the costumes in the witcher

[cimorene]

are kind of terrible, but they weren't really trying to be good - they were clearly aiming sort of in the neighborhood of Merlin or Xena and Hercules or A Knight's Tale or OUAT, and they didn't have the budget to do them seriously obviously. (I won't say I don't blame them, because there are a lot of egregious things I could name, starting with all of Yennefer's edgy prom dresses and not failing to mention how they not only took 'historical inspiration' from periods spanning a millennium, they didn't even bother to have a coherent notion of 'fashion' in a single location... .) But anyway, given the budgetary restrictions and the clear tone/register/subgenre/solemnity level, I felt mostly okay about the whole thing even though I hadn't sat down and written up my complaints in an itemized list.

And I'm still not going to do that, because I just do not have that kind of patience.

...But I've just seen a post on Tumblr of 'costume appreciation' with 9000 notes and tons of comments from people who apparently unironically thought they were good, or even especially good. Standout. Words like "brilliant" were used. ...Which shouldn't surprise me, I know, especially given that people tend to reblog mostly things they agree with, but still, my eyes bugged out a bit. There were even multiple people saying the showrunners were "dumb" [sic] to fire the costume designer after the first season, which is... a piping hot take.

However, they were the bearers of glad tidings! And I googled it, and they've replaced him with Lucinda Wright, which I'm inclined to say is bound to be a step in the right direction except I haven't actually seen anything on her CV except some Doctor Who episodes from 2005, so I can't be ENTIRELY sure. There are stills from historicals on IMDb, like Vanity Fair, which looks credible, and 2014's "New Worlds", which looks costumewise even sillier than the flashbacks in The Vampire Diaries or Sleepy Hollow, but maybe that wasn't her fault. At least she has done Henry VIII, so perhaps they're planning to aim everything a liiiiitttle bit more 16th centurywards? (Not a surprise. I can tell they're very attached to Jaskier's puffs and slashings, not without cause.)

Comments

[yvannairie]

How much would I have to pay you to get to hear your full rant about how awful the costumes are? :D

[cimorene]

Ugh, well, there's always a chance I'll feel up to it for free, but concentrating for long enough to get it all in one place is a tall order lately...

However, this video Are The Witcher Costumes Any Good? by Karolina Żebrowska covers a lot of the main issues from a similar perspective (ie an interested hobbyist's knowledge of assorted historical areas in general), although she was a lot more forgiving about her overall judgments than I was. She's like, "At least it was Victorian!" whereas I screeched at the screen, "Yeah, and that's the PROBLEM, it's VICTORIAN when the last two dresses were Renaissance and from the 1930s respectively, and she's teaching at a school whose school uniforms are apparently Byzantine!" But I think the list of things they notice and complain about is mostly the same as my list of things.

[yvannairie]

Ohh okay that's interesting, thank you for the video. I'd also be interested on how you think the games match up b/c I've also kind of. Like, the outfits in the TV show feel more inconsistent and from kind of all over the place compared to the games, but I also literally know nothing about clothes |D

[cimorene]

I have seen a few screenshots of the game and it seems like the clothes are very. Um. Videogamey, to the extent that it's hard to even evaluate them as costumes... they're more like sexy renfaire wench and anime outfits? Although it's possible they would still have more thematic unity than the show which, yes, had ZERO thematic unity.

But that said, that is probably less exhausting because there's no semblance of historicity or plausibility anywhere, it's all just sexy halloween/ comic book costumes.

[yvannairie]

I read a comment that the Witcher show is more going for the kind of look something like Hercules or Xena had, kind of a heightened sense of reality where everything kinda just pops into existence fully formed and all change is a big deal, but it's shot so grimy and dense that it just ends up looking cheap. The games aren't super dramatic visually either, but the way video games get away with having less visual variety definitely helps.

[cimorene]

I don't know if I would say the photography or direction is what makes it grimy and dense. I mean, kind of, but I THINK that budgetary concerns also affect what kinds of shots you can do, right? At least to some extent... and then there's the fact that the visual design itself is also a bit dark IMO. I mean, If you want to say grimy and dense - and yeah, I'll take it - I would lay part of that on the set designs and the costumes. And some of it just on the lighting choices, weirdly enough.

I'm not sure if it could have avoided looking cheap though, because their scripts have a lot happening and they clearly had to cut corners in order to afford it somewhere. Like, in theory, a different designer with the same money could have done better set design, and that's definitely true of the costumes too, but I think that would only go so far. Filming on location with adequate costumes and extras and props and all that probably gets out of hand quickly.

[yvannairie]

ehhhfgh yeah, for me it's definitely the way a lot of scenes are shot straight-on with an incredibly flat fill light that is super unflattering on props because the visual detail is so pronounced and the way the colour grade makes it feel like the show is going for "Game Of Thrones" without having the space in the sets to really layer on the depth only contributes to that.

There's just a lot of conflicting visual styles being layered on each other, I guess.

[cimorene]

Yes, exactly! That's very usefully well put from someone (you) who knows a bit more of about filmmaking or photography and the terminology thereof. I like to watch and read analysis of it a bit so I recognize and understand what you're saying but I don't have the mental toolset to articulate those problems like this myself.