The people over at Collider had a great talk with Birds of Prey costume designer Erin Benach talks about Harley Quinn and her process when it came to the costuming. This is what Erin Benach had to say,
“Behind her story is always something a little bit off from center and a little bit crazy, with the idea being that caution tape may be a place to stay away from, and maybe it’s a way to caution the world against what she might do. So, we kind of took the idea of that caution tape and tried to repurpose it into a costume. We always wanted to create something that felt like Harley made it herself, so she’s sort of a crafty person in the backroom and she can make stuff herself — you know the shorts that she’s painted and the jacket that she’s put together herself. That’s why we did it like that. It’s fun and a little bit crazy like her.”
I love that Erin Benach wanted to try something new but also get inspired by the comics as well. It just shows how much dedication she had and love for the characters.
“I think it was a combination of allowing myself to look at it and then also sort of keeping myself away because I really want to create something new but inspired by [the comics]. We started with those characters and all their looks and I was able to kind of see what had been done over the different versions of the comics over the years. I think we took more of the backstory and the personality from there and then used the world that we were creating with Gotham to actually create the costumes.”
Erin Benach also talks about the Huntress, Played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Black Canary, played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell. This is what she had to say about Huntress,
“Our Huntress is always about function and someone who’s on a mission and does not want to be distracted by outside sources. Whereas you know Harley might be walking down the street like ‘I want to grab that diamond and put it on myself or grab that item and put it on myself.’ Huntress is focused and she is sort of all business. She’s super-focused on the job at hand. We wanted to create something really functional for her and also fashion-forward and cool. So, we created this tracksuit and you’ll see that she has many different tracksuits throughout the film.”
This is what she had to say about Black Canary,
“In this look that you’re seeing here, she’s on stage, performing a song. She’s got this really soulful quality about her and I think we were trying to show that in the costume that she was strong and soulful at the same time, as well as unique. She’s got this kind of “created herself” look of put together armbands and things that maybe she cut up and put together herself for her performance. In general, she’s very inspired by the 70s and the streetwear of that era. You’ll kind of see throughout she’s got silhouettes like really sleek suits, but with bell-bottoms and high-waisted pants. You’ll see there’s sort of a mix of genres with her and her looks.”
This get my very excited that the people behind the scene are trying their best to give us the best product possible and right now it sound like the people at Warner Bros are letting them do their jobs with out interference. So, you can count me in for Birds of Prey opening weekend.
Erin Benach also talks about the other character as well you can ready the rest of it on Collider.
What are your thoughts? Comment sown below.
DC Fanboy! Superman is the greatest comic book character of all time. Favorite movies are Man of Steel, Goonies, Back To the Future
