DESIGNER THREADS
Costume designer Leah Butler tells TF why Shazam’s suit costs more than $1m to make…
suiTiNG AND BOOTiNG “The suit weighs 30 to 35lb all in. There is a lot of intricacy. it needs to be durable but have a bit of give to it. There are so many different stunts – flying, throwing under a bus. We have a lot of inspiration from the New 52, with the hooded cape. shazam’s a little boy who turns into a superhero, so we wanted a bit of a fun feel to him as well as showing he’s very strong. There’s a texture to the suit. it’s 3d printed on the fabric. a lot of inspiration comes from ancient Greek and roman symbolism. his belt and his gauntlets and his boots are made to look like metal; it’s a moulded eurothane.” LeT THere Be LiGHT “The bolt has to fit into the musculature, so we came up with a shape to fit into the pec area, and light up. it’s always a challenge to light something on a body for an entire movie. Zach and his stunt double have taken a lot of falls but [the electronics] have survived. and his gauntlets also light up. There is actually a battery at the back – we luckily had a cape to cover it all up or i don’t know where we would have put all that stuff! – and it is remotely lit through a switchboard operator. We can hardwire it, too. There is wiring throughout the costume. it’s a 26-volt aa rechargeable battery. it lasts about two hours at full charge.” sTiTCH BY sTiTCH “it took 16 weeks to build the costume. We had to scan Zach’s body and start building the costume even before he started his very strict regime
– his diet and working out. his body’s transformed. he started off very straight up and down, and now has the lovely V-shape, which is what we like to see on a superhero! so many people worked on the suit. We had illustrators, myself, scans, the company that physically makes the costume, the lighting. everything is individually cast and made. There’s a sculptor who sculpts Zach’s body so we can have the body form available. There are seamstresses, the 3d printing… each suit costs, oh boy… upwards of a million [dollars]? We have 10 suits.” JG