“Fantastic Beasts” Costume Designer Divulges Details on Colin Farrell’s Coat

When we first saw Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, many of us couldn’t take our eyes off his beautiful, stylish blue coat. But what about some of the other costumes in the film?

The Pottermore Correspondent has been providing regular updates on the making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and now the Correspondent has met with Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood to talk about the coat worn by Colin Farrell’s character, Graves.

Graves, a powerful Auror who must track down Newt’s beasts, appears in the trailer wearing a black coat while standing behind a wall that has been blasted apart.

Atwood describes how she designed the coat:

Graves is the ultimate wizard, so I wanted to take it to a level of [‘]20s elegance with a touch of glamour, of fantasy. So I took a coat, and I made it a little bit longer; I exaggerated the shoulders, and I shaped it a little bit more. Then I made it out of a spectacular piece of cashmere that just kind of moved and had a lot of light.

It also has a little bit of lurex in it, so it catches the light at night and almost looks wet, which I really think makes it stand out from other things. That’s where I was going with his character. And then I kind of edged his things so they were very graphic black and white too, in a way that made him special.

The Correspondent explains that lurex is “a fabric with glittering metallic thread weaved into it to give it a shimmering look.”

How do you think Graves’s coat compares to Newt Scamander’s? What other 1920s wizarding wear are you hoping to see in Fantastic Beasts?

Catherine Lai

I have been a fan of Harry since 2000, a fan of MuggleNet since 2005, and a MuggleNet team member since 2013. I believe in the power of stories to bring people together, and nothing does that quite like Harry Potter. I live in Toronto, Canada.