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Fall 2018 The Costume Designer 39 DANNY GLICKER MARLENE STEWART Onscreen, black is archetypal. Its severity is rich with subtext and has religious overtones, while also being associated with mystery and villains. It is linked with mourning and in fashion it has come to epitomize chic. Kym Barrett's sweeping coat and sunglasses for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix recast the hero in minimalistic monk garb. In Edward Scissorhands, Colleen Atwood drew upon Victorian inspiration and used machine parts for a look that prefigured steampunk for Johnny Depp. In the original film Grease, Albert Wolsky makes Olivia Newton-John's character change explicit when he trades her wasp-waisted, full pink skirts for skintight, shiny, black leggings. For Marlene Stewart, color has always been a pas- sion. Early on, she even worked with color thera- py. When she uses black in costumes, it is nuanced and evocative, informed by the days before black was ubiqui- tous, when Comme des Garçons was shocking. When Stewart worked with Madonna in her early iterations, she used black to repre- sent the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane. She famously used black lingerie for daywear in the video Like a Prayer and added a chaste coat on top. In Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, she used layers of quilted, hand- stiched, and aged leather for the siblings' jackets, vests, corsets, pants, and boots to show the contrast of their exterior strength and interior softness. On 21 Grams, she employed a simple black tank top for Naomi Watts in order to portray gritty realism, without distraction. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Stewart used black leather for Arnold Schwarzenegger in what has become the quintessential uniform of the antihero. Rust or iron oxide was one of the earliest pigments adapted by man. Culled from the earth, it can be found in cave paintings, Egyptian tombs, as well as African and aboriginal body paint. The hue carries with it a feeling of nostalgia and approachability. Dr. Deborah Nadoolman Landis conceived of a deceptively simple, yet unmistakable uniform for Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones. The well-worn fedora, leather jacket, shirt, and trousers are among the most recognizable of cinema costumes. For Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski, Mary Zophres expressed his grungy nonchalance with a Cowichan Pendleton cardigan and elastic-waisted pants. In Almost Famous, Betsy Heimann created a shaggy coat for Kate Hudson to simultaneously evoke vulnerability and armor. Danny Glicker works with earth tones fairly consis- tently because he finds their warmth appealing and ground- ing. He says, "Knowing a cos- tume is going to be able to look good in a variety of differ- ent environments is vital." On mother!, the entire palette of the world is grey scale. Glicker put Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lawrence in organic tones to contrast with the mass of inter- lopers. "Color was important because it was thematically rel- evant to the movie. The movie is really about the natural world versus the unnatural world." Color highlights this subtle sub- text. "In the case of Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, earth tones were a power- ful tool in communicating the character John Callahan that Joaquin Phoenix played, the cartoonist who felt himself to be an outsider. Initially, his red hair reinforced his feeling of otherness. Glicker used autumnal tones in everything from his windbreaker to his plaid shirt. He notes, "The idea was that Callahan was this sort of like warm, hot presence, like a burning ember—which is how he felt." As the movie progresses, Callahan begins to dye his hair electric orange to embrace his otherness. I like dark things, but at heart, I also like the rainbow. –B. Åkerlund