EW interviews New Moon costume designer

Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by in News

Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch blog has an interesting article with Tish Monaghan, the costume designer for New Moon and Eclipse. Not only does she talk about the wolf pack’s clothes (or lack thereof) and Edward’s suit, but she also addresses Edward’s infamous peacoat from Twilight.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Anyone who’s listened to the Twilight DVD commentary knows that Robert Pattinson wasn’t a fan of Edward’s pea coat.
TISH MONAGHAN: He wasn’t a fan of the pea coat. He wore it in virtually every scene, and I think maybe he just got tired of it. I’m guessing. [Laughs] He just wanted a more mature look. That was part of Edward’s Grade 11 year, and now he’s getting into his graduation year, he’s in a relationship. He had worn hoodies and jeans and sneakers, and Robert, the director [Chris Weitz], and I all wanted to portray him more as a gentleman, more elegant and classic. With our vampire characters, I always went back to the time period in which they were turned to see if there’s any element I could try to simulate in contemporary clothing. He came out of the Edwardian period, around 1910. Of course, most of the gentleman from that time would be wearing suits, coats, hats, etc. We had to pick something that was iconic for the character that would suffice to be used throughout the whole film. At the very beginning of the film, he has one school outfit, and then there’s Bella’s birthday party and disaster strikes. So Edward ends up in that same costume for the remainder of the film. I was thinking of just putting him in a dress shirt and a pair of pants, but Robert wanted to be in a suit.

So I found a modern contemporary look that would be appealing to him and to the massive fan base, a very slim cut, and a fabric that to me was a bit Old World — this beautiful tweed fabric that we got out of England. It had the gray base, which is kind of essential for the Cullen characters in their cool tones, but also had little interesting flecks of blue, which is also Cullen, and a tiny little bit of rust, which I liked because Bella wears earth tones and that kinda linked her into the picture. The general texture of the suit would hold up well no matter what setting he was in: Inside the house for the party, or in the forest, or in the Volturi chamber. We had to show wear on the suit, and it’s much easier to rough up something that has texture to it than just a flat piece of wool. His pants are worn at the knees, they’re rumpled.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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One Response to “EW interviews New Moon costume designer”

  1. Dreamingheart

    28. Nov, 2009

    This is a great interview! I’m amazed at the lengths of research she went to just to get the right look and feel for everyone’s clothing – very impressed.

    She mentions the scene in Italy when Edward (Robert) removes his shirt to step into the sunlight and sacrifice himself. I agree with her that it’s not a beefcake scene at all – it’s always a heart-wrenching scene to me, and very hard to actually see it as opposed to just reading it.

    Love the deliberate tailoring of Jacob’s shirt sleeves! That cracked me up!

    Thanks for this article!!