From his first appearance in the marvel universe, Loki’s notorious persona and flamboyance were accurately captured through his costumes. In the initial movies, you see the power-hungry version of him that is adamant about taking his brother down and rule Asgard (eventually the planet), which depicts in the way he dresses, like a potential ruler. The leather layered elaborate costumes with horns and capes are swapped for simplified outfits in the later films as his character arc deepens and he comes into his own.

In the recently debuted series on Disney+ Hoststar Premium, Loki’s story once out of his brother’s shadow focuses on different angles altogether as he falls in love with the lady version of himself (Sylvie). His silhouettes in the show follow the shift in the narrative. Sylvie is a concoction of multiple characters in the comic books and has an agenda of her own. The exciting part about the series is that it has introduced the concept of variants, where newer versions of familiar characters are introduced in a new light.

To further break down the analogies behind what goes into the making of these grand costumes, we sat down with costume designer Christine Wada. In an exclusive conversation with ELLE, she spoke about the thought process behind creating the garments for each of these characters and how even in the world of superheroes, unrealistic costumes don’t fly.

ELLE: Loki’s costume has undergone various transformations over the years in order/ Since the TV show portrays him at his most vulnerable yet, what changes did you make to his original costume?

Christina Wada: The season starts off by stripping him off his armour which was the starting point for us. I didn’t really make any changes to his original costume.

ELLE: What was your thought process behind designing each of the Loki variants’ costumes? Richard E Grant’s costume, for example, was typically comic-like and even resembled Vision’s Halloween costume from WandaVision! 

CW: The idea was to pick elements from the different eras and characters Loki might be stuck in at the time and then adapt and scavenge it into a costume. For a lot of the characters, I took inspiration from a specific timeline, or a task or a moment in time. For instance, somebody using a set of bicycle handlebars inspired the horns, so it was a culmination of a lot of vision and history. Then came the part where we bounded the looks in the classic Loki colour palette of black, green and gold.

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