The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Costume Designer Mona May’s credits include the costumes for “Clueless,” which were not only a highlight of the film but also had a major influence on the fashion world, as well as “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” and “Stuart Little 2,” for Rob Minkoff. “I dressed the mouse,” Mona recalls, “and that was an interesting prelude to this film because the mouse doesn’t really exist. It’s only a digital character. So already I was familiar with designing for a phantom.”

Ultimately, the project would require her to design a variety of costumes that encompassed such a broad timeline; it was similar to designing four or five different films concurrently. In addition to creating the wardrobe for the film’s modern day “human” characters, Mona also needed to dress eighteenthcentury Mardi Gras masquerade ball guests and ghosts spanning multiple geographical regions and historical periods, not to mention a small army of flesh-hungry zombies and other cinematic surprises.

Mona had to figure out how to redress her creepy cast while remaining true to the source material. Additionally, according to the “ghost logic” the team was slowly developing for the film, the physical appearance of the ghosts would change depending on whether they were inside the mansion, out in the graveyard, or, in the case of the zombies that Jim Evers and his kids encounter in the ground, a coffin, or the water.

“All sorts of questions were put on the table regarding the ghosts,” recalls May. “How much of the ghosts do we see? How white are their faces? How real are their clothes? Would they have fuzz around them? Would they have a glow? As we worked on our sketches, we kept getting closer and closer to the answers.”

May drew her inspiration from scores of films, art books, historical texts, print ads, and fashion photography. Completely open-minded to all sources, she looked at the floating movements of sea anemones and the glowing, incorporeal feel of semitransparent deep-sea creatures. She also took visual cues from the edgy “Goth” look and from an ethereal and vaguely otherworldly style in fashion that had started appearing as the movie commenced production. “Ripped, ghostly, textury stuff was starting to become very ‘in’ when I began my designs, which was quite interesting,” Mona says with a laugh. “We were obviously in vibe with the trendsetters.” The result was an eclectic collection of costumes complemented by equally bold hair and make-up designs, helping to create what is perhaps the most sophisticated assortment of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins ever captured on film.

It was important to Rob Minkoff that his ghosts look distinctly different from the other apparitions seen in countless films over the years, and May would play a crucial role in developing that look. One of the ways in which her costumes helped make their ghosts unique was their shimmering, iridescent quality.

“We used tiny spherical mirrors—basically the same thing you see in freeway signs,” Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Redd recalls. “The light that goes toward the tiny mirror comes right back to the source. We covered the costumes with these reflective ‘beads’ and mounted a light on the camera, right at the lens level, so that the reflection came right back at the lens, and it created a very beautiful, glowing effect.”

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