Hollywood’s costume designers need more than just a good sense of style now. They need to be storytellers, tech whizzes, historians, and even physicists. That’s what Deborah L.
Scott has learned over her 45 years or so in the business, a period that has seen her dress some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future , Drew Barrymore in E.T.
The Extra-Terrestrial , and Kate Winslet in Titanic , a film that won Scott an Oscar for best costume design. Deborah L. Scott has designed costumes for E.
T. and Titanic, but it’s the Avatar films that have really stretched her boundaries. Credit: Simon Schluter Her most recent project, however, has stretched her skills more than any other film to date.
Since 2018, Scott has been developing the costumes, hair and props for Avatar: Fire and Ash , the third instalment of James Cameron’s world-building sci-fi franchise, slated for release in December next year. Scott also did the costume design for the first two Avatar films. “I have to consider not just how something will look, but how it’s going to behave, especially in these virtual worlds,” says Scott, who is based in Los Angeles but is visiting Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival.
“Cameron is a stickler for reality, so for anything we made for each movie so far – anything that goes in a high-speed wind or underwater – we had to build a replica of it and do extensive tests.” For example, Kate Winslet, who played Ronal in Avatar: The Way of Water , had to test her motion-capture suit in a 9-metre-deep tank. Over about eight months, Scott and her team explored different materials that changed colour when wet, and developed technical ways to “cheat gravity” by making Winslet’s suit flow lightly above her without being pulled too high by the water.
This is the new frontier for costume designers, Scott says, a world in which costumes span real and virtual spaces. The upcoming film will introduce two new Na’vi clans, including a “fire clan”. Scott has designed distinct styles for each, both of which are intimately connected to their tribal identities.
To do this, she first carefully combed the script, taking particular note of each character’s development, followed by close consultation with Cameron and the cast. “Costume designers are so intimately responsible for building the narrative of a character, and the characters are the basis of any film,” Scott notes. “You might forget what the location of a movie looked like, or what the china setting on the table was, but you may absolutely remember the Na’vi song chords, or the Metkayina tribe tattoos – that’s all so intimate to the character and their performance.
” A real-life neckpiece created by Deborah L. Scott and her team for Neytiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. Credit: Disney/20th Century Studios About 60 per cent of the Avatar films are computer-generated, but Scott says physical versions of the costumes are still made, either using carefully sourced materials such as collected shells and feathers, or 3D-printers.
They are then translated into digital replicas, a process Scott says is as challenging as creating the physical prototypes. “This two-fold process makes the virtual world more tactile, more finessed,” she says. “Innovative movies like these, which experiment with technology and visual effects, are changing the game for costume crews.
It’s a completely new world ...
We have a wider net. I do all the hair, tattoos and props, for the most part, so it becomes a much bigger picture.” Though fashion still occasionally plays a part, Scott says costume design has essentially become a separate beast, one that is less concerned about inspiring pop culture or keeping up with trends.
Instead, it’s about creating something one-of-a-kind and irrevocably connected to a character. “It may sound counter-intuitive, but as a costume designer, I’m trying not to be noticed. I know there are costume designers who would disagree with me, those who are always trying to make a big statement.
But the truth is, you’re simply trying to showcase the actor and the world they’re playing in.” Scott is serving on the jury for MIFF’s Bright Horizons Award and will host a Costume Design Masterclass on August 25. Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees.
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