'Everything Everywhere All at Once' costume designer reveals the disemboweling scene that had to be cut — and the hardest outfit she had to make for the film

• "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is filled with breathtaking, original looks, especially for leads Evelyn and Jobu.
• But costume designer Shirley Kurata told Insider that imagining the costumes was no small feat.
• According to Kurata, one of the most difficult pieces to find for the film was an Elvis costume.

At the center of the intricately layered multiverse in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is a bagel — an everything bagel, to be exact. The film's tortured antagonist, Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu) created the "bagel" (which is more akin to a giant black hole than a vehicle for cream cheese, to be clear) after becoming despondent at the infinite nothingness she discovered in the multiverse.

As Jobu explains to Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), she then took every single thing from the multiverse and put it into the "bagel," leading to the ravenous black hole that Jobu is tempted to disappear into. Further cementing Jobu's point is her costume in the scene; she's clad in a futuristic white gown, with a large round of hair that resembles the very bagel she's preoccupied with.

The costumes in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" are more than just clothes. Since most of the characters frequent different universes (through a process known as "verse jumping"), the clothing they wear is key to conveying the different iterations of each character, as well as placing the viewer in the numerous multiverses traversed throughout the film.

In one scene, for instance, Evelyn is transported to a universe in which she's performing onstage as a famous Chinese opera singer, complete with intricately painted makeup and a sumptuous robe. In another, Evelyn is a famous movie star attending a contemporary film premiere in a chic floor-length gown.

Jobu's looks are far more chaotic. As Kurata explained, Jobu's awareness of the multiverse (and subsequent nihilistic outlook) means that she's able to craft her outfits in her mind, paying little attention to the time or place she's currently in. Instead, Jobu has complete freedom to manipulate her reality, with clothes that reflect her unhinged attitude towards existence.

Designing such intricate and meaningful costumes couldn't have been an easy task (Kurata said she created dozens of looks for Hsu and Yeoh alone), but Kurata's impeccable designing brings the characters — and the multiverse — to life in breathtaking detail.

The costume designer spoke to Insider about working with the film's directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as the Daniels), the one costume that was surprisingly difficult to source, and which looks ultimately didn't make it until the final film.

I'm sure you've heard this a ton by now, but the costumes in this film are really special. If you had to estimate, how many different looks would you say you created for Michelle and Stephanie?

I should look at my continuity breakdown, 'cause it's been two years now. But I would say between the two of them, at least 40.

That's crazy. What was your timeframe like for making these really unique and amazing looks?

I had about a month and a half of prep before we started shooting. Which wasn't that much time, but fortunately, some of the bigger scenes — like the bagel universe and the movie star universe — we shot in like the last week of principal photography. So fortunately, while we were shooting in the IRS building, I was able to also prep all those scenes.

Was there a costume or a look in particular that you really had trouble nailing down at all?

There was a scene with Jobu, who performs Hara-kiri [ritual suicide by disembowelment with a sword, once practiced in Japan by samurai] on herself only to have candy come out of her instead of blood. We had a hard time doing it with practical effects, since the candy was lumpy, and it was hard to have it come out smoothly.

I think we could've managed to make it work, but it would've taken numerous takes, which with the lockdown happening, we ended up scrapping it. The Daniels ended up doing the scene in a fully animated sequence.

Were any of the outfits mentioned specifically in the script, or did the Daniels really just give you free reign to essentially design whatever you'd like?

No, some of them were in the script, like the Elvis costume. And same with the luchador look.

Then there were some that weren't in the script. They said they wanted something unique and interesting for Jobu, so we just discussed together, like, what are some interesting looks that she can do? And one of them was a K-pop star.

Another one is when Jobu falls on the stairs. We kind of collectively came up with this idea of, we called it "jumbled Jobu." Like all her clothes just got mixed in the dryer or something, and now she's wearing it. So that one, I kind of freehand draped it, using different pieces from her other costumes and just existing pieces out in the world, and draped it on a mannequin.

That look is so spectacular, and the K-pop one, that's the one with that Jeremy Scott teddy bear jacket, right?

Yeah. I just have things in my kit, and I happened to have that Jeremy Scott jacket. I mentioned to them, 'I have this jacket, which I think could be kind of cool,' and they loved the fact that from the side, you can see the teddy bear heads. They were like, 'Oh yeah, that would be great. Let's form an outfit based around that.'

There was the one scene where Evelyn dies, and then the credits roll. They just said they wanted something, because it's heavy scene, like maybe something a little bit more goth. So I suggested something like goth anime style, cause there's like the elegant Gothic Lolitas that like you see like in Harajuku and stuff. I wanted a look like that.

Were there any other costumes that you were really excited about that didn't make it in the film's final cut?

I don't think we cut too many looks, but there is a scene where [Jobu] is fighting Michelle, and I had this like Commes des Garçons jacket, and it had four sleeves. I put gloved hands in two of the sleeves, so that when she was fighting, the arms would swing around.

You see it, but it's so quick.I think you have to like, re-watch it. And I was like, "Oh, I wish we'd seen that."

Both of them had much more costumes scripted originally. In one scene that didn't make it into the final cut, they were at a baseball game. There was also a Wall Street banker look, and there was an Austrian mountainside musical look.

How did you visually put all of these costumes together ahead of time?

I didn't really sketch out that much. Maybe for like, the alpha jumpers, because I knew that those looks were going to be specific, and they kind of wanted it more of a dystopian vibe. A little more "Mad Max," so I ended up just getting military pieces and then reworking them into things for Alpha Waymond and the verse jumpers.

Did you have trouble sourcing any particular garments for the costumes?

The Elvis costume was pretty difficult, just because they exist, but some of them are just like terrible Halloween costumes. Building one from scratch would have just cost so much money and I knew that I probably needed at least doubles on it.

I did find one that was in a much bigger size. And so I just bought this nicer quality one and shrunk it down, so we were able to make it work.

That was that a little bit tricky. 'Cause I thought, "There's so many Elvis impersonators out there, I'm sure that there are nicer ones out in the world."

What was your least favorite look that you worked on? If you have one.

I don't know if I have one. Even the costumes in the regular taxes universe, they just seemed so suited to their character that that's why I like them. It's not something I would wear, or like even the actors. Like when Ke [Huy Quan, who plays Evelyn's husband Waymond] put on his polo shirt and khaki pants and fanny pack, he's like, "Oh my God, I would never wear this, but this is so perfect for Waymond."

Even Jenny Slate's outfit, I didn't like that outfit, but it was so perfect for her character.

I asked a friend, I was like, "If a woman walked in the store and she was kind of annoying, and kind of a Karen, what would you picture her wearing?" And he had said, "One of those like shirts with the cutouts, the cold shoulders." And I was like, "Yes, worn with like their workout leggings and some really bad wedge heels."

What was your favorite look that you worked on?

Probably Jobu's bagel universe costume. That surreal futuristic look that, that world.

It was great to be able to come up with something unique and from my imagination. Some of these other looks were more like straightforward — like the opera universe, I wanted to use like a real classical Chinese opera costume. But with some of Jobu's, it was great to just pull things from my imagination and create.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" is currently playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.