A 'Harry Potter' costume designer shares secrets about iconic looks, from Hermione's Yule Ball dress to Luna Lovegood's earrings
- Award-winning costume designer Jany Temime shared how she made some of the most iconic looks for films "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" through "Deathly Hallows - Part 2."
- She said some of the most fun looks to create were for "Goblet of Fire," and included Hermione's Yule Ball gown, Ron's frilly dress robe, and the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang uniforms.
- She said actor Evanna Lynch helped design jewelry for Luna Lovegood.
It's been nearly a decade since the final "Harry Potter" movie made its debut. And the film series, based on the books by controversial author J.K. Rowling, is still known for its magical scenes, sets, and fantastical costumes.
Insider recently spoke with Jany Temime, the award-winning costume designer who created looks for "Prisoner of Azkaban" through "Deathly Hallows - Part 2," over a FaceTime voice call about how she made outfits for the series' villains and heroes.
During the conversation, Temime shared behind-the-scenes stories of how she designed iconic wizard garb, including Hogwarts uniforms, Hermione's Yule Ball dress, and Luna Lovegood's jewelry.
Read on for some insight into her creative process.
Temime put a darker, modern spin on wizard costumes when she joined the series for 'Prisoner of Azkaban'
As soon as Temime was offered the opportunity to design costumes for "Prisoner of Azkaban," the third film, she knew that she wanted to put a modern spin on wizard attire.
By this point in the series, the majority of characters and the movie's target audience were tweens or teens.
"I thought that we should not make it at all like 'Christmas Carol,' that we should make it very urban. Very reachable for children, for teenagers," Temime said. "We should dress Harry and the kids like they are dressing themselves."
That's why in the third film, the Golden Trio — Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (played by Emma Watson) — wears jeans and sweatshirts when they rescue Harry's godfather, Sirius Black (played by Gary Oldman), and why some Hogwarts students have unkempt shirts and ties during their lessons.
The Hogwarts uniforms were some of the most expensive costumes to make since they incorporated silk ties and wool sweaters
Out of everything Temime designed for the films, she said that the Hogwarts uniforms were some of the priciest clothes to produce due to the high quantity required and the high-quality materials she selected.
"I never wanted to use anything but the most perfect material," she said. "The ties are in silk, we used wool [for the sweaters], we used a very expensive material for the gowns."
When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, she even recreated the Hogwarts uniforms for the theme park with the same deluxe fabrics.
"I remember when we reproduced them for the Orlando park, they couldn't believe the quality of it," Temime said. "It was so expensive."
She said 'Goblet of Fire' was one of the most challenging films to costume
"Goblet of Fire," the fourth installment in the series, introduces two additional wizarding schools to the "Harry Potter" canon: Beauxbatons Academy, located in southern France near the Pyrenees Mountains, and Durmstrang Institute, an establishment situated in an unspecified part of northern Europe.
When designing uniforms for these additional wizarding schools, Temime said she sought inspiration from "a melting pot of different influences," ranging from history to folklore.
For the Beauxbatons uniform, which comprises a blue silk dress with a matching shawl and felt hat, Temime was drawn to a symbol from her own heritage and a color that hadn't been used before in the films.
"I'm French myself, so I thought well, I'm going to use blue because this is the color of the French royalist flag — nothing to do with them being royalists," said Temime, who thought it would be amusing if the Beauxbatons students were underdressed for the cold climate in Scotland, where Hogwarts is located.
As for Durmstrang, whose students wear crimson robes, fur hats, and fur capes, Temime looked to Slavic folktales for inspiration.
"[These uniforms are] very heavy and they come from a different sort of culture, which is the Russian folklore or the Hapsburg folklore," she said.
By basing her designs for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang on iconography that young viewers might recognize from literature and pop culture, she aimed to make costumes that were at once specific and familiar.
"I was trying to make it as … universal as possible and not keep it English at all. What was English was the uniform and the boarding school," she told Insider. "The rest of it was a melting pot of different influences."
Temime had fun crafting outfits for the Yule Ball — especially Hermione's elegant gown and Ron's comically frilly dress robe
There may not be a prom at Hogwarts, but there is a fabulous winter fête called the Yule Ball, held in honor of the Triwizard Tournament during the fourth film.
Two of Temime's favorite looks from this festive scene are Hermione's gown and Ron's frilly dress robe.
As she designed the elegant gown Watson wears, a "volant" (French for "flying") dress made with pink fabric that cascades in an ombré effect, the challenge was to balance sweetness and allure.
She wanted it to be doll-like and appropriate for a teenager, but slightly sexy.
"I had that image of a doll because usually [Hermione is] the best of the class, she's a tough girl, and suddenly she had a fragility," Temime said. "I wanted something completely fragile, very flower-like, very delicate."
With Ron's dress robe, a Weasley family hand-me-down that reminds him of his aunt, Temime's true challenge was to see how ridiculous she could make it.
"At the beginning, I made it a little bit silly and then when I put it on him, I realized that Rupert [Grint] could take as an actor, he could take so much that I had to make it even sillier to just have a very comical message," said Temime, noting that she upped the ante with additional lace and braiding.
She added, "It was very strange. You could go so far with him."
Temime also said Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood, helped design jewelry for the quirky character
Luna Lovegood (played by Evanna Lynch), a Ravenclaw who Harry befriends, is one of the most eccentric students at Hogwarts with a unique style to match.
Clever and quirky, she's known for trademark accessories such as Spectrespecs (glasses that reveal invisible creatures) and a necklace made from a butterbeer cork.
Temime said she and Lynch collaborated a bit to design jewelry for the character — and Lynch crafted Luna's beaded, radish-shaped earrings herself. The baubles have become so popular that fans still sell their own, handmade versions on Etsy over a decade later.
"It was an excellent collaboration," Temime recalled. "She was a very clever kid to work with."
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