The costuming of Marvel’s Agatha All Along is so bonkers that I had to speak with designer Daniel Selon a second time. Every trial that takes place changes the aesthetic, tone, and palette, and Selon and his team had to worked off a blank canvas every time–not to mention that they had to chart the deterioration and wear and tear of the cast’s costumes as they journey down The Witches’ Road. This first season draws to a close with an epic showdown, and the characters do battle in clothing that matches their true powers and strengths. Every single piece that Selon created dazzles.
The evolution of Joe Locke’s Teen/Billy Maximoff/Wiccan was one of the most thrilling arcs of any show this season for how it peeled back another layer every week. When we see Locke descend from the sky fitted from head-to-toe, it’s an incredible sight not just because of the craft of his garment but also what the actor’s portrayal represents. In terms of the costume, I love the circular ring at Wiccan’s waist, the interior of his red cape’s gold detailing and the crown glows like a blue halo on Locke’s forehead. He looks strong, and Selon was overwhelmed by seeing Locke film his scenes.
“This show has so much buildup to the reveal of Joe’s character, in addition to others,” Selon says. “Rio Vidal isn’t her true self until it’s revealed later, and Agatha reveals much more later on. It was delicious in that way. With Joe, it was so powerful, that moment, of shooting that scene where he uses his powers unconsciously to risk Lilia and Jen off the Road and toss Agatha into the mud pit. The crown sort of appears. We shot mostly in sequence, and, by that point, we were close to the end of the Road sequences, which was very arduous. Everyone was there and gathered around, and these reveals are taken very seriously and people really rally behind them. With a younger actor like Joe, it felt very historic to be present, just off-camera, for that moment and that shot. Same goes for when he takes his long flight down into the backyard to battle with Lady Death. I was in tears like I was proud of my boy on the bleachers of a baseball game or something.”
When Aubrey Plaza’s Rio battles Wiccan and Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha, there is something satisfying about seeing them fighting in the grass of a suburban yard. Something about the juxtaposition of the ordinary with the grandiosity of witches duking it out. At one moment, an explosion occurs, and it illuminates the hood on Plaza’s head right as it catches a gust of wind. The way that she moves feels very much like a dark evolution of her Green Witch incarnation, like her feet are being ripped up from the earth with every step she takes. It’s my favorite image of the entire season, and Selon details how much he loves what Rio is wearing.
“People ask me what my favorite costume in the show is, and I am not longer shy to admit that it’s Lady Death because it speaks to some of the darker inclinations that I have,” he says. “That more sinister, shadowy aesthetic. What worked so well with that costume, I think, is that we really did transition her Green Witch costume into these other materials, and there’s some similarities in the silhouette of the bodice and the way it hangs on her hips. We finally get to see her in a skirt too, which was really nice. I was very specific about that fabric that’s called sueded charmeuse, and it’s this sort of thick silk that has a very specific hand to it. It’s inky and it kind of slinks, and there’s an overhead shot that you can see after she places the death flower on Agatha’s grave and she walks out of the backyard. It’s just dripping behind her.
Adriana Martinez is a specialty costume fabricator in LA, and we were working on the Lady Death bodice from the very beginning, actually. I wanted to take all the things that were green and growing on the Green Witch and transition them into something that was black and dead and a husk and sort of calcified. Leaning into things that were reminiscent of volcanic rock when it cools or magma when it pools. I wanted her to feel like she was connected to the element like she has the power of nature in her and on her.”
And that hood?
“I knew it had that shape, but it was never a guarantee that she would be in the path of these wind cannons,” Selon explains. “Isiah Donté Lee captured everything so incredibly, and that episode was directed by Gandja Monteiro. When that explosion happens behind her, she’s lit from behind, and you can see the texture of the fabric. She looks like a viper coming at you.”
My rewatch of Agatha yielded even further results when I noticed all of the jewelry and accessories that everyone was wearing. When Agatha, Teen, and Jen make it to one of the final trials, Agatha hunts for her brooch in a pile of clothes before lovingly putting it back onto her top. Jen is carrying a small vial of sorts, and the designer explains some history with including it. Even Patti LuPone’s Lilia’s beads carry some deeper meaning proving that Selon thinks of every single thing.
“At the turn of the twentieth century, women ran the household, and they would have what’s called a chatelaine, which is a collection of keys or tools that hangs from their belt,” he says. “Sometimes it would be very ornate with silver work and scissors and things they would need to run the business of the household. One day my assistant came in with this vintage potion bottle, and we thought we could transform it into Sasheer [Zamata]’s little panacea that she would take. We had fun moving that around for each episode, and it helps that it tells the story that they live through many decades.
We did the same thing with Patti with her tarot card pendant. I found it from this jeweler named Maura Green in New York, and she was so generous to collaborate. Her team made identical ones, because it’s all hand-carved from abalone. With the marbles, I wanted to be sort of crystallized like memories. Her whole thing is like these little bops where she’s dipping in and out of these different timelines of her life. I wanted those bubbles around her neck.”
When Agatha’s truest intentions become clear, audiences were shocked to see how she stole powers from other witches decade after decade. The twist was shocking, to be sure, but Hahn is also decked out in some awesome duds that indicate to the audience how long she has been practicing this magical theft. I personally love the Katharine Hepburn Again get-up.
“That was what we called the Agatha Through Time montage, and it was loosely scripted,” he says. “We broke it out into five or six time periods, but it wasn’t nailed down exactly. Jac [Schaeffer] and Mary [Livanos] kind of tasked me with analyzing what we had seen in WandaVision and what we wanted to see and what would work for costumes we could make and rent. I did a timeline of Agatha and broke out what periods and what years I thought would be really satisfying but also make sense to fill in the gaps of what we didn’t see in WandaVision. We shot it all on one kind of rainy day in the middle of the forest in Georgia, and it was a race to shuttle Kathryn back and forth to whisk her to the next change.”
Of all the items that I would steal from the Agatha All Along costume department, I might reach first for one of Locke’s crowns. Selon has a lot to choose from for himself, but he selects something a bit more pragmatic that he would be able to wear when his coven marches down the Road.
“I’m a very practical person, and you may not believe that given the costumes of the show,” Selon jokes. “I want Alice’s jacket. I could wear that in the world. Agatha’s coat would be fun to wear, but you really need an occasion like walking the Road with your coven. Since that doesn’t come about every day, I would wear Alice’s jacket on the regular.”
Agatha All Along is streaming now on Disney+.
