The whole switch from film to digital has changed some of the ways I use color and the juxtaposition of light and dark. It's getting better with digital, the separation's gotten better, but I still feel like it's really flatter than film, so I do a lot of screening and subtle textural printing and painting on clothes for film to get it not to look flat.

Colleen Atwood

Categorized in : Dark Light Color

Costumes are the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth-it really does establish who they are.

Colleen Atwood

first-impression costumes character

The reward is that you can actually create a world separate from reality with a story, actors, music, and camera design. When it works it can entertain, move people and teach us all.

Colleen Atwood

reality people moving

Be really good with budgets because they keep getting smaller.

Colleen Atwood

budgets

Inspiration comes from everywhere: books, art, people on the street. It is an interior process for me.

Colleen Atwood

inspiration book art

If you want someone to feel warm, you dress them in a warm color and put a warm light on them and you get the picture. Sometimes, all that needs pushing a little bit to help tell the story.

Colleen Atwood

color light want

I think what's fun about the fairytales is just seeing what everybody interprets them as, which comes from the different directors and what they want to do with them.

Colleen Atwood

fun directors thinking

I think the silhouette of the kimono costume will become engraved in people's minds. I do think there'll be lots of red accents in the near future. For me personally, I can't see myself flaunting around in a geisha uniform but it'll make me smile when I see what others do with it.

Colleen Atwood

mind people thinking

Be able to take any job that gives you experience on a film. Don't just think that you have to be in one department or the other, because through working on one and seeing what other people do in the movie makes you realize what your role is if you become a costume designer.

Colleen Atwood

jobs people thinking

I don't design my own clothes. It's so not what I think about.

Colleen Atwood

clothes design thinking

I love Johnny (Depp). A lot of the stuff I've done for him stands out for me just because of the relationship and who he is.

Colleen Atwood

standing-out done stuff

I like the architecture of lingerie.

Colleen Atwood

lingerie architecture

Chicago is partly a fairy tale because it's inside one person's head, so that part of it's made up and the rest of it is reality.

Colleen Atwood

fairy-tale chicago reality

Sleepy Hollow had a lot of action in it, even though it was a fairy-tale movie.

Colleen Atwood

fairy-tale action sleep

Every story is different, so what is a detail in one might not be in something else. Diversity is something I embrace and love about my work.

Colleen Atwood

details diversity and-love

As a designer, you have to solve a lot of problems. Even though people are wearing clothes that are supposed to look beautiful, they'll have to do all kinds of things.

Colleen Atwood

clothes beautiful people

Every project starts with a story.

Colleen Atwood

projects stories

Sometimes you have dreams about the day or something like that. But, for the story, it's just present and what you have left ahead of you to do and how things look that day that you reflect on. It's just there until you're done.

Colleen Atwood

stories dream looks

I have assistants that use the internet a lot more than I do. I use the internet for photo research, but for me personally, probably just because of my age, I'm not that mechanically inclined.

Colleen Atwood

research use age

I always have a moment when I know I'm designing the last costume that gets made for a movie and it's always been floating up there but it's kind of the last one. That's always probably the hardest one for me.

Colleen Atwood

floating design lasts

If I'm doing something contemporary, for sure I'm very aware of what's going on. Personally, I like fashion trends, but when I'm doing a movie, it doesn't affect what I do particularly at all. I don't relate to it in that way.

Colleen Atwood

trends fashion way