Creating a new superhero suit for a Marvel hero is not an easy feat, as the costume director for Disney Plus’ latest mini-series, Moon Knight, is well aware.
Many of the costumes in the show have small touches here and there, even some hints as to their character that only the most eagle-eyed fans may have spotted. Creating the titular character’s costume for Oscar Isaac however was extremely tricky for costume director Meghan Kasperlik, who, due to COVID-19 restrictions, couldn’t even get her hands on the whole outfit — instead being sent pieces of it via mail every week to arrange and mark.
The suit, which was made out of a total of 803 pieces, was then built by a company in London, FBFX, which specializes in supplying special effects costumes. In an interview with Variety, Moon Knight‘s Kasperlik discussed how she approaches her craft and the incredibly meticulous construction of the now-iconic suit.
“I never want a costume in the story, unless it’s high fashion and really has to be in your face, to be in your face, so everyone, across the board, has little touches on their costumes.”
Kasperlik had to undertake “a tremendous amount of research” for the Egyptian-inspired costumes, talking to Egyptian crew members such as director Mohamed Diab and co-star May Calamawy as well as visiting the Met Museum in New York which houses an extensive Egyptian art collection.
Crafting something that fans will recognize from the comics, whilst updating it, making it functional for the actor, and adding your own creative flair is difficult enough, but doing it all during the COVID-19 pandemic, where you cannot even work with the whole costume is another thing entirely.
Moon Knight had more than one superhero costume and the character’s kinder alter-ego, Mr. Knight’s costume was also a challenge for the designer, with Kasperlik explaining,
“Mr. Knight is a three-piece suit, which was terrifying to me. A really important thing was that we didn’t use a flat white fabric like you’d expect. It is a white-on-white textured fabric that then has a silver lame in it. So when the light hits it, it bounces off. I knew we’d be filming a lot at night, so it was about creating this texture in the fabric to make sure that it was not completely getting blown out and it just looked like a white marshmallow running across the screen”
It was a huge undertaking for the designer, who is happy with the end result stating, “I really felt like this was a great representation of the new transition to the way the MCU will be.”
Moon Knight is available to stream on Disney Plus.