‘Wednesday’ Season 2 costumes explained, Colleen Atwood interview

Since their 1964 screen debut, the Addams Family have been the definition of creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky. Now, though, the clan’s eldest child, Wednesday, is bringing a more mature edge to her previously colorless world… with a little help from some behind the scenes friends.

Since its 2022 debut, the Emmy-winning Netflix series Wednesday has followed Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega), as she navigates life at Nevermore Academy, where she tackles dark mysteries and learns to control her emerging psychic abilities. Though her wardrobe is a parade of black, the deadpan master of dark humor always commands the screen with killer fashion. And in Season 2, showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, director Tim Burton, and costume designers Colleen Atwood and Mark Sutherland decided that the show’s clothes should mature along with the person wearing them.

“Going from Season 1 to Season 2, the students were maturing, so we tried to grow with them as characters,” notes Sutherland, whose list of credits include the James Bond installments Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. “We have all the different werewolves and gorgons and vampires, and they grow, so we add different elements to them. We had the varsity jacket this season, which was great because that could identify the different houses and we used them as packs for the werewolves. It’s continually evolving for all the characters.”

Taking a break from the production of Season 3 — which Atwood and Sutherland tease will be more sophisticated — the duo explain how they begin each season by looking at the scripts, and then collaborating with the cast to start creating an overall vibe.

“We talk to Jenna about what she’s thinking and where she thinks she’s going with it, and we weigh in,” says Atwood, a four-time Oscar winner who became a Disney Legend in 2024. “Most of the costume feedback really comes from Tim because it’s his visual creation. In Season 2, he wanted to get them out of the school a little bit more, and have a little more of the world. That gave us the ability to put them in this world of style a little bit differently.”

To build each season’s looks, the designers mix vintage finds, street style, and high-end pieces with custom creations of their own. Although Season 2 earned an Emmy nod for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes — the same category it won in its freshman year — Atwood and Sutherland frequently mix eras to give the wardrobe a timeless quality.  

“Morticia is very ‘30s. Hester is very late ‘50s. Everybody’s got a thing,” explains Atwood. “Just like people today on the street, you see people that look like they came from 20 years ago, people that look like today, and people that look like tomorrow. That was the idea in creating that Addams Family world; it’s a world where there is no time.”

Sutherland adds that this explains why Jericho’s townspeople don’t belong to a single ear. “There’s a blend of all the different periods, so when you look at the bigger picture of the crowd and the town, you can’t really tell where it belongs.”

To show character growth as the seasons progress, Atwood and Sutherland evolved the existing school uniforms rather than redesigning them from scratch. While the students of Nevermore Academy had varsity jackets in Season 2, Wednesday changed things up with a Sherlock Holmes-inspired coat… with a twist.

“I just locked into that because I knew it would go over her uniform,” confesses Atwood. “I liked the idea of the capelet, just to change it up a little bit from a normal coat. The little checks were inspired by Sherlock Holmes. With her current costume, the linings are checked, so it was consistent with the pattern and color that she already had in her costumes.”

Nevermore Academy’s elaborate Venetian Masquerade stole the spotlight as Season 2’s stand-out costume moment. Collaborating with the hair and makeup departments, they were able to work together to take everything to another level and really make it memorable. Operatic, theatrical, and packed with nearly 400 costumes, the epic event delivered defining moments for Wednesday, Enid, Pugsley, and Morticia.

Dressed in her signature black, Wednesday made an iconic statement with a sheer mask and thin silk bobinette dress. “It gave her a vulnerability in that huge social situation,” Atwood explains about the delicate creation. “She’s a reluctant partygoer. I wanted to feel like I could see her skin through the costume a little bit, to make it feel a little rawer for her. That was the mindset for that, in lightening it up.”

And as chair of the extravagant gala, Morticia needed a costume that honored her flair for the dramatic. Her final look highlighted her signature form-fitting silhouette, leaning into a gothic aesthetic with a layered exoskeleton.

“I thought it would be great if her dress was a piece of art that she was wearing.” Atwood says. “Instead of jewelry, she had the cage, which harkened to the 18th century, but was a really contemporary art piece look that only she could pull off. And then, she could sell the cage later to charity.”

At the gala, Enid and Agnes steal the show with a captivating dance set to Lady Gaga’s “The Dead Dance.” To perform in their gala gowns, the designers needed alternate costumes that allowed them to move, dance, and do stunts while still being able to breathe.

“There were also a lot of elements within that dance, like lifts and being turned upside down, so we made quite a few variations of those costumes,” Sutherland says. “One was a hard costume that was very structured. And then, we made it more movable, so that there was a little bit more stretch and give in it for the girls to dance. With Agnes, she had this huge crane on her green dress. There were a lot of elements to consider.”

Even Pugsley joined the gala fun, with a bold black and white spin on a vintage jester piece the designers found at a costume house in Italy. “Each single piece of fabric was stitched by hand,” says Sutherland. “There were hundreds of pieces of fabric all stitched together for that costume. We photographed it in black and white, so we could figure out all the different tones. Obviously, there’s black and white, but there’s gray and there are some monochromatic colors within it. We wanted it to pick up light as well, and to have other elements within it.”

Designing for Wednesday means making all-black looks feel fresh, distinct, and endlessly inventive, season after season. It’s a unique challenge, but the wardrobe department loves finding new ways to shake it up.  

“We use different textures and different weights of fabric,” notes Atwood. “It’s nice to get fabric that can move in the light because it changes. It’s not just one color, it’s other colors. It’s black, but you get reflections off of stuff. I love black, so I don’t have a problem with it. You can juxtaposition it. You can put grey next to it. You can play with it. We can layer it up with a lighter color underneath. It’s about finding new ways to play with black and white and grey, and that world of non-color color.”

Season 3 of Wednesday will send the mistress of woe to Paris for her next round of misadventures. While plot details remain under wraps, Atwood and Sutherland emphasize that the wardrobe will continue to evolve alongside the story. “The maturity of the show and of the characters is evolving as time goes by, in a very natural way,” Sutherland says. “It’s really great.”

“In the same sense that the characters from Season 1 to Season 2 have evolved, the characters from Season 2 to Season 3 have evolved and their world has opened up a little bit more,” echoes Atwood. “Other than that, I don’t think we’re supposed to really say anything.”

Gallery: An exclusive look inside
Wednesday‘s costume closet