Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/680832
26 The Costume Designer Winter 2016 BY TERRY DRESBACH M aster Raymond was always one of my favorite characters and there is no other costume I have looked forward to doing more on Outlander. He had to be perfect. By the time we started prepping this costume, we were pretty deeply into embroidery, really playing with what we could do. I knew I wanted his costume to be covered in embroidery. My team has one experienced embroiderer and the rest are kids fresh out of art school who have painting and sculpting degrees, and are now operating profession- al embroidery machines and creating the most phenomenal work. I thought they might just be ready to tackle something amazing for Master Raymond. I wanted him to have just one costume, his 18th-century "pharmacists coat." I asked myself, "Does Master Raymond take his coat off and hang it on a hook at night as he leaves the shop and goes about his business as a normal citizen, or does he lie down in a pallet in the back of his shop, never taking the magical thing off?" The coat has a wink and a nod to it. It is a walking bill- board, early branding. A little heavy handed, but I thought that might be comforting to his customers. Raymond is a savvy guy. How would we ever know who worked at Target without that happy red shirt with the target on it, or that those two guys on bikes are Mormons, without that white shirt and sharply creased slacks? Otherwise, we might just take them for another couple of middle-aged hipsters wor- ried about their hearts. Master Raymond knows what his audience wants, and he gives it to them with the coat. But the coat needed to tell a story. Two of the four pan- els represent disease. While doing research, I came across all sorts of magical beasts representing various things in the world of alchemy, including an illustration of a wicked-look- ing monster munching on an inflamed foot. The monster represented gout. It was so fabulous that we created another monster to represent yellow fever. A sinister, sharply beaked bird pierces an eye with a yellow claw, turning the eye yel- low. We surrounded both with the herbs that were meant to cure those diseases. Master Raymond Outlander