How Edgar Wright Uses Costume to Color Code His Characters

Baby Driver

With all the flash and bang that appears on screen in Baby Driver, it’s easy to overlook one of the film’s most expertly crafted pieces of production: the costume design. What can a costume tell us about the character? For Edgar Wright, the answer is a whole bunch. 

Wright's attention to detail within all aspects of his direction is unmatched, but the costuming in his films draws little attention. “As far back as the TV show I did before Shaun of the Dead, Spaced, I remember someone saying something about that show which always stuck with me," Wright remembers of his earlier work. "They said, ‘Well, the characters are all really easy to draw.’ And from that point on in all of my movies, with Baby Driver being no exception, I’m always looking to color-code the characters.”

Baby's own morals are quite literally brought into a gray area which is reflected in costume.
Not only does this help the audience keep track of who’s who once the action gets going (which often strikes very abruptly in Wright’s films) it also reveals personality traits of each character. At some points, the director even employs costuming as a foreshadowing device.

Wright works closely with costume designer Courtney Hoffman to establish a different color set for each character to have his or her own look. See a few examples from Baby Driver that Daniel Netzel of Film Radar lays out in the video essay below, and read on for our takeaways.

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