All about the VFX, costumes and sound design on The Wheel of Time

The costumes of The Wheel of Time

The costume designer on The Wheel of Time season 1 was Isis Mussenden, who came with a lot of experience behind her. “I’ve worked on several projects, from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian to The Wolverine, with budgets like this, and with this kind of freedom to create,” she told Below the Line. “I never saw myself as a fantasy designer, ever. I ended up in animation, and then from there, I ended up with Andrew Adamson on Lion and the Witch, which I ended up really enjoying because, as much as I love a period piece, or a really gritty contemporary piece or something, fantasy allows you to reach in every direction that you want.”

"I pull from folkloric, historic, contemporary, couture, paintings, sculpture. I can pull inspiration from anywhere. You can kind of do that on a lot of projects, but with fantasy, it’s extraordinary like that. Plus, I build everything. So, I’m a maker. I like to make clothes. I like to have it drawn up. I like to conceptualize and I like to have the fabric dyed. I like to have the fabric printed. I like buttons made. That’s my candy store. The workshop is my favorite place on Earth. I grew up doing that with my mother. So, it’s this visceral, fabulous place to be."

And Mussenden needed all of her gifts on The Wheel of Time, where she had to work in bulk. “I think just for the Two Rivers, in the first episode, I think we dressed 350 extras and something like 40 day-players, and the hero team of seven,” she said. “The first season is a journey from one place to another for our seven leads, so there’s not an opportunity to change their clothes a lot. That’s not what the story was. There’s nowhere to get clothes in the middle of the forest. So, those clothes for our seven leads, we needed seven of everything. We needed clothes for the stunt rider, the stunt double, the photo double. So, even just that first episode, it was a massive amount of clothes.”

The most impressive costumes on The Wheel of Time were worn by the Aes Sedai, and in particular Moiraine, who fronted the season. According to Mussenden, actor Rosamund Pike was a dream to work with. “I first had to prove myself to her so that she gained confidence in me as the costume designer,” she said. “We worked really, really closely together. She had great ideas, and some ideas were not so great. I’d say, ‘Hmmmm.’ And she’d say, ‘That doesn’t look good.’ And I’d say, ‘No.’ But I always wanted every idea she had. At the end of the day, the two of us really worked hard to get where we are.”

"…Rosamund is really, really smart. As far as her craft goes, she knows what she’s doing, and she takes her time. She’s never rushed. It was fantastic working with her. I mean, look at her. She looks beautiful. She’s also got an incredible figure, and she knows her figure very well. She knows what works and what doesn’t. And… she believed in our concept, which was the most important thing for me. After that, it’s just [about] making it work."

Mussenden isn’t sure if she’s returning for the second season of The Wheel of Time, but I hope for our sakes she is.