Exclusive Interview With Caroline B. Marx, Costume Designer for HSM3

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Caroline B. Marx, acclaimed costume designer for the recent hit film, High School Musical 3! Caroline was gracious enough to chat with me about her concepts behind the various characters, where you can get their clothes, and even what’s hot for spring and prom season! This first post covers the film. Stay tuned tomorrow for the second portion with upcoming fashion tips and more specifics about each character!

I started out by asking Caroline about her process for figuring out costumes for a film.

“Basically my job is to create the overall look of the film, and then start delving into each specific character,” she said. “The one thing I think you’ll really notice in High School Musical 3 is that we really made the big screen version of it. There’s definite character definition and everyone has their own individual personality.

“It was kind of a combination of speaking to Kenny Ortega and seeing what his vision was for the overall look for the film, then I brought my ideas to the table as to how I saw each character. Then I talked to the actors, which was really, really important for this film because they’ve been playing these characters for years so I wanted to make sure that we were really true to the character and be true to the fans. So what I tried to do was enhance them and give them more definition. And with this one I feel we brought a strong fashion element to it.”

I was curious to know if Caroline designed the costumes or purchased them.

“It was a combination of both. All of the basketball uniforms, cheerleaders, and the warm-ups, those I designed all of them. I gave them more of a fashion flare, you’ll notice the puff sleeves in the cheerleading stripes, and the cool stripe that just goes down the one side of the back of the skirt, which also translates into the basketball uniforms so that they’re a little more fashion forward. They were all made for fit, so the guys would look sexy, and for flow for dance. Also for color and for lighting, so when they jump and move the light can catch.

“The prom dresses were all designed by me as well, and you can just look at a dress and say ‘oh obviously that’s Gabriella’s’ – very ethereal and flows and feathers and the little flowers. Sharpay’s is like “boom” you know that’s her. The fuchsia was a lot more fashion forward than the bubble gum pink she’d been wearing previously. We took that color right off the runway. It’s got Swarovski crystals on it and feathers all over it, so you can really see that and it’s very fashion forward. With Monique’s prom dress, she’s still got that brainiac feel and conservative edge, it’s very fifties inspired. I put her in a lot of little men’s ties, so you even see on her prom dress that she’s wearing that. It’s cute but you know it’s definitely Monique’s. You see that with Olesya’s, she’s the belle of the ball, a primo ballerina, so we went with that.”

“And the dates matched. Lucas Gabreel was like Fred Estaire. His pants were really short; you can see his black socks underneath. I gave him a cane and I also gave him a bowler hat. Bowler hats are going off in Spain right now, it’s a huge trend, so that’s where we got that. Chad’s character – he’s matching and wearing a white tux with the black piping and on the back it’s still got this little jock edge to go with his personality – with Danford 08 in purple to match Monique’s dress. Zac’s colors matched, very classic and clean. Very fitted with the skinny tie, which is really kind of cool.”

I asked Caroline if it was easier to expand on the existing characters or design for the new ones.

“The thing is that you want to make every single person different. It’s interesting. Normally when I go into a film they don’t exist. I’m the one who comes up with the idea. I do research and kind of look into their character, their personality, where they came from. With the new characters it was definitely like that. In Jimmy, to me, the youngest, hippest kids out have the Emo vibe with the skater mixed in. I chose really cool, up and coming designers like Fyasko and Space Craft with Draven and Vans shoes. That’s what the younger, skater/surfer kids are wearing! With Jemma, I kind of gave her an English school girl look. Really cute and conservative jumpers and blazers. We used a lot of Rugby and Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, argyle sweaters, stuff like that. At the end, in the extended version, you’ll see her in a full blown English riding costume.

“What I tried to do was hone the characters, have them have a little more sense of self and make them like real high school seniors! And they didn’t want to wear little kid clothes either! They’re teenagers, and also they’re very aware that kids are looking up to them, and they wanted to be cool.

“We really did a lot of research in order to obtain all these looks. I felt we did a pretty good job in achieving it.”

Images Credited to Click Communications