In the opening scene of Jordan Peele’s breakthrough film, Get Out, a squeaky-clean, denim dress and tights-clad Rose (played by Allison Williams) ticks off a packing list for her boyfriend, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya). After making sure he’s got his toiletries, she asks, “Do you have your cozy clothes?” “I got that,” he calmly replies. Little does he know that those cozy clothes will come to represent an altered state of mind and a place he’d sooner die than return to again.
For those who have yet to see the brilliant satirical horror flick, here’s the gist: Interracial couple Rose and Chris drive up to meet Rose’s seemingly liberal parents, Dean and Missy Armitage, at their giant suburban estate. Once they arrive, Chris finds the mom and dad overtly welcoming yet, particularly in the father’s case, quick to slip in awkward references to African-American culture. The weirdness continues as Chris meets the robotic black housekeeper and stoic black groundskeeper and further on, tries to mingle at a stiff garden party filled with the Armitage’s equally well-off, all-white neighbors who ooh and aah over Chris like he’s a prize-winning thoroughbred.
Get Out is a scary movie about everyday fears. It’s about racial tension in America seen through the viewfinder of a film that took notes from Rosemary’s Baby and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Terrifying symbolism and referential humor are the key ingredients in Peele’s narrative, but aside from the bold script and strong acting, it’s also important to take note of what the costumes do for the storyline. After all, the things we wear are part of the first impressions we make.
How do you dress a stereotypical, pseudo-intellectual East Coast couple with self-professed liberal mores and extravagant means without going overboard? What does the All-American couple look like next to the odd old fancy folk at the cocktail party? These are the questions that Get Out’s costume designer, Nadine Haders, had to grapple with during her first meeting with Peele. Together, they concocted a plan for the characters’ wardrobes that was just as precise and intentional as the film’s smart one-liners and anxiety-ridden situational encounters.
As it so unfortunately happens in real life, we tend to judge a book by its cover—through a person’s skin color, their speech, and almost always by their clothes. But just as it plays out on the screen in Get Out, there’s always much more buried beneath the surface, be it good, bad, funny, or terrifying.
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