Agatha All Along
Rio Vidal - the Green Witch
Designing a dynamic costume that oozes detail.
Before Lady Death…
Overview-
When costume designer Daniel Selon was hired on Marvel’s Agatha All Along, he and I started the project by researching the key looks of the series, and compiling presentations of our design ideas to present to studio executives, and create costume concept art based off of.
One of the first looks we identified as needing to be created was that of the Green Witch costume for Rio Vidal, a new character in the Marvel Universe, whose arc culminates in revealing that she is is Lady Death.
The Green Witch costume is the look that Rio wears the longest and appears in the most throughout the series and there for it was important to us that it help tell the story of her character and evolve as her story evolved.
MISSION
Research images and source material for design team to assemble designs based on.
CLIENT
Marvel Studios Television
ROLE
Research Costumer responsible for collecting research, and editing, and assembling presentations for studio executives.
TIMELINE
August 2022- Jan 2023
Step One: Define
Our first step was to establish our objectives and align them with the studio, director, and our departments design goals.
Initial meeting with Costume Designer
After an initial read through of the scripts, we knew that character the Rio Vidal’s Green Witch costume would need to carry the same visual weight as Agatha’s costume as well as give subtle clues to her true identity as Lady Death.
We knew we wanted nature to take center stage in her costume, and began to research how to make that happen through texture and fabric manipulation.
Step Two: Research
I conducted a broad scope of research to help our team understand the character of Rio Vidal and the context in which she exists in this story as well as the MCU at large.
My first round of research was split into categories:
occult, nature, growing/decaying textures, and fabric manipulation.
OCCULT
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Green Man - Paganism
When looking at occult research surrounding death, I looked into the figure of the Green Man.
In Wicca, the Green Man is a symbol of the Horned God- a deity that combines aspects of the Greek Pan and the Celtic Cernunnos. The Green Man is also a symbol of ecological awareness and seasonal renewal.
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Green Man - Symbolism
The Green Man is a powerful figure in modern Paganism and the ecological movement. He represents the wild and the need to reconnect with nature. The Green Man symbolizes the eternal struggle between death and renewal, time and space, and chaos and order.
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Green Man - Architecture & Art
The term "Green Man" was first used in 1939 by Lady Raglan, but art historians call the figure a "foliate head". In my research, I pulled examples of foliate heads throughout history to inspire our designs.
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Lotus - Wicca
The sacred lotus, or Nelumbo nucifera, is a significant plant in witchcraft and other spiritual and cultural practices. It is used in witchcraft rituals for its symbolic associations with enlightenment and purity.
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Lotus - Rebirth
The lotus flower's ability to produce numerous flowers from the depths of water makes it a symbol of rebirth. The lotus’s emergence from muddy surroundings as well as the vein-like patterns on it’s leaves and petals were both parts of it’s imagery we wants to explore and incorporate.
GROWING & DECAYING TEXTURES
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FABRIC MANIPULATION
We wanted to incorporate the idea of death as being part of the cycle of rebirth. I explored the patterns of growth and decay and how that kind of effect might translate to fabric and garments.
The image of the Green Man with foliage growing out of his mouth inspired me to explore what it might look like if Rio had mossy/mold/lychen-like textures growing on her costume.
I also explored what it might look like to create something that looked like the map of the nervous system throughout the human body with fabric manipulation.
examples of research
Step Three: Analyze
I compiled our most inspiring research into design presentation boards that we used to take the director and studio executives on our characters costume journey.
For our first round of presentations to producers and the director, I grouped the research images together by mood and tone, and in doing so helped tell the story of what our green witch would look like.
Step Four: Design
I oversaw the creation of design ideas through the form of illustrations by interfacing with the costume designer to provide roadmaps for our illustrators to built concept art based off of.
Here are a few examples of some early sketches based on the direction provided:
Once we received feedback from the producers and director, we honed in our research and provided even more detailed instructions to our illustrator that mapped out how the costume should appear.
Below are examples of how the research influenced the final design.
Final Costume
After many rounds of R&D, sampling, and fittings with cast, the final costume made it to the screen reflecting the resounding detail that had been the vision of Daniel and myself from it’s initial conception.
