'Cowboy Bebop' costume designer says she was 'resistant' to make Faye Valentine 'overtly sexualized' like her anime version
- "Cowboy Bebop" costume designer Jane Holland defended her costume for Faye Valentine.
- Fans have complained about Faye's (Daniella Pineda) costume in the live-action reboot.
The costume designer for Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" defended Faye Valentine's costume in an interview with Insider.
In September, Screen Rant reported that Netflix received complaints on social media about Daniella Pineda's costume as Faye in the live-action reboot. Faye is known for her skimpy outfits and femme fatale persona in the original anime series.
Jane Holland, the costume designer for the show, told Insider that Pineda's costume isn't so different from the anime.
"The sort of threads that I was pulling on to kind of draw it together came from the same place and the same thought process that I had to go through for Spike and for Jet," Holland said of the male characters played by John Cho and Mustafa Shakir.
She continued: "I feel like it's a respectful rendition of the anime. I do have to say, as a woman, I felt resistant to the idea of the lead female character being gratuitous or overtly sexualized. It's not about it not being revealing, it's not about any of that, it's actually got all of those elements. But my take on it is that it's designed by a woman and it was made by a lot of women, and it's worn by a woman. So the same elements are there but they have just manifested in a different way."
Holland also said it would be easier for Pineda to work in this outfit than if she was dressed how Faye is in the anime.
"It's definitely aesthetically driven but there's a practical element as well," the costume designer said. "There's a lot of action. we filmed over a long period of time through different seasons. We had a lot of night shifts in Oakland so Jet and Spike were fine, because they had practical, much more practical clothing, in the anime. [Pineda] needed that as well."
Holland also explained that she had other callbacks to Faye's original backstory in Pineda's costume such as fastening, which had a "tiny little labyrinth" engraved on it to represent Faye trying to find herself due to her amnesia.
"And then, down the back of her leggings, there's this abstract print. It's the top view of block letters of 'Babes in Arms,' which is the name of the musical that the song My Funny Valentine comes from. And Faye Valentine's episode, when she's cryogenically frozen, [is called] My Funny Valentine," Holland added.
Holland admitted during her interview with Insider that she was "ignorant" about how much fans cared about the live-action reboot before signing on to the show, adding that a group of fans told her: "Don't fuck it up."
In September, Pineda herself responded to the backlash with a satirical apology posted to her Instagram Story. At the beginning of the video, she apologized for not looking exactly like the anime character because she is not "Six foot" with "double D sized breasts" and a "two-inch waist."
About her costume, Pineda added: "Anyway, like I was saying that original costume, they made a couple of them, but like I said they sort of got slurped up in my various crevices never to be retrieved again so we really needed to build something that could withstand the test of time."
"Space Jam 2" received a similar backlash after Lola Bunny was desexualized in the sequel.