Colleen Atwood Quotes

Costume, hair and makeup can tell you instantly, or at least give you a larger perception of who a character is. It's the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth, so it really does establish who they are.

In real life, a lot of people at that level will have their kimonos made especially for them.

For contemporary fashion, I'm a huge fan of so many of the people out there. I think Azzedine Alaia holds up through three generations of very specific, beautiful design. I think Jean Paul Gaultier also is very interesting with a long span.

I choose colors I like and will photograph well. I don't do color theory!

I love Johnny (Depp). A lot of the stuff I've done for him stands out for me just because of the relationship and who he is.

I have watched 'Project Runway,' but I'm not a devout watcher of it. But I think it's a great show, what I've seen of it, and I think Tim Gunn is a very positive, amazing guy.

I think a lot of young girls go through that period in their life of finding who they are, and at that point, looking good matters the most.

When I do period work, I really like to read about the period as much as I like to look at pictures because sometimes the written word is much better at conveying what their lives were really like and how much they had and where their clothes came from. Because, a lot of time, people dressed in their Sunday best to pose for a picture.

Planet of the Apes was a gigantic challenge, making the clothes work so people could do stunts and action in the clothes. I really learned a lot about that in that movie.

I wanted to be a painter when I was a kid. And then, I had to make a living. I had a child when I was in high school, so I kind of had that work phase in my life.

My own style is pretty classic; I much prefer to design for others.

I grew up in a small town in Washington State, so I wasn't really aware of costume design as a career growing up, but I loved clothes. I remember I saved all my money, and the first thing that I bought was a white blazer, which was to the horror to my parents. But I have always had a strange connection with clothing.

I can create clothes for so many different time periods. I've always tried to avoid being pigeonholed. Plus, everything I learn about design and costume from one movie somehow works its way into something else.

I get more distracted by hair or a really bad wig than I do costumes any day of the week.

People like to stir up the fashion vs. costume world, and I think what they mean by 'too costumey' is that it's too much, or not real enough for everyday wear. You couldn't say that about John Galliano's shows, right? I mean, they're awesome, and they're total costume.

I think what's fun about the fairytales is just seeing what everybody interprets them as, which comes from the different directors and what they want to do with them.

The designs were based on quite a lot of research of what a movie musical is, filtered through the eyes of today. If we'd gone strictly with the '20s, the movement would have been impaired.

It actually is as fun to make men's costumes, especially if they are as good-looking as Chris Hemsworth.

The exposure I have had to beautiful materials across the world, from Japan to Italy, enables me to pull design ideas together. This, combined with years of historical research, has created a great fountain of ideas for me.

The thing that's great about being a costume designer is you never know what's going to be next; you never what world you are going to enter.

The costumes had to serve the choreography.

I had to work out that it was something that could move, without having everybody in spray painted leotards.

As for futuristic costumes, I loved doing 'Gattaca' because I'm a minimalist at heart, and it's a very minimal film. Plus, with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Jude Law, how could you go wrong?

I have assistants that use the internet a lot more than I do. I use the internet for photo research, but for me personally, probably just because of my age, I'm not that mechanically inclined.

I always loved clothes, just not clothes that were appropriate to the place I grew up in.

I don't design my own clothes. It's so not what I think about.

In designing Supergirl, I wanted to embrace the past but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today,

On Planet of the Apes, I had a very knowledgeable team who knew good materials, but I had one main source person who worked online and on the street continually looking for the proper materials.

I've always loved movies, art and clothes.

If I'm doing something contemporary, for sure I'm very aware of what's going on. Personally, I like fashion trends, but when I'm doing a movie, it doesn't affect what I do particularly at all. I don't relate to it in that way.

I'd say probably the most expensive costumes I've ever made were the costumes in 'The Planet of the Apes,' because of the research and development that went into them and the amount of layers.

One of the challenges with period costumes is, on a technical level, making the scale of different periods work on contemporary bodies. We're much bigger than what people were in older times.

I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the '70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for.

I am always looking for ideas, whether it is in art on the street or in my world travels. It comes to me randomly and unexpectedly.

If you want someone to feel warm, you dress them in a warm color and put a warm light on them and you get the picture. Sometimes, all that needs pushing a little bit to help tell the story.

Sleepy Hollow had a lot of action in it, even though it was a fairy-tale movie.

Sometimes you have dreams about the day or something like that. But, for the story, it's just present and what you have left ahead of you to do and how things look that day that you reflect on. It's just there until you're done.

I'd seen the current stage production and the 1975 production of Chicago. I liked them both very much, but I didn't use them necessarily as inspiration.