Author Profile
Colleen Atwood
1950 • American • Designer
57
Total Quotes
Collected Meditations
Showing 57 quotesEvery story is different, so what is a detail in one might not be in something else. Diversity is something I embrace and love about my work.— Colleen Atwood
I really don't over-theorize about design. I'd rather feel it than talk it to death. A lot happens as you unroll the design.— Colleen Atwood
I design for the movie and the character as well as the person wearing the costume. I show the ideas to the actor, then do fittings for shape and technical things such as movement in the costume. Once the costume in this form is on the actor, you have a sense of their connection with it. I then take it to the next level with the final fit.— Colleen Atwood
I get more distracted by hair or a really bad wig than I do costumes any day of the week.— Colleen Atwood
The right costume determines the character, helps the actor feel who he is, and serves the story.— Colleen Atwood
My work space is so visually crammed. It's like an insane candy store. The number of textiles I'm surrounded with is mind boggling. It's a treat to come home to a nice negative space.— Colleen Atwood
I grew up in the age of polyester. When I got to touch real silk, cotton and velvet, the feel of nonsynthetic fabrics blew me away. I know it's important how clothing looks, but it's equally important how it feels on your skin.— Colleen Atwood
I always loved clothes, just not clothes that were appropriate to the place I grew up in.— Colleen Atwood
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.— Colleen Atwood
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?— Colleen Atwood
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.— Colleen Atwood
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.— Colleen Atwood
I had to work out that it was something that could move, without having everybody in spray painted leotards.— Colleen Atwood
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.— Colleen Atwood
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.— Colleen Atwood