One of the few female winners at the Academy Awards on Sunday (besides supporting actress and lead actress!) was costume designer Colleen Atwood. She’s a Tim Burton team member whose designed for Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands and for the now Oscar-winning Alice in Wonderland. Her catalog over the last 20 years is definitely Lady Geek of the Week-worthy.
It’s nearly impossible to go to a theater without seeing her work in some capacity. Her awesome leather hat that Johnny Depp wore as the Mad Hatter was splayed all over movie theaters, billboards and bus stops while the film was being promoted. Soon, you’ll see her work on the reboot of Planet of the Apes and watch as she transforms the bodies of the stars into ape shapes. It’s easy to see her work as beautifying or sci-fying an actor or actress, but in reality, her work is much more a study in history, architecture and executing the characters as they are written on the page.
For example, here’s what she said about her vision for the Alice designs:
When you read the script, Alice [Mia Wasikowska] is defined in a different way than you expect. She is someone whose purpose is not just to look pretty in a space and time, but to reinvent the world she’s in. It’s a modern look at a woman in a period. … We left off the apron and we didn’t use a hoop, mainly because it looks stupid when you run. We did the action version of the period piece. The bodice is all antique, using original lace from the period, but the body of the dress is not. And I took a flight of fancy making the dress shorter.
AND
For the Red Queen, Helena’s inspiration was Elizabethan. For the White Queen, Anne Hathaway’s inspiration was much more Louis XVI. So they were two vastly different time periods and shapes. Helena was vaguely trailer trash material, so we used less luxurious fabrics. Hence the gold hearts made out of gold foil, which were a little tacky but still queen-like.
You can get a real appreciation of all the detail that went into the Alice in Wonderland costumes in this video:
We love a lady with style and Atwood is clearly the master. For her incredible talent and her cool Oscar too, Colleen Atwood is our Lady Geek of the Week.