Emmy Category Analysis: Fantasy Costumes
Friday, August 19, 2022 at 8:00AM 
From 2015 to 2017, fantasy and sci-fi costumes were awarded alongside period stylings at the Emmys. Then, in 2018, they got their own category. Unlike the category for contemporary costumes, this one's fond of repeats. At least, it was fond of Game of Thrones, which won the race thrice. For the past two years, though, this has been a category where the TV Academy honors big superhero productions. Watchmen and Wandavision are our most recent winners, and either Loki or Moon Knight could continue the trend. That being said, the biggest boon to a show's chances in this race seems to be its overall popularity across the board, in which case, What We Do in The Shadows might have a chance…
Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
Nominees:
- Christine Wada, Nora Pedersen, Tamsin Costello & Carol Beadle for Loki, Episode: "Glorious Purpose" (S01E01)
- Description: After picking up the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame, Loki finds himself called before the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a Kafkaesque bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space.
- Meghan Kasperlik, Martin Mandeville, Richard Davies & Wilberth Gonzalez for Moon Knight, Episode: "Gods and Monsters" (S01E06)
- Description: As Moon Knight joins the fray, Marc, Steven and Khonshu must work together to stop Ammit.
- Christine Bieselin Clark, Michell Ray Kenney & Allison Agler for Star Trek: Picard, Episode: "Penance" (S02E02)
- Description: Picard finds himself transported to an alternate timeline in the year 2400 where his longtime nemesis, Q, has orchestrated one final trial. Picard searches for his trusted crew as he attempts to find the cause of this dystopian future.
- Shawna Trpcic, Julie Robar & Areayl Cooper for The Book of Bobba Fett, Episode: "Chapter 1: Stranger In A Strange Land" (S01E01)
- Description: Boba Fett holds court.
- Lucinda Wright & Rebecca Jempson for The Witcher, Episode: "Family" (S02E08)
- Description: Geralt faces off with a demon targeting his nearest and dearest while the most powerful players on the continent ramp up their pursuit of Ciri.
- Laura Montgomery, Judy Laukkanen & Barbara Cardoso for What We Do In the Shadows, Episode: "The Wellness Center" (S03E08)
- Description: Nandor is persuaded to reject vampirism and pursue a healthier lifestyle.
Analysis:
First, let's get the Disney properties out of the way - those damned shows I would never have watched were it not for these Emmy nominations. Loki is the best of the lot, both in general quality and costume design, though you might not realize it if you watch the submitted episode alone. Instead of capitalizing on the later chapters with their cavalcade of absurd Loki variants, new cosmical characters, and occasional space-time detours, Disney+ chose the series' most sartorially subdued episode to represent it on this race. On the one hand, the byzantine plot mechanisms mean the first episode is also its most accessible. On the other hand, narrative accessibility isn't the point here.
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Looking solely at Loki's submitted premiere, there's still a lot of costume excellence to appreciate. To clothe the intra-dimensional TVA, Christine Wada twists our precepts of prison-wear and office dress codes, evoking a sense of off-kilter mundanity. Her creations fulfill two paradoxical objectives – both otherworldly and precisely prosaic simultaneously – managing to flatter the cast along the way. With his Alexandra Byrne-designed finery promptly vaporized, Tom Hiddleston gets shoved into a bland inmate uniform and put in front of a court sketched in shades of tea stain and day-old coffee.
The bureaucratic fashions are replete with interesting details beyond their hyper-consistent color scheme. Shirt collars extend to the shoulders in weird configurations, and lapels are conveyed through negative space, holes carved into the jacket's outer fabric. Outside the TVA's premises, things are more classical, with a flashback to Loki as DB Cooper and the usual superhero style prevailing. Plus, you also get some flashes of fantasy archetypes. Our first glimpse of a future leading player in the story comes through a stark silhouette, a hooded shadow in the night. It's a clichéd picture, but it works. As we'll see, tried-and-true tactics are aplenty in this Emmy race.
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Truth be told, Loki would be a good winner. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the MCU's remaining contender – Moon Knight. Instead of privileging practical costuming for their superpowered protagonist, Kasperlik and her team rely on CGI. While he's static, it almost works, but once Oscar Isaac's digital double starts moving, the illusion is spoiled. It turns out that animating linen bandages and flowing capes isn't an easy task. Elsewhere, actual cloth is involved, mixing pseudo-Egyptian iconography with Marvel's trademark aesthetic with fun results. There's nothing particularly fantastic on display, but nothing too objectionable either.
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Our final Disney+ original is The Book of Boba Fett, where the best costumes are wholly copied from the original trilogy with next to no creative license. That's not a dig, for nostalgia is paramount in this type of exercise. Moreover, it's impressive how technically perfect some recreations are, including those whose style may feel outdated nowadays. The original creations are less successful, but their B-movie feel is a nice departure from most of these Star Wars shows with all their stubborn self-seriousness.
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Moving from one mega-franchise to another, Star Trek: Picard offers a fascinating feat in fascist fashion. Transported to an alternative timeline where their universe went down a road of supremacist totalitarianism, Picard and his crew are reimagined in monochrome tailoring. Everything is sharp, black and grey, punctuated by stiff collars swaths of red in the set to deliver that classic Nazi look. The costumes deserve no points for originality, but they do their job, serving as shorthand for a rotten reality. You don't need too much exposition when one glimpse at your main cast gets the point across.
Something along the way went very wrong in this world, souring a peaceful utopia into a militaristic nightmare. It's economical storytelling through heavy-handed design. One can't deny the efficiency of this approach even though another, more creative but equally succinct solution would have been even better.
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The Witcher team follows a similar system, appealing to classical images and genre aesthetics that have been in place for the better part of a century. The result is standard to the point of anonymity, but it's well-executed and pretty enough. For the second season's finale, Lucinda Wright works within a dynamic of contrasts and incongruences, making the story's big bad spend most of their time in white lace facing off against our heroes in black leather. The power of projected fragility makes a strong impression. At the same time, in a land of dreams and idealized memories, the episode's horror-adjacent mood is counterbalanced by flurries of gilded froth and pastel silks.
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Costume design as world-building is essential to fantasy and science-fiction projects, making these originality draughts a sad development. However, sometimes, working with clichéd iconography is the point, forming the baseline for series-encompassing visual gags. Such is the case of What We Do In The Shadows, finally nominated for Best Costumes in their third year of sartorial excellence with a vampiric twist. It's about damn time!
Indeed, if it were up to me, Laura Montgomery would be walking home with gold on their hands come Emmy night, both for their work in the overall series and this particular submission. "The Wellness Center" finds the designer clashing the gang's usual goth glamour with a new-age cult where vampires strive to become human again through jazzercize, aerobics, and daily self-mutilation. It's a fantastic showcase that starts with a party costumed in Turkish period trappings before moving on to 80s nostalgia. It goes through Nadja's brand of Victorian doll realness and Guillermo's collection of cozy sweaters. It's amazing.
Unfortunately, I think Moon Knight will prevail as the contender with the biggest haul of nominations. Still, What We Do In the Shadows' "above the line" recognition may signal a well-deserved victory. Time will tell if justice prevails.
Will Win: Moon Knight
Should Win: What We Do in the Shadows
Spoiler: What We Do in the Shadows
See here for a list of all Emmy nominees this year.
Who do you think will win the Fantasy Costume Design race? Who are you rooting for?
MORE ANALYSIS
Reader Comments (4)
Nice
I'm rooting for both Loki and Moon Knight. The latter as I thought Layla's costume in the final episode was cool as hell. The Assembled documentary series is something fans of these films should watch as they get into a lot of detail into the work the design team put.
I'm rooting for both Loki and Moon Knight. The latter as I thought Layla's costume in the final episode was cool as hell. The Assembled documentary series is something fans of these films should watch as they get into a lot of detail into the work the design team put.
This is a really underwhelming category. In the era of big budget fantasy shows, I'd expect that the options would be better. It's not that any of these are bad, but they don't feel across the board memorable. Their strength lies more in a few costumes.
My choice would be Loki. I actually like the realism of the costumes. While it's fantasy, it definitely gives us insight into the new, bureaucratic, world Loki finds himself in.
I think the Picard facist future costumes are basic, but as you note, they work really well at driving home the core point. However, I do think the Borg queen costume is a highlight. Yes, we've seen Borg queen before, but this take on her body was pretty cool and emphasized her hybrid nature, in a depowered setting, quite beautifully.
The Laila costume on Moon Kinight was, but everything else was fairly ho hum. The core Moon Knight costume is really cool, especially when Issac has his helmet off, but it's way too CGI for my taste.