“Everyone’s wearing dresses as big as a table,” Jenna Ortega reports from the Wednesday set. The cast may be filming in Dublin, but a Venetian-inspired ball is underway in the second part of the show’s second season. (Included in that Italian influence? Steve Buscemi on a gondola.)
Costume designers Mark Sutherland and Colleen Atwood had their work cut out for them planning an 18th-century Gothic masquerade gala. “We’d probably manufactured almost a thousand pieces of clothing for this scene,” Atwood says. Luckily, they can rely on around 100 people in their costume department, who cut, sew, dye, and age costumes in the show’s hangar-like workroom.
For the cast of the Netflix hit, clothing is crucial to character development. Before season one, the costume team discussed the character with Ortega. “We wanted Wednesday to be more current,” Sutherland says. “It is kind of hard not to start sitting up with a straight posture,” Ortega says of Wednesday’s austere, mostly black wardrobe. “A lot of it was the costume telling me what to do,” she adds. “I just followed.”
So how do the Addamses end up at a Venetian period gala? “My character Morticia has helped on the fundraising committee, which she is very proud of,” Catherine Zeta-Jones explains, “so she’s making it an extravaganza like no other extravaganza.” Atwood and Sutherland took note: “The motivation in our design was ‘What would Morticia have done?’” Atwood says. “Obviously, with Tim, we tend to go to the Victorian Era just because it’s a known comfort zone for him.”
Atwood took inspiration from Oscar Wilde—namely, the poet’s humor and wit—for Wednesday’s gala costume. “It’s almost like a men’s tailored waistcoat,” she says of the top, also worn with a romantic silk tulle shirt. But Atwood decided to make the bottom of the dress grander to go tête-à-tête with the other costumes in the room. “She toes a great line of always being feminine but there’s something about her that is occasionally masculine,” Ortega says. “She balances androgyny pretty well.”
Here, watch on for a behind-the-scenes look at the Wednesday season 2 costumes.
Director: Nikki Petersen
Director of Photography: Tommy Fitzgerald
Editor: Katie Wolford
Senior Producer: Bety Dereje
Producer: Michelle Ryan
Camera Operators: Esme McNamee, Paul O’Connor, Michelle Ryan
Audio: Ross Carew, Ben Meakin
Production Assistants: Anna Hanlon, Alex Madigan Vaughn
Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar
Line Producers: Natasha Soto-Albors, Romeeka Powell
Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Arts
Graphics Lead: Léa Kichler
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Senior Talent Manager: Mica Medoff
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Footage Courtesy of: Netflix
