Palisadian costume designer Colleen Atwood broke into the Hollywood scene in a big way when she worked with Tim Burton on Edward Scissorhands in 1990 and the 11-time nominee could win her fourth Oscar if she is recognized for Into the Woods at the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Atwood has been involved with more than 60 feature films, including Silence of the Lambs, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Snow White and the Huntsman, winning Oscars for her work in Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha and Alice in Wonderland.
Photo courtesy of Michael Keller
A Washington state native, Atwood started her career in New York City as an assistant to Patrizia Von Brandenstein. She worked on SNL for the film division and had designed for several movies before landing the job with Burton.
“Luckily, in New York I was able to design several great Jonathan Demme movies as well as get my first feature film,” Atwood told the Palisadian-Post from London where she is working on her next film.
While adjusting to the warmer California climate was an easy adjustment, the cross-country move from New York to Los Angeles meant big changes for Atwood’s career as a costumier.
“The costume system at that time was different – the role of assistant in LA as compared to NY was the biggest change. In NY, the assistant deals with the budget, in LA the supervisor does budget,” she said.
Ready to make the west coast her permanent home, the mother of two came across a Palisades fixer-upper and has been there ever since.
“I like the quiet, the ocean air and the peacefulness after a crazy workday,” she said.
Atwood depicts Meryl Streep’s witch costume from ‘Into the Woods.’ To make her character feel larger than life, Atwood dressed Streep in 4-inch heels.
Photo courtesy of Colleen Atwood
Though she has called Pacific Palisades home for more than two decades, Atwood’s work takes her around the world – currently to London where she is designing the costumes for Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a fantasy film about 16-year-old Jacob who follows clues that take him to a mysterious island, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children.
Set to release in March 2016, the film falls in line with a number of Atwood’s previous projects that tend to be either period or fantasy pieces, including most recently, Into the Woods and Big Eyes.
“I definitely gravitate toward these projects, but love changing it up with interesting story-driven pieces like Michael Mann’s current Blackhat,” she said of the hacker thriller released last month.
No matter the nature of the film, Atwood’s designs are incredibly intricate and detail oriented. Whether pulling ready-made pieces together to create a look or creating pieces from scratch – as in Into the Woods, which included designing the textiles – an incredible amount of research and technical understanding of the costumes comes into play.
As a designer, Atwood pores over an extensive amount of research before designing pieces for a character’s wardrobe. In the case of Into the Woods, Atwood designed textiles inspired by the bark of the enchanted woods and pulled inspiration from vintage pieces and even the actors and directors themselves.
Atwood, who has worked with directors Rob Marshall, Demme and Burton on multiple films, talks openly about the friendships and great working relationship she shares with each of them – relationships that are hugely beneficial when collaborating on design. Admittedly, some of her most noteworthy designs have been created for Burton’s films.
“It makes the time spent more productive when you know the style of director you’re working with and how they visualize their films,” said Atwood, who has also worked alongside Johnny Depp on a number of films, many directed by Burton. Atwood shared that while actors don’t design their own costumes, how they feel in it is very important. While filming Into the Woods, Depp contributed to the idea to use a zoot suit for his unique costume as the Big Bad Wolf.
“Actors ultimately have to feel good in costumes. These characters emerge with costume, hair and make up,” Atwood said. “In the case of the zoot suit, it was driven by the music as well as the Tex Avery idea of a wolf Johnny had in mind.”
Working under a tight deadline, familiarity with the director and Depp’s creative influence allowed Atwood to pull off what she called the craziest costuming feat of her career – and garnered a nomination for Excellence in Fantasy Film for her efforts by the Costume Designers Guild, in addition to her Oscar nod.
A seasoned veteran in her field, Atwood maintains the ability to understand and process that seeming failures can often be the key to success.
“Failure can be perceived in many ways. When I have had something that doesn’t work for one reason or another, I have moved on quickly. I think that being able to adapt and shift is an important part of the design process,” Atwood said. “The second idea is sometimes better than where the journey began.”
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
