If you're at all a fan of Netflix's strain of the Marvel Universe, then you're probably aware that Marvel's Luke Cage drops today. In fact, you've probably already binge-watched it. But just in case you aren't up to speed on the latest from Netflix's superhero factory, Cage is the super strong, impervious-to-everything character that first appeared in last year's Jessica Jones. This time around, Cage has ditched Hell's Kitchen for the streets of Harlem, where he's become the resident savior of good guys/enemy of bad guys, including local kingpin Cornell Stokes.
Just as with Jones, and Daredevil before that, Cage offers a much darker take on the Marvel Universe than what is served up in movie theaters. And one of the people responsible for setting that darker tone is costume designer Stephanie Maslansky, who has worked on all four of Marvel's Netflix series (including Iron Fist, which is set to come out next year). We spoke with her on the eve of the Luke Cage drop to find out what it's like to dress the grittier characters in the Marvel canon, why it is that villains can't resist a good suit, and what it is about the hoodie that makes it such a perfect crime-fighting tool.
Esquire.com: How closely do you have stick to the source material with your costumes, do you get much leeway to do your own thing?
Stephanie Maslansky: It's a little bit of both. One of the wonderful things about working in this medium is that it's a collaboration. In this case it's [showrunner] Cheo Hodari Coker, whose vision for the character is so profound and significant. Then of course the people at Marvel, who have a lot to say and a lot of strong feelings on how to carry these characters.
I also look at the comic books, and I look at the script, and I look at the neighborhoods where we shoot. In this particular case it's Harlem, and I'm very much inspired by that because it has such a rich and colorful history. It becomes a back-and-forth. They get inspired by what I present, I get inspired by their ideas.
At one point, Cage says, "I don't want to be different than anybody else." Is that what drives his look?
Absolutely. He also wants to disappear. He wants to hide his identity. So for that reason he wears jeans, he wears the hoodie, he wears T-shirts. Pretty simple stuff. It also becomes his psychological armor, in addition to the fact that he's bulletproof. The hoodie in particular is such a classic garment that is so much of a go-to for the world. Cheo's vision initially was that this character had to be wearing a hoodie, and I couldn't agree more. And wearing it with the hood up, which was done in order to hide his identity.
What is it about the hoodie? It seems like it's become such a staple for comic book heroes in general?
You know what? You're right, and there's an extremely practical reason for it. In these shows, we're grounded in a strong sense of realism and authenticity and grittiness. And a hoodie has so many elements to it. It helps to hide identity, it's a really comfortable piece of clothing to wear, and it works really well when you're doing stunts. It's stretchy, it's large, you can pad things under it. There's all sorts of practical reasons. And it's got a very specific look. And I come back to Luke Cage, the first African American superhero, in 2016, wearing the hoodie, it just says so much.
On the other hand, the villains all seem to wear suits. What is it about bad guys and tailoring in the Marvel Universe?
Interesting, isn't it? It becomes a choice that makes sense in light of who these characters are, the level of their own wealth, and who and what they want to present to the world. Cornell Stokes needs to present himself as a wealthy, successful businessman, and, of course, he wants to wear bespoke suits and tailored suits.
Again, this is a collaboration, and I am very much influenced not only by the look of the characters in the comics, but also by what the character looks like on the page of the script. And this was this character in both the comic and on the page, a very wealthy businessman. Most of his clothing came from Dolce & Gabbana and Zegna, and we did have one suit custom made for him. Ultimately these villains wear suits because they have a lot of money. And when you have money, usually you want to dress up. Unless you're Mark Zuckerberg. Then you wear a hoodie.
And then on the flip side of that question, why are all of the heroes so afraid of tailoring?
Well, again it's a matter of their economic level. It's a matter of what they're comfortable with. In Daredevil, Matt Murdoch is a newly minted lawyer, along with Foggy Nelson, and they know that they have to present themselves in court wearing suits, but they certainly don't have the money to have custom-tailored clothing. So the choices that I made reflected the level they were at.
And then you have Jessica Jones. We designed her look so that she appeared to not give a crap about what she wore, since she usually got up everyday with a hangover. Her reason for having the same clothes strewn around her room was so that she didn't have to make a choice at all. Same pair of jeans, same T-shirt.
And then you have someone like Kilgrave, and his story is that he would walk into a tailoring shop and say, I like that suit, tailor it perfectly to me or your store will explode. But I will say, there may be characters in upcoming shows that have different relationships to tailoring than the one's you've seen already.
What are some of your favorite things about working in the Marvel Universe?
What I love is that each show, each character has been so entirely different from the one before. And it's been such a joy to work on four entirely different shows (Maslansky is also the costume designer for Marvel's Iron Fist, which began shooting in April), different storylines, different showrunners, which then cause you to have different tone, different color palettes.
Even though we're dealing with Marvel superheroes, it's been an entirely different show each time. I love these different heroes because they all have psychological issues to be dealt with, which I get to address when I figure out what it is they're going to wear and why and how.
I also enjoy that they're based on these comic books, and they're characters that have been around for quite some time as illustrated in the comic books. And I love going back and looking at the origin material and interpreting it for the 21st Century. There's also the aspect of the fans and how they're going to respond. And I want to make sure they're happy.
Have the fans given you any trouble?
So far, thank god, that hasn't happened as far as I've read and seen. We're not trying to create new modern comic books. We're bringing these from the flat page to live actors and live action in 2016, as opposed to 1970s, or in Daredevil's case 1950s, and I believe Jessica Jones is early 2000s.
So I think the fans are smart enough to understand that we're taking the information and inspiration we get, and creating something entirely new. And there are going to be opinions—fans are very committed—but for the most part, from what I've seen, they have really been positive.
Do find that it's more fun dressing the villains or the heroes?
I have to admit that I really do love working with beautiful, artful clothing. And I absolutely love creating things from scratch, and finding details to insert to make the character really come alive and to make the actor really identify what they're wearing. So from that point of view, I love creating the suits.
I love creating a look for Cornell Stokes. I loved working with Alfre Woodard as Mariah Stokes, finding designers that worked for her character. Shades (played by Theo Rossi) was another character that was so much fun to work with because he wasn't trying to hide who he was, so we used Hugo Boss and a lot of Helmet Lang and Prada and some Ferragamo. I love working with that type of clothing and watching the actors step into their clothes and helping find who they are. That said, it was inspiring and challenging and gratifying to put clothing on Mike Colter (Cage).
What are some of the brands you relied on for Cage's look?
The sweatshirts were all Carhartt, the T-shirts were all from Rag & Bone. Rag & Bone is a good T-shirt, but it had a certain quality that was a really rough fabric. And it already looked a little bit old and used. And that's a really great thing if you're having to distress and age clothing, starting with something that already has a fantastic texture and color. It makes it go a little further.
The jeans that we wound up using for the most part were AG. And his belts were from either Levi's or an army-navy store. The boots were from army-navy. A lot of his jackets were either Carhartt or Levis, so we, for the most part, mixed what he really would wear, and what worked best on his body and for his character.
