5,300 Designs for 'The Odyssey': Costume Sketches Revealed

Ellen Mirojnick created more than 5,300 costume designs for Christopher Nolan's epic "The Odyssey," and Marci Rodgers delivered over 3,000 looks for the Michael Jackson biopic "Michael," starring Jaafar Jackson. Those numbers anchor a new showcase in which top costume designers share exclusive sketches and concepts from the year's biggest movies — from a 3D-printed wicker husband to a werewolf hunter wrapped in double-layered wool.

The designers explain how costume reflects character arcs, and how clothing can tell a lot about a person before a line is spoken.

What does 'The Odyssey' reveal through Penelope's gowns?

Anne Hathaway plays Penelope in Nolan's epic. Though the character has inner strength from the start, Mirojnick says "it was important that she never appear queen-like."

At the film's opening, Penelope's "dresses were more vulnerable, simpler, not at all decorative. Her work at the loom was softer — it was artistic in a way." When she finally challenges her suitors, she wears a "magnificent blue" gown. "That was quite intentional," Mirojnick says. "It was to be the period at the end of the sentence. She needed to look armor-like."

How did 'Michael' rebuild the 'Billie Jean' look?

One key scene in Antoine Fuqua's biopic recreates Jackson's 1983 "Motown 25" performance, where the singer debuted the moonwalk and his signature outfit: a black sequined jacket, a fedora, a single glove, white socks, cropped pants and black loafers.

Rodgers approached the recreation "from the feet up," using the same shoe Jackson wore: a Florsheim Como Imperial loafer. The jacket Jackson wore that night belonged to his mother, Katherine. "To me, it was like his cape," Rodgers says. "He was wearing a piece of clothing that was from his mother's closet, and that, by far, transformed everything." Jaafar Jackson had a similar jacket and lent it to Rodgers to study, letting her "get as close as possible to re-creating the sequins of Michael's mother's jacket."

How do you build a wicker husband?

In "Wicker," a spinster fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) in a medieval village asks the local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband out of wicker — played by Alexander Skarsgård. Writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson wanted the husband built practically, without special effects. Prosthetic makeup designer Joe Dunckley and lead makeup FX artist Sarah Rubano spent 18 months developing the costume, starting with a full-body scan of Skarsgård.

The weave came from a powder-bed printing process. "It's a volume of thermoplastic elastomer. You shoot a laser into it, and where that focal point of the laser is, it fuses the powder and you can build intricate weave and complex geometry," Dunckley explains. In the end, 95% of the costume used 50 3D-printed appliances painted to look like wicker and stitched to a spandex suit. The key, Dunckley says, was not to lose Skarsgård under the makeup.

What do the Dashwood women wear in mourning?

Georgia Oakley's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" opens with the Dashwood women (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles and Caitríona Balfe) mourning their father. Costume designer Grace Snell followed period rules: no shiny buttons, dull fabric, and black alongside gray and lavender.

"I wanted Mrs. Dashwood to be the deepest shade of grief," Snell says, fashioning a black taffeta dress with a dark green stripe. As the story progresses, Snell introduces beige into her palette. Willoughby (Frank Dillane), who toys with Marianne, "has a real interest in fashion" and "wants to be seen" — hence his rust-red moleskin coat, set against Marianne's pink dress, and silk pantaloons newly imported from France. "He's a little bit of a rock star; he's unattainable," Snell says.

Who wears the most wool in 'Werwulf'?

Robert Eggers' "Werwulf," a companion piece to his 2024 "Nosferatu," follows a 14th-century town beset by a werewolf. Willem Dafoe plays the landowner-hunter hired by the king. "His is the character that really denotes wealth," says costume designer Linda Muir, who dressed him in double-layered wool coats and linen shirts because wool was scarce. His boots are higher than anyone else's, and Muir completed the look with a family signet ring and a bycocket, the hat associated with Robin Hood.

What happened to Cliff Booth's wardrobe?

David Fincher's "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth," a follow-up to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," stars Brad Pitt — now tending bar rather than working as a stunt double. Fincher asked costume designer Trish Summerville to keep things authentic. "Cliff's character is very lived in," Summerville says, retaining his Levi's, moccasins, work shirts and Hawaiian shirts. For one scene, needing multiples of a beer-bottle-print shirt for Pitt and his stunt double, she had an artist combine vintage rayon graphics and print them on new shirts. "Cliff's a chill rascal, so I thought the shirt was just great for him."

How do costumes frame 'The Invite'?

In "The Invite," Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) host their loud neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) for dinner. Costume designer Arianne Phillips saw the apartment's doorways and windows as "beautiful framing" and treated the costumes like portraits. "Olivia really loved the idea that Angela's creative identity is so absorbed into the apartment that she basically blends into the walls," Phillips says — reflected in a bedroom scene where Angela's blouse nearly matches the paint color.

Together, these projects show costume design operating at both extremes of scale — thousands of looks for an epic, 18 months of engineering for a single wicker body — and audiences will see the results on screen throughout the year.