Rebecca Hale, Costume Designer and Vickie Lang, Makeup Designer, discuss what inspired the world of Netflix’s Kaos, and how they collaborated at the early stages of development to bring the iconic characters from Greek mythology to life in a modern setting.
How did you first get involved in the project?
Vickie: I’d heard about the project about a year before when another producer was involved but knew little else about the show other than it was based around Greek mythology and written by Charlie Covell, who I’m a huge fan of. When I finally got to read the scripts, I was absolutely blown away, I felt it was something really very special and when I finally got an interview, and got a sense that my creative ideas were along the lines of what they wanted, I knew it was going to be a fantastic project to be involved in.
Rebecca: In the beginning, I was sent a couple of scripts to read. I instantly loved it – the episodes were funny, and Charlie is a very visually descriptive writer, so you could immediately imagine how everything could look. I spent some time putting a mood board together with ideas, how to visualise each character, and tonal palettes. I created a mood board of the underworld, the main gods, and that was it!
Did you have a favourite episode, or sequence, in KAOS? Why?
Vickie: Very tricky question as there’s so much of the show I love and I feel is so unique. What immediately springs to mind is the scene where Orpheus and Anatole are trying to get into the underworld, Anatole and his wife do the most beautiful sequence with a dummy child, which is really moving. Then of course when Orpheus and Anatole are literally dumped into the underworld by entering a bin, genius stage direction from Charlie. And basically, anytime when we see Jeff Goldblum on camera!
Did you have any conversations with the showrunners about the story, and how to bring the characters to life on screen?
Rebecca: I met with Charlie and Georgi Banks-Davies, and interestingly enough when I put together the mood boards for Olympia, I thought of a world inspired by Slim Aarons – very perfect, shiny, neat and tidy. I was extraordinarily aligned [with the showrunners] and had the same ideas about creating these three different worlds (Olympia, Earth and the underworld). Georgi had been referencing Slim Aarons, whose subject matter concentrated mostly on the top 1% of society. I also looked a lot at 1970s Helmut Newton and other fashion editorial greats like Avedon, Steven Meisel, Pierre and Gilles, Testino and David LaChapelle for Earth/Crete.
Charlie and Georgi reference films a great deal, for example the Big Lebowski. I referenced Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart as a style reference for the Earth/Crete world and 1970s glamour for Olympia. I also looked at designers like Barbara Halanuki.
As a re-imagining of a Greek myth set in a modern setting, did you encounter any challenges in bringing this story to life? Were there any deliberate choices made to reflect this unique setting?
Vickie: There were plenty of challenges across the show and with many of the characters, in terms of makeup choices, we had nods towards Greek mythology throughout in terms of hair and makeup, sometimes they were obvious and other times very subtle, for example The Fates, were all going to be bald, but once Suzy Eddie Izzard was cast we didn’t want to go down the route of making her bald, so we decided to stick with two bald fates, but with Clotho/Che’s character I gave them a little pony tail at the back which gave them an almost spiritual, guru type feel and with Sam’s character we gave them white lines above their eyes with reference to the ‘lines’ of the fates. Orpheus had tattoos which were based around Greek symbology, such as his lyre tattoo on his right forearm which was really abstract and would take a keen eye to notice, he also had Aros tattoos on the back of his arms. Then of course we have Medusa whom I feel we really got the balance of the myth and modern with her, I loved her look.
Rebecca: We very consciously uncoupled visual references to Ancient Greece, we only used it very late on for the graphics on Prometheus’ gown, otherwise we went out of our way to create our own imagery and our own visual references in terms of badges – the style of things were consciously not Greek. There was a slight nod towards the Greek flag with Zeus’ blue tracksuit, but other than that I think the colours in Olympia are more vibrant than the colours on Earth which are slightly more desaturated. We created our own modern Greece, rather than Ancient Greece. There is always a comical nod to it, like in the supermarket scenes you can see Poseidon cardboard cutouts selling cereals.
It was a fabulous experience creating the Cretan world and exposing different levels of society which is so different from the shiny world of Olympia, the characters on Olympia were entitled superhumans. We had to create different factions of society – so you have rich, poor, beggars in the street, you have the Amazons and Trojans – it is a broadsheet of society. Referencing Greece – Charlie and Georgi had a very clear vision of what they wanted. The Amazons were the most difficult of all – it was inspiring to create our own priestesses.
How did the visual palette of Kaos influence your designs?
Rebecca: With Hera’s colour palette, Georgi said she just wanted her to waft through the house, almost like a golden Oscar statue. In some way, that had to always relate to what she was wearing except in the final episode when she is at war with Zeus and gets to wear all black. I wanted to carry the thread, which is why you see so many hints of gold. That colour resonates because you can put it in the Olympic world and also down on Earth – because it is an Earth tone it fits in well when she is there, or on Olympia. It ties in with the church priestesses, and the story of Riddy’s mother. So, that was the only colour that I carried through the whole show. Riddy also had a green and gold jacket that the green represents Earth and the mustard was a link to her mother.
Did you encounter any challenges along the way? Were there any scenes or characters that were most difficult when designing the makeup?
Vickie: Absolutely, a bald cap over someone with textured hair in extreme heat conditions wasn’t easy, but I’m proud of how it looked and worked in the shower. Also, Hippolyta, trying to remove a breast of someone with breasts was difficult. Prometheus’ wound and body makeup was hugely challenging, it was really hot and every time he came off the cliff and put his arms down, we’d have to redo all the makeup around that area, there was a lot of armpit dabbing and makeup touch ups. Also, the make up for the nothing took months of prep and consideration for not only the look but the process, each hero person took around 2 hours to do.
Can you describe how costume and makeup design worked together on the show? Did you collaborate at the early stages to plan how best to make the characters come to life?
Vickie: I’ve got a great working relationship with Rebecca and we shared mood boards and I feel our work very much complimented each other due to the collaboration we had. Sharing information is key so we were always on the same page. I feel a good example of this with the characters was Dionysus, Cassandra and Hera, we wanted to create strong images that didn’t necessarily feel like they’d been through makeup and costume.
Rebecca: The collaboration is the most important part of our relationship, hair is so important along with the makeup. I would show her all my mood boards right at the beginning and we would start to bounce ideas off each other. You have to have a partner in crime in the hair and makeup department, otherwise it is impossible. The wrong hairstyle can totally affect how the costume works on the actor, and equally the other way around. We’re very aligned to each other.
Jon Creamer
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