. “This breaks it up and provides the piece an actual octopus leather-based really feel.”
Her course of is an intensive one which entails analysis and a deep dive into archival pictures. When Atwood works on a full-blown IP, she is aware of how one can put her personal inventive stamp on the clothes whereas paying homage.
Take the Netflix collection “Wednesdays,” for instance, for which she reunited with Burton. “We are able to immediately create a signature look [for the title character] Paying homage to the unique peaked collars, tiny printed clothes and modernized platform footwear, after which inserting her in an surroundings that was her exact opposite: a public faculty in Joyful Time America,” Atwood stated of her tackle the terrifying The admiration of the unique costume of youngsters is alleged. “Then you might have given your approval to every part that has occurred earlier than.”
Atwood stated she used “texture and juxtaposition” to create a black pop sound throughout the horrific world of the Charles Addams-inspired present. I like utilizing shiny black as a result of it does not go as flat as opaque, particularly if somebody does not spend lots of time lighting.
“Grasp of the Air” requires greater than 300 leather-based jackets. To do that, Atwood sourced era-specific zippers from Japan and sheepskins from Scotland and England to create clothes for the Forties assortment. The manufacturing course of for the jackets used within the present took roughly 9 months. Atwood goes to nice lengths to age the leathers, “We put them in a bucket of rock and cement mixers, actually, to beat the leather-based and make it appear like somebody had been carrying it for months. , and because the journey continues, they get older.
Atwood not too long ago reunited with Burton on Beetlejuice and once more on Wednesday Season 2. The previous will likely be screened on the competition following Atwood’s discuss.
