Queens and servants – Style – Kommersant

Red is death, blue is power, green is obedience: Kommersant Style is about the secret fashion code of Gilead and how it has been transformed in the new season. Attention, spoilers are possible.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a free-form adaptation of the scandalous dystopian novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (she sold the rights to the film long before filming began, and the other day she was banned from entering the Russian Federation) and one of the most popular series of recent years. He received eight Emmy awards and two Golden Globes, separate awards were awarded to the lead actress Elisabeth Moss. The series takes place in the fictional religious state of Gilead, where fanatical totalitarianism reigns, and women are considered people of the lower class: they are forbidden to read and own property, as well as to appear on the street without a male escort. Fertile women (there are only a few of them in the world of Gilead) are forced to bear children for representatives of high society. Each new episode of The Handmaid’s Tale keeps you in suspense, tickles your nerves and surprises with a famously twisted plot.

The key theme of the fifth season that has just ended is the confrontation between the two main characters: ladies from high society Serena Joy Waterford and her already former maid June Osborne. According to show director Bruce Miller, their relationship is a classic love-hate relationship, an explosive mixture of hatred and compassion for each other. June kills Serena’s husband (and her tormentor) Fred, but the widow refuses revenge. And June, in turn, spares Serena, although in the new season she is given plenty of opportunities to end her former mistress. Apotheosis – an absolutely biblical scene when June in the barn takes birth from Serena.

In the fifth season, June finally breaks out of the totalitarian Gilead, gains freedom and takes off her hated maid uniform – a red cloak and a white bonnet. “It was important for me to show that she had returned to her old life, but at the same time she became stronger and tougher,” explains Leslie Kavanagh, director of costumes for the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Jun’s looks include masculine-style jackets, military-style coats and jackets, high boots, and this style corresponds to her determined inner mood: to level Gilead and rescue her daughter Hannah from there. In addition, Elisabeth Moss (playing June and one of the directors of the series) insisted that her character would never wear red again. In cinema, this color is associated with passion, but in the world of Gilead it symbolizes suffering.

The most impressive image of Serena is her outfit at her husband’s funeral. According to Kavanagh, the heroine had to look both beautiful and frightening: “On the one hand, she is a pregnant widow, elegant and sad. On the other hand, she carries the heir of the commander under her heart and wants power. Yvonne Strahovski (who played Serena) was gorgeous in a black cashmere dress, floor-length chiffon veil, leather gloves and a dark green velvet cape – Kavanagh admits that she literally fell in love with this fabric and definitely wanted to use it. At the same time, in ordinary life, after the funeral, Serena begins to dress unusually modestly – this emphasizes her loneliness, her uncertain status in society and her mental turmoil due to pregnancy.

The funeral scene for Fred Waterford as a whole was the most difficult for the costumers of the entire season – and possibly the entire series. More than 500 characters from all the castes of Gilead appeared in the frame at the same time: marthas, maids, wives, commanders. “30 costume designers worked on this scene – it was important to convey the uniqueness of each character and their common image as a crowd.” In Gilead, everyone must wear certain colors, this rule does not change from season to season. Handmaids (fertile women whose purpose is to give birth) wear red – a symbol of fertility. The wives of commanders, ladies from high society, dress in all shades of blue, by analogy with the cover of the Virgin Mary – it denotes purity and impregnability. The color of the marf (service personnel) is green, similar to the military uniform. And eco-men, the lowest caste, naturally wear dirty gray.

Season 5 added a new color to Gilead’s palette: purple. It is in him that June sees his stolen daughter Hannah on TV. And when he learns what it means to belong to the “purple”, he is horrified: these are teenage girls who are diligently prepared in Gilead for imminent marriage. As planned by Kavanagh, their images rhyme with the outfits of the commander’s wives: silhouettes in the style of the 1950s, hats, cropped jackets, ankle boots.

Kavanagh admits that her biggest challenge was not only to bring something new to the characters, but also to preserve the invaluable work done by the previous team, especially the first costume designer Anne Crabtree. Therefore, traditions are preserved: only natural fabrics (many of them are hand-dyed), every detail is thought out to the smallest detail – for example, not a single fastener or button should be visible in the costumes of the inhabitants of Gilead.

The next season of The Handmaid’s Tale will be released at the end of 2023 and will be the final one. In it, fans will definitely see the characters in unusual images and unusual circumstances, because the last episode ended with the flight of June, Serena and their children to Alaska.

Natalia Smolyaninova