‘Loki’ Costume Designer Reveals What She Loves about Dressing Sylvie
Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), the Loki variant who unleashes the multiverse at the end of Loki season 1, has become a fan-favorite character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s fierce, wounded, and complicated, having spent most of her life running from the Time Variance Authority. She also has a friendly side, as we see when she finally gets to build a life for herself in Loki season 2.
Plus, her look is amazing.
Recently, Loki costume designer Christine Wada spoke to Collider about the various costumes in Loki season 2. The season spans almost a hundred years, from the 1890s to the 1980s, and its characters always dress accordingly. In particular, Wada shared what makes Sylvie’s costumes especially rewarding.
With a Sylvie, I think that her character always needs to feel like it’s on the run, so I think the movement in the clothing is always important, and the aging of her clothing is always important to make it feel that there’s history because there is history. Also, her swagger as a character, I think always comes from that androgynous sort of mobility, always kind of ready for battle. Even if she wants to live a regular life, there’s always a part of her that’s on edge. I do love her androgyny.
Those aspects of Sylvie—her androgyny and her constant readiness for battle—definitely come out in season 2. Sylvie lets her Asgardian armor age and fall apart, holding it together with safety pins. She cuts her hair in an ’80s-style mullet. When it gets chilly, she throws on a threadbare houndstooth coat.
Wada has proven that she doesn’t just understand Sylvie. She also understands what Di Martino needs as an actress. When Loki season 1 came out, Di Martino shared that Wada had sown zippers into her costume to accommodate a nursing bra.
In 2021, our Kaila Hale-Stern spoke to Wada, who also shared a secret about Tom Hiddleston’s pants in Loki. Wada explained that “there is absolutely zero stretch or anything to [the fabric], which makes it kind of even more cool and unexpected for him to do all that fighting in.” Wada went on to explain that she put in “magic gussets,” or extra strips of fabric, to accommodate Hiddleston’s movements during action sequences.
Speaking of pants, Wada revealed one more cool detail in her conversation with Collider. Remember Ravonna’s amazing Victorian-era dress in episodes 3 and 4? Turns out it’s not a dress at all.
“The suit itself is actually a bicycle-riding suit from that era,” Wada explains. “It’s actually pants, which is culottes.”
Whether the characters in Loki are hopping on a bike or unleashing the multiverse, they’re doing it in style.
(featured image: Disney+)
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