During my trip last month to San Francisco, I got an opportunity to do some really interesting things. One of those things was getting an inside look at the wardrobe and costumes created for Elastigirl, Edna Mode and newcomer Evelyn Deavor, as well as others.
We got in-depth looks into what really goes into animation costume design. Huge thanks to Shading Art Director Bryn Imagire, Tailoring Lead Fran Kalal and Character Artist Deanna Marsigliese. These women are incredible and shared were kind enough to share the process with us.
I was blown away by the sheer amount of research, work and process that goes into each and every animation film. This film was no different.
This is Deanna Marsigliese, a Pixar Animation character artist. You’ll note she’s smartly dressed in a mid-century inspired costume which is the period inspiration for the Incredibles 2. Her goal? Tell a story through the character’s outfits! The Incredibles 2 is set in the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s so the majority of the focus of the design was to make sure the clothing style didn’t feel out of place within the world of the Incredibles and the architecture and vehicles that are surrounding them. The style from the 1950’s and 60’s is so iconic that finding someone who knew the style well, and fabrics well was important. This is when Pixar brought Deanna Marsigliese to the team for this job. Deanna not only knows about the fashions of the time, but wears authentic pieces as part of her daily wardrobe. She brought in items to show as she explained part of her process. It wasn’t just about making sure the clothing looked right, but that the fabrics were era appropriate as well. She was able to instruct team members not only on the way the outfit would fall on the body, but how the fabric would react in different circumstances.
Edna Mode Fashion Line
Who doesn’t love Edna? We got to take a closer look at how her fashion line and costume for this film was created.
Through storytelling: looking at the big picture and focusing on what you want to say through the costume. For example, the first assignment with this film was Edna’s fashion line.
Each piece of clothing hand drawn for the film but it was hand sewn and created in “real life”. In fact Deanna created an entire line of fashion for Edna Mode called, Mode. Inspired by Schiaparelli, Edna Mode is BOLD, dramatic, surreal, and she detests models. Would you believe that some of the inspiration for Edna Mode’s fashion actually starting with old sewing patterns from the 1950’s?
What is idea Edna is trying to convey with her line? She started to introduce realist elements. She discovered that Edna’s line needed to celebrate superheroes while being bold and dramatic. She needed to design a fashion line for a designer who loathed models.
A Look Back in Time
It was awesome to see the clothes that were designed during the research of the film and actually worn on a daily basis at Pixar so the artists could study the way the clothing moved on people in different scenarios.
Incredible Family & Characters
Evelyn Devnor:
In the Incredibles 2 film we are introduced to this new character Evelyn Devnor. You can see above the concept art of various styles they tried on this character as they worked through the costume design process. They wanted her to have a very smart, rich designer feel but relaxed and comfortable to fit her personality. A lot of inspiration for this character’s dress was inspired by Jean Shrimpton and even Patti Smith.
Dash
Dash was perhaps the easiest character to outfit, aside from Jack Jack. The Pixar team joked about saving money on Dash’s clothes because he was a typical kid who only needed a t-shirt and jeans! Thanks to software technology all they had to do for Dash was swap out colors!
Violet
Violet has the vibe of a rebellious teenage so instead of dressing her in the 50’s style like the other characters she is made a little more edgy by sporting 60’s inspired outfits.
Helen (Elastigirl)
Mr. & Mrs. Incredible’s wardrobes were really inspired by actors who tended to embody the personalities of the characters. For Helen, AKA Mrs. Incredible or Elastigirl, inspiration was drawn from Mary Tyler Moore, Audrey Hepburn, and even Marilyn Monroe.
Bob (Mr. Incredible)
For Bob, the Pixar team envisioned the personality and stance of Paul Newman to inspire their creations.
Exploring Animation
There were various presentations given during our “No Capes!” session at Pixar Animation Studios – all of them equally fascinating. Fran Kalal (pictured above), is the character tailoring lead for the Incredibles 2 film. She stressed to us how absolutely vital both math and science is in her role in making the costumes move correctly in the film. She uses programming software to even micromanage each character’s hair and the bounce effect you see as they walk especially Edna Mode’s. I can’t wait to have a discussion with the kids I know about math and science in this movie and how you can do so much more with these subjects. I also believe that students will relate to these subjects when they see concrete ways it is being used.
Incredibles 2 Film
Men: 12 unique garments resized to 6 body types = 72 uniquely costume characters
Women: 20 unique garments resized to 7 body types = 64 unique female characters
Incredibles 2 Trailer
The movie comes out on June 15th and you’d better believe my kids are looking forward to it! Here’s a trailer:
Like INCREDIBLES 2 on Facebook:
Follow INCREDIBLES 2 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheIncredibles
Follow INCREDIBLES 2 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theincredibles/
Visit the official INCREDIBLES 2 website here: http://disney.com/incredibles2
