Tailoring Television Time-Hops

WandaVision’s Emmy-nominated costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo created a decades-spanning look book of wardrobe options for Disney+’s limited series

WandaVision’s Emmy-nominated costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo created a decades-spanning look book of wardrobe options for the Disney+ limited series. Plus: Robert Lopez and Kirsten Anderson-Lopez on finding the right “witchy” tune for the show.

At the onset of Disney+’s WandaVision, Mayes C. Rubeo found herself a little bit out of her comfort zone. “I had never done television before,” admits the costume designer, who was Emmy-nominated for her first venture. Rubeo had worked on massive productions — she designed costumes for Apocalypto, Avatar and World War Z and had entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Ragnarok.(Jojo Rabbit, her second collaboration with Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, earned her an Oscar nomination.) But Rubeo shares that working in the episodic medium felt familiar, particularly because of WandaVision’s large scale and scope. “This one was a mind-twister,” Rubeo says. “It was very smart writing and [offered] great material for my costumes.” Because of the meta nature of the limited series, in which each episode resembles a sitcom from a different era, Rubeo researched a lot of television history — even though she still approaches her craft as an element of cinema. “Streaming or 35 millimeter, whatever it is — it doesn’t change much for me,” she says. “I treat everything as filmmaking.” The result is a grab bag of looks, including costumes inspired by classic TV that balance camp with realism; superhero uniforms, both vintage and contemporary, perfect fits for two Avengers; and little clues that gave hints to one of the series’ biggest surprises: the witchy reveal of Agatha Harkness, played by scene-stealer Kathryn Hahn.

1-2 “We wanted to honor all the old sitcoms,” says costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo, who used I Love Lucy as a reference point when designing Wanda’s full dress and Vision’s tailored suit for the series’ pilot. 3 Kathryn Hahn, a consistent source of comic relief through the series as Agatha, wears one of the ’80s looks. 4-5 As the series progressed, Rubeo took advantage of primary colors and bold patterns, just as TV designers did in the ’60s and ’70s with the advent of Technicolor. 6-7 The Halloween-set episode finds Wanda donning the original Scarlet Witch costume as seen in the source-material comic books — complete with clashing pink tights. 8-9 Teyonah Parris in one of the ’70s-inspired looks, which references “the velvet suits and lacy collars” of shows like The Partridge Family.