Joseph G. Aulisi’s costumes for the original Charlie’s Angels sparked a great deal of interest and praise and McG was eager to have him return for the sequel. "Joe makes the girls look so elegant and so lovely," he says. "Then when it’s time to make them look tough, he does it in spades. As a person he’s very low-key. There’s nothing flamboyant about his personality, but when you witness what his imagination gives rise to, it’s really quite extraordinary."
McG had some definite clothing ideas for some scenes, says Aulisi. For others, he placed his trust in his costume designer’s hands. "McG has this incredible vocabulary of every kind of possible pop-culture reference from the middle of the 20th century on. He draws on that, which inspires me to keep finding new places to go with it."
The Technicolor musicals of the 1950s are an inspiration for the film, filtered and updated through McG’s sensibilities. Although the Angels’ costumes vary wildly, depending on the particular undercover assignment, Aulisi gave each of them a distinctive look. "The look has evolved since the first film," he says. "Cameron’s character is still the ‘California, outdoorsy girl’ and, in general, totally into sportswear. Drew’s Dylan has lost some of her ‘flower child’ demeanor and has moved into a ‘rock star’ mode, while Lucy’s character remains the most international and cosmopolitan of the three girls. The challenge was to give the clothes a fresh look and still be faithful to what we call the ‘essence of Angels.’ To do this I switched the color palette slightly using a lot of red, white and black."
One of Aulisi’s favorite segments is the Mongolian Bar scene because "it was so different from the rest of the film. We probably fit about a hundred-and-fifty Mongolian extras along with the three Angels." Barrymore’s costume is probably the most correct Mongolian outfit. Liu’s costume evolved from research he did on Mongolian armor -- leather-coated plates of copper – that were transferred to a more practical all-leather outfit. In counterpoint, Diaz’s snow-bunny costume injected some humor into the Angels’ wardrobe.
As in Charlie’s Angels, the costumes in the new film are witty, playful and in some instances, ultra-sexy. "I tried to maintain an elegance," Aulisi says, "using more texture in this film, with pleating and lacing and other things to give the wardrobe more dimension. Since fashion changes from moment to moment, I find it’s better to go with classic shapes. I look at the first film now and it still looks fresh, not dated."
Motocross enthusiasts may notice that many of the racers are wearing Troy Lee Designs. Lee is the racing world’s premier designer and painter of custom helmets and riding gear. Lee designed and built the basic gear for the three Angels -- jerseys, pants and chest protectors. The boots were provided by Alpinestar, and Shoei provided the helmets onto which Lee painted the designs.
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