In S.J. Clarkson’s Madame Web, out now, Dakota Johnson portrays Cassandra Webb, a New York City paramedic with clairvoyance who must must protect three young women—Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya (Isabela Merced)—from a mysterious adversary. For the project’s costume designer, Ngila Dickson, who has worked on films such as The Lord of the Rings and The Last Samurai, she was instantly drawn to the script’s female-driven plot. “I loved the idea that the characters were predominantly women,” says Dickson. “This is very much an origin story; we’re getting to learn more about these people, and what turns them into superheroes.”
No doubt, crafting a unique superhero suit for Johnson’s Madame Web was another enticing factor for the costumer. Based on the original Marvel character, who first made an appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man back in the 1980s, Dickson’s research around Madame Web began with going back to the comics. “I did a massive amount of research,” says Dickson. “I looked at every comic strip, every appearance of all of those characters in their various iterations, and I had them all lined up.” From there, Dickson wanted to craft a unique suit for Johnson that felt true to the original costumes—yet fresh, too. “I wanted to kind of bring a ’60s vibe to the suit, but not taking away any of the modernity of it,” says Dickson. “I wanted it to be fun and aspirational as well. I mean, at a certain point in all of our lives, we ve all wanted to be a superhero.”
The costumer landed on a sleek, red catsuit with a thematic spider web etched onto the chest. “There weren t that many iterations of [the suit,]” says Dickson, though—technically—it was a challenge one to create. “We did quite a difficult screen-printing process with Lycra. It was printed in pieces,” says Dickson, adding that the ensuing skin-tight silhouette made it feel strong and powerful. “If you’re wearing your stretch suit, you can do anything. It’s the tradition of superhero suits—it’s all about the body.” When Dickson saw Johnson slip into the final design, she knew they had gotten the final design right. “Dakota came into the fitting room, and she was having so much fun with the suit,” says Dickson. “She liked the simplicity of it.” (Less simple? The dramatic method looks that Johnson has been wearing for the many Madame Web premieres.)
Crafting that superhero suit wasn’t the only challenge Dickson was up against though. Given the film is an origin story, the costume designer also had to envision what Cassandra Webb and the three young women would wear pre-becoming superheroes. “The movie is set in 2003, which I have to say was a terrible fashion time,” laughs Dickson. “It was a really interesting [time] to go back into; It was very chaotic—we were not at our style best.” Still, Dickson found a way to channel Y2K style in a not-so-horrifying way—giving the four main characters a sense of individual tastes and style.
For Johnson’s Cassandra, for instance, Dickson leaned into her day job as a paramedic—defining a look that felt practical and smart, yet subtly stylish. “Dakota’s character is fashion indifferent—and yet, amazingly fashionable,” she says. “We kept her wardrobe really simple; We decided to go more into the ’90s, and gave her these high-waisted Re/Done jeans.” Her red leather jacket, meanwhile, was actually inspired by a vintage ’70s style that Dickson had in her personal closet. “When S.J. saw my vintage leather jacket, she said, ‘Can I have that in red?’” (It’s a jacket so good that, when paparazzi snapped photos of Johnson wearing it on set during film, the outerwear instantly went viral. “That red jacket ended up absolutely everywhere,” says Dickson. “Within about a week of that first appearance, [replicas were] being sold online.”)
As for Johnson s three young co-stars, Dickson had fun plating around with even more elements of Y2K style. Sweeney’s character Julia, for one, had more bookish and shy sensibility; Celeste O’Connor’s Mattie, meanwhile, was much more trendy. “You meet Celeste in her school uniform, but the skirt’s halfway up her bum,” says Dickson. “She’s obviously got a private school girl attitude. It’s very Mean Girls.”
Even though their regular human looks were grounded in a sense of wearability, the challenge here again was making that these everyday outfits work for a big Marvel action film—meaning, all of the characters go through action-packed sequences in them, so Dickson had to ensure that the looks were movement-ready—and that there were multiples of them. “It was more than just finding a a jacket; it was a bunch of jackets that you had to make sure were available on the day,” says Dickson.
As for what the costumer hopes viewers and Marvel fans will take away from the fashions, now that the movie is officially out in the world, it may surprise you. “I hope they don t think about them at all,” says Dickson. “I failed if you are staring at the costumes.”
