Costumes in film aren’t simply there for the sake of aesthetics. When used best, they’re a nifty story device, and Netflix’s new fantasy, The School for Good and Evil, is the latest movie on their roster to typify that.
Adapted from the bestselling neo-fairytale series by Soman Chainani, the film version follows best friends Sophie and Agatha, who are–quite literally–swept away into magical schools, separated by the two forces of good and evil. Problem is, princess-hopeful Sophie has been thrown into the campus for villains-in-training, prompting her desperate plea to switch sides.
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And with a rich world comes even richer costumes, as helmed by costume designer Reneé Kalfus and director Paul Feig. In the School for Good, princes and princesses are dressed in pastel tones, puffy fairytale gowns, and corsets of yesteryears. The School for Evil, on the other hand, takes a page from the more gothic palette, à la Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family.
READ: The inspirations for the costumes in “The School for Good and Evil”
With her character seesawing from good to evil (and sometimes, a mix of both!), Sophia Anne Caruso (Sophie) dabbled in both sides too, style-wise. “I get to have truly every kind of makeup. I have no makeup, natural makeup, super high glam makeup. I have prosthetics,” she said during an exclusive roundtable interview with Preview. “Everything really came out exactly how I envisioned it. And I loved wearing all those sassy black outfits.”
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While Sophie embraced the dark side even in her clothes, black-loving and alleged witch Agatha (played by Sofia Wylie) had to come to terms with the princess gown-filled closet she had at her disposal. In real life, though, her actress Sofia was ecstatic, praising the handmade dresses on set. “There were just a lot of things I'd never had before that I was able to experiment with and kind of live my childhood dream through.”
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According to them, both of the young actresses had a say in what their characters would wear. Noting the collaborative effort between them and Reneé, Sophia had previously revealed that the cast even shared Pinterest moodboards during pre-production.
In Sofia's case, one of her inspos came from a fellow Netflix production. “I actually took a lot of inspiration from Bridgerton, because I’m obsessed with that show,” she said. “I had so many things pinned and so many ideas.”
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Veteran actresses Kerry Washington and Charlize Theron, who play deans Professor Dovey and Lady Lesso respectively, also drew from different influences for their good-and-evil-worthy ensembles. One example? Queen Bey herself, Beyoncé!
“We pulled from a lot of different sources–old school fairy tales, new fairy tales, there's a little Beyoncé inspiration in there as well,” Kerry told Preview. “And we just tried to sort of put it all together to find something that felt both unique and new, but also like it belonged to all the stories [we've] ever loved.”
We definitely see it!
School For Good and Evil is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
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