Colleen Atwood immediately envisioned how she would approach the costumes for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, aiming to stay true to the original 1988 film while infusing her unique touch into the design.
Her goal was to ensure the characters remained faithful to their 1988 counterparts, despite the 36-year gap. Fans might be on the lookout for nods to the original film, but Atwood’s costumes offer few direct references.
While there are certainly some callbacks to the original movie due to the continuity of characters and storyline, Atwood reveals that her primary references were Beetlejuice’s iconic suit and a few other recognizable outfits.
“I decided to take some creative liberties after keeping those main references,” she explains about her approach to the costumes.
Atwood identifies one clear Easter egg in the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice costumes: a top hat worn by Catherine O’Hara’s Delia Deetz.
In the film, Jeffrey Jones’ character Charles Deetz dies during a bird-watching trip (the actor does not appear in the movie), and his family’s mourning leads to a funeral scene. Fans may spot a familiar piece of attire during this sequence.
“The one true Easter egg from the original film is Catherine’s top hat worn at the funeral,” Atwood discloses. “We decided to use the hat from the first movie as it perfectly fit the scene.”
In the original Beetlejuice, Delia sports the hat in the latter part of the film, paired with a gray outfit and accentuated with red and black tulle, creating a striking look as the climax approaches.
Another hat appears in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice during a dream sequence featuring Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega at Dracula’s castle. The wide-brim black hat Ryder wears closely resembles the one her teenage character Lydia wore in the first film.
Atwood clarifies that this similarity was not by chance but due to Ryder’s personal touch. The hat she wears in the scene was actually her own, not provided by Atwood.
“It’s amusing because the hat Ryder wears, which is essentially a personal visor she uses to shield from the sun, ended up in the scene by happenstance,” Atwood shares. “We were filming on a rare sunny day in England and needed a hat. We used her personal visor, which added a quirky, touristy element to the scene, making it a fortuitous addition.”