Into the Badlands is an AMC action adventure series about a mighty warrior and a young boy search for enlightenment in a ruthless territory controlled by feudal barons.
Into the Badlands takes place in a very colorful world, so picking what shape and design to put the character’s in can sometimes be challenging, especially when you factor in all the martial arts and fighting that takes place in the show. The wardrobe also has to be unique given that the show takes place in a futuristic world, but practical at the same time. Even with all these factors, the show’s costume designer, Giovanni Lipari, is finding new ways to impress viewers on a weekly basis. One character’s wardrobe standing out in particular to fans, even if it is mostly black, is The Widow. Lipari explains below that his major influence for The Widow is the Victorian era. Read more about how he creates The Widow’s costumes, the process for constructing each character’s persona through their wardrobe and more in this exclusive interview.
Is there a costume from Into the Badlands that doesn’t look like it would be complicated to construct but actually was?
Giovanni Lipari: I would say all the regal looking costumes, in particular for characters such as The Widow, Baron Chau, Cressida and Lydia. Many of these costumes needed to have the depth of textured fabrics, and all were very structured, many with a train. The challenge here was to maintain this look while using materials that would allow movement for fight scenes. When you think of movement, it is intuitive to consider lightweight fabrics. But when you must simultaneously produce costumes with firm structure and textured definition without the use of stiff or heavy fabrics, this becomes tricky and a lot of creativity is required to get this balance right and ultimately you are creating illusions.
The 2nd half of Into the Badlands Season 3 is airing sometime later this year. Have you already designed all the costumes for this or are you still in the process?
GL: While the second part airs later than the first, the entire season was prepared for and shot in advance of this, so all the designing has already happened.
About how long does it take you to create one costume?
GL: The process for creating is broken into parts and all of this can vary a great deal from one costume to another. The first part of the process is when I conceive and develop an idea for a costume. Sometimes this idea comes very quickly to me, and other times it can take longer to develop until it feels right. I have made it a habit to take notes of any ideas that have potential as I never know when the idea might become relevant, so this can be very helpful to have a bank of ideas to draw from. The next part of the process is the approval from the Showrunner of an idea and once again, this might be approved immediately and in some cases I have to make tweaks and changes before the producers are happy. Following this comes the making of the costume and once again for a more simple design this might be a few days work for the tailors and seamstresses and in other cases, taking for example a full evening gown, this can take about 8 full days of work. We also make multiples for each costume, some are for the actors and some for stunt people and sometimes more again depending on how distressed a costume becomes through fight scenes.
Because the show takes place in the future, you could literally invent any look you wanted. Stylistically, why did you decide on what you did?
GL: This is true, however in order to give the show a distinct and exclusive look, it’s important to reel in the elements of inspiration so the costumes have definition and are not overwhelmed by too many influences. These influences can come from many places, from history and the past to the present and from all types of cultures from all over the world. I went through many conversations with our Showrunner Miles Millar and over time we got on the same page about what the inspiration and look for all the characters would be. I think this filtering and decisive process helped develop the recipe for the Badlands look.
Being a martial arts drama there is obviously a lot of fighting on the show. Has there ever been an accident with one of the costumes while filming one of the fighting sequences that was unexpected?
GL: We were quite lucky in that considering the amount of episodes we shot, we only had a very small number of minor accidents, small rips from stunt cables and that kind of thing. I remember we did have one incident with one of Moon’s blue regent coats when it got badly destroyed during a fight scene. While it wasn’t expected to happen, it was not a disaster for us as we had made so many multiples and could replace it on the spot. I guess this is where good planning and preparation comes in. For the amount of fighting on the show, you absolutely have to plan ahead for the unexpected. Any costume that we know will go through a lot of endurance, we will have multiple ready, all aged and distressed to varying degrees.
The Widow is obviously known for her wardrobe. If there were to be a Season 4 of the show, what would you like to put her in that you haven’t yet?
GL: This is actually something I have considered already, what direction I would like to take her look if the script allowed for it. Her look so far has always been inspired by the Victorian era but I would like to move her style towards more of a 1940’s silhouette, mixing some Badlands style of course. I think this would work perfectly with her body shape and if done right, would still exude her power and control. This is definitely an area I would love to explore.
A lot of the time Chau’s always in white, and the Widow’s always in black. Is this a conscious decision to show that they are very different people and see the world in two different lights?
GL: When I took over the designing for Badlands in Season 2, I inherited the look already created for the Widow, which was always black. So I wasn’t involved in the initial decision for this, although I think it’s safe to say this was for obvious reasons – the classic widow in black. Regarding Chau, I did actually suggest using white for her look as I saw that this could make her the potential opposite of The Widow, not so much in terms of good and bad or light and dark, but opposing powers. And considering that black and white are not actually colors, this turned out to be a great decision, as the Badlands is a very saturated and colorful world, so this makes the two characters stand out from it.