The Upside Down is coming for you. With less than a week until the highly anticipated return of Stranger Things, “Seven Stranger Days” takes you behind the scenes and inside the lives of your Hawkins favorites with insight from the cast, the crew and even the Duffer brothers. Check back daily to secure your spot in the Hellfire Club — this is one ticking clock you won’t want to run from.
It’s hard to dress a teenager, but it’s even harder when they need the perfect outfit to unexpectedly fight an undead sorcerer after school.
“They have to go fight. They have to go battle,” Stranger Things costume designer Amy Parris tells Tudum, reflecting on the unique activities of the Stranger kids. As for what’s on her mind when she’s coming up with their costumes? “I think logistically about what’s in their closet, at the bottom of the floor.”
Creating costumes for Season 4 was a true hero’s journey for Parris and her team, who first came on board back in Season 3. This time around, the action is set solidly in the chaotic fashion multiverse of 1986, and key members of the cast have moved to California — think bigger hair, brighter pastels and trendy teen aesthetics evolved well beyond what you’d see in the Midwest.
“There’s a lot more plaid and more autumn colors on the Hawkins people, so they stand out against the sun-bleached, bright colors of California,” Parris says. “Hawkins, Indiana, is a little more drab, a little bit more old-fashioned — in California, you see the surfer style and the skater style.”
Beyond adding a new location, this time around the show also welcomed several more central characters, which meant Parris and her team had to figure out how to dress more than a dozen teenagers, each with their own strong sense of style.
“I have a brilliant shopper, Caroline Hodge, who helps me procure all of this stuff,” Parris says. “We have a shorthand where she can show me something and I can immediately know ‘that’s Lucas’ or ‘that’s Max.’ ” But it’s not enough for each character to look good individually — this band of merry Demogorgon fighters also have to look good together, Parris explains. “I look at the [costumes] as a whole by tiling photos together. If anything is too much of one color, or too similar, I can adjust.”
Parris says Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer are always collaborative in the costuming process, adding input on what feels right for a group of cool teenagers on a steady track toward self-discovery, without making them look too slick — these are nerds, after all.
“The Duffer brothers are such great collaborators, and they often say what’s a little too cool,” Parris says. “I’m grateful [for that]... The audience likes to look at the clothes, and I want to give them something to look at, [but] there have been moments where [the Duffer brothers] will say, ‘Yeah, we like looking at it too, but it’s not believable enough.’”
When you’ve got plotlines venturing into otherworldly realms, it’s important for the clothes to stay authentic. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the fashion can’t also be truly iconic. As Parris tells Tudum, giving key characters their sartorial shine is her favorite part of the job — she even has a favorite Season 4 style moment. Hint: It involves an authentic vintage T-shirt.
On Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) style evolution... Eleven still does not know who she is. She’s still figuring herself out. Her style is weird... There's times where I was like, “This is so bizarre,” but I think that's the right feeling because she doesn't know where she's going. She’s confused, but she’s also clueless. She’d bought stuff with Max [in Season 3], but Max isn’t there with her [in Season 4] to help her accessorize and guide her in how she might want to dress, so she’s uneasy. The first outfit that Millie wore on set as Eleven [this season] was a “Strawberry Fields” shirt with teal sweatpants. When she walked on set, we were like, “How do you feel?” She’s like, “Well, I don’t really feel like myself, but I think that’s good.”
On seeing a new side of Robin, played by Maya Hawke... She was interesting, because we’ve really only seen her outside of Scoops Ahoy at the end of Season 3. Everything in this season is our chance to see who she really is. I felt like it was going to go into a little bit more alternative — not quite punky, but just more alternative fashion girl. But [the Duffer brothers and Hawke] were like, “No, she’s a sloppy teenager.” So we pulled back and accessorized her less, making her a little bit more casual and more akin to what she would have grabbed to run out of the house. She’s going to go fight monsters.
On Eddie (Joseph Quinn) and the vintage T-shirt ’80s dreams are made of... I love Eddie. I think Eddie feels so real. And he’s wearing one thing, because he’s in that outfit the whole time, so I really focused and zeroed in on making sure everything in that outfit was authentic. He’s a fan of wizard metal, he’s a fan of Dio. He’s a fan of Metallica. Actually, Dio was a popular band in the ’80s, and we reached out to the estate [of the late Ronnie James Dio to source a band shirt]. His wife is in charge of his estate and offered to send us vintage T-shirts, which was such a dream.
On Eleven’s scrunchie and suspenders times two... That was a fun collaboration with hair, because hair actually does all the scrunchies. Department head of hair Sarah Hindsgaul and I will talk about it ahead of time, and she’ll show me and say, “Here are my options,” and we’ll talk about what looks best. The crisscross suspenders [with the scrunchie] were so unique, it’s such an ’80s look. She also had blue suspenders [in another scene], and Shawn Levy, our executive producer, was like, “Are you sure you want to put her in suspenders twice?” And I was like, “Yeah, I do.”
On Steve’s (Joe Keery) Scoops Ahoy costume in Season 3... That was the first thing I designed for the show. When the Duffer brothers hired me, they were like, “We know that it’s a lot of the same returning characters, but we have two characters that are going to work at the Scoops Ahoy ice cream.” They were [actually] going to have Scoops Ahoy look more like pirates, but it became a little bit too close to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Luckily, they stopped me before I designed a pirate outfit.
On Eleven’s legendary Season 3 jumpsuit... I’ve heard there was a fan debate online about whether or not it was an original vintage piece. I guess some people thought it was a recreation, but it’s 100% real vintage. It’s a one-off — we didn’t have multiples of that. We got really lucky, because you often need [multiples], especially for kids and stunts in water and whatever else she got into that season. But there’s only one. I’ve looked everywhere. It might have been dead stock and made its way into a costume house. But right now, it’s in Eleven’s closet.
