How Costume Design Influences the Way You Watch Movies

Costume designers are often overlooked. But their craft is as essential as any other aspect of film making. It expresses a character’s style and personality, but it also serves a deeper purpose: to reinforce the film’s themes without the audience even realizing.

The five stars of The Breakfast Club

“The Breakfast Club”
In John Hughes’ classic, the characters’ wardrobes visually depict the differences between the five teens stuck in detention. We see these characters “in the simplest terms.” Costume design is used against the audience, to trick us into regarding the ensemble by merely their archetypes, giving them the chance to prove us wrong.
These characters go into detention early in the morning, dressed in heavy winter layers. Over the course of the film, they take off their layers as they open up to each other about their lives.
This use of visual storytelling might not be as memorable as the banter or dance sequence, but it continually reminds the audience that these teens are, for the first time in their lives, exposing who they truly are.

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