Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood is an American costume designer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDesigner
CountryUnited States of America
design fan holds huge jean paul people three
For contemporary fashion, I'm a huge fan of so many of the people out there. I think Azzedine Alaia holds up through three generations of very specific, beautiful design. I think Jean Paul Gaultier also is very interesting with a long span.
chris men
It actually is as fun to make men's costumes, especially if they are as good-looking as Chris Hemsworth.
death design happens rather
I really don't over-theorize about design. I'd rather feel it than talk it to death. A lot happens as you unroll the design.
bad costumes distracted
I get more distracted by hair or a really bad wig than I do costumes any day of the week.
american-designer beauty designing directed
Knowing who the actors were as you were designing them helped, with Catherine's beauty and Renee's frailty, they directed me visually just by who they were.
assistant bought buyer clients department design early private saint side store worked
I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the '70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for.
dark get-better painting
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.
imagine liking people type
It is such a pretty type of clothing. I can imagine people liking it and it's very wearable.
avoid clothes costume create design learn somehow time tried works
I can create clothes for so many different time periods. I've always tried to avoid being pigeonholed. Plus, everything I learn about design and costume from one movie somehow works its way into something else.
africa american-designer century inspired peru turkey
While researching design, I was inspired globally, from Peru to Turkey to Africa to Japan-from the 5th century through to today.
character first-impression mouths
Costumes are the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth-it really does establish who they are.
light color dresses
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.
design floating lasts
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.
moving reality people
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.