Costume designer Judianna Makovsky has opened up on designing Scarlett Johansson’s custom look for her role as The Black Widow in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. She reveals that the design team work closely with Marvel in order to create the perfect image for the costume in question, and she reveals that creating superhero ensembles are the most time consuming of all because they take so much work to get right:
”Marvel has an incredible knowledge of the character, so we work with them throughout the process, but – although they have to be recognisable – the characters do inhabit different worlds in different films. There’s a lot to balance. Superhero films are definitely the most labour-intensive for a costume designer.”
Makovsky admits that there was only a small window to get the ensemble fitted on Scarlett and they spent two days intensely working to make sure the design was perfect for the camera:
”Scarlett didn’t actually start to fit for the catsuit until two days before we started shooting, so we had to do lots of trials and testing in quite a short timeframe. It was a challenge to get that many looks done in time.”
She reveals that they often have to make several versions of a costume depending on the activity the actor is doing while wearing the design, so they have to work together with everyone involved:
”We work very closely with the actors on an action movie. We’ll make different versions of the same costume depending on what she’s doing: boots with running heels, fighting heels, standing heels; costumes that will allow her to kick; others that will accommodate a harness.”
