As the final episodes of Wednesday drop on Netflix, Sínann Fetherston sits down with costume designers Colleen Atwood and Mark Sutherland to discuss the stand-out looks of the season. Light spoilers ahead.
The second season of Wednesday sees the crime-solving Addams encounter monstrous hydes, reanimated zombies, and a ghostly Lady Gaga. All in all, there was a lot of fun to be had in the costume department.
"I did love Wednesday in a sporty look," says Mark Sutherland, a UK costume designer known for his work on films like Edge of Tomorrow, Troy, and Casino Royale.
"She wears these joggers that we separated at the sides so you could see her stripey socks and her boots."
Another favourite moment was seen in one of the latest episodes, when Wednesday and Enid accidentally swap bodies, leading to a stone-faced Werewolf and an unsettlingly sparkly Addams.
As Enid tries to keep her cover as Wednesday, she opts for a more feminine look, reminiscent of the original Wednesday Addams of the 1930s created by cartoonist Charles Addams.
"I feel there's a bit of a nod to the iconic Wednesday, when she wears the little dress with the white collar and the long socks and big shoes. I always love it when there's a nod back to the Wednesday that we know."
In Tim Burton's iteration of the dark comedy, fans watch the teenage sleuth as she tackles friendships, relationships, parental issues, and psychic burnout.
Taking on the responsibility of showing a Wednesday that fans had never met before, Sutherland says he hoped to "elevate" her look without losing "the essence of the character".
"I think the growth is when we see Wednesday when she comes back [to school]," he adds. "We read the scripts and we wanted to hone in on Wednesday the detective with the Sherlock Holmes look."
"With Enid, she comes back as a different character, she's moved forward a bit, and she's a little bit more edgy, so we try to hone in on how they grow from season one, really."
Of all the characters, however, one of the stories Sutherland became most invested in was a surprising one.
Slurp, a zombie brought back to life by Pugsley's electrokinesis superpower, goes through an incredible transformation throughout the show, slowly returning to his human form.
"The development of his character from when he comes out of the ground to when we see him at the end of the season. There's a growth in him as a character; his skin forms, he becomes more human."
"He wanted to figure out the whole journey," he says of actor Owen Painter. "Where does he get his clothes from? It depends on how we look at it through costume. Part of it was keeping the same silhouette as when we see him in his long lab coat when he comes out of the ground."
For Colleen Atwood, a four-time Oscar-winning costume designer praised for her work in fantasy features, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Alice in Wonderland, Sleepy Hollow, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
"It's just a feeling and sometimes a lack of stuff," Colleen says of finding that quintessential Tim Burton aesthetic.
"It's a simplicity to things that Tim's eye has, so it's not looking at fashion so much as being part of creating a world and a feeling of Tim, which is often a world where one thing matters, whether it's a doorknob or the way a shoulder is on a dress."
"It's often very modern," she adds, "even though it definitely echoes other time periods. It definitely is a modern take on other times."
The second season of Wednesday ends with a wonderfully gothic gala that sees the Addams family gather in their finest wares. All wearing black, of course, each character stands out through their choice of texture, cut, and style.
"Keeping the black but putting accents on Morticia and on Hester using texture with the black and an exoskeleton like a modern panniers," she explains. "Keeping Morticia in her normal silhouette but then adding a sort of vibe to give it an 18th-century take.
Looking back at the series, Atwood says that she doesn't have a favourite look, but she did enjoy the finale, seeing all the characters come together.
"It was great to see them all together," she said. "Steve Buscemi looked amazing. To see Steve and Joanna [Lumley] arrive in that boat at the end, that was amazing."
