Lauren Hadley, Costume Critique

A recently popular TV show I have been avoiding as long as I could, The Walking Dead, has been introduced into my family. I now find myself glued to the TV whenever it is on. The Walking Dead is about human survivors living during a Zombie Apocalypse and if you are queasy at the sight of blood, do not watch the show. 

Eulyn Womble is the current costume designer for the show. Before she was the lead designer on the show, she worked as a set designer and then worked her way into the costume design for the show. Womble “deploys a psychologically driven arsenal of color, style, texture, and accessorizing to subliminally enhance plot and character development. If she does her job right, you don’t notice it. You feel it.” Through her deigns, she engages with the characters, “she draws inspiration from the personalities, personal styles, and backgrounds of the actors, her costumes help inform acting choices.”

One would think that during a Zombie Apocalypse, you would not worry about what to wear. However, when it comes to Zombies, or Walkers, potentially biting and attacking you, you want to wear clothes with can move naturally with the body as you run, and boots to protect your ankles from being bit. Womble said, “The characters do a lot of walking and action. Also, the boots are comfortable but they can be used as a weapon. We do not want a walker to grab onto a skirt or something…the characters have to be stealth like ninjas so they can’t get caught on anything.” Another piece of clothing which is essential to every human character on the show, is a belt which can hold weapons. Even if a shirt is ripped and used as a belt, a knife could be tied to it.  She also wanted to add a sexy twist as characters develop in later seasons. She believes there is something sexy about being dirty and sweaty.

As for the Walkers, dressing them came easy to her because she knew what poor and tattered looked like, from her upbringing in Cape Town, South Africa.  Womble first thought of what the Zombies looked like before they died, and how long they might have been dead. Before every Zombie went on screen, Womble examined their costume. She wanted to portray the Zombies as realistic as possible because she wants them to come across as believable when seen by an audience.

The biggest challenge she has come across while designing costumes for characters on the show is to create multiple of them when someone has a death scene. She designed unique, custom-made jacket worn by the Governor, and then she found out he was going to die and had to make five more. 

I can't say I love or hate any of the costumes worn by characters. But I do enjoy and love how unique, and detailed every costume is. Womble's talent can be seen through the costumes of the show, from the Walkers to the Survivors.