Isis Mussenden, the costume designer for the “Chronicles of Narnia” film franchise, says that she has a very interesting game she plays when she goes to the movies. “If I’ve read a script that I don’t do (the costumes), I like to go to the movie to see what someone else did with it,” she said. “No matter who does the movie, it will always look different (than I imagined).
Mussenden Relates to Things Visually
Mussenden, who flew back to the United States from the set of “Prince Caspian” in Prague to unveil some “Narnia” costumes at the San Diego Comic-Con last summer, said she definitely relates to everything visually. “If I hear a name, I don’t really note it. If I write it and look at it, I’ll remember it. It’s always visual; every aspect of my life, everything I relate to is some kind of visual.”
Her visual nature served Mussenden well on films such as the first two “Shrek” movies, which involved creating computer-generated clothing for the characters. “It’s really the study of movement. When we started CG animation back on ‘Shrek,’ the clothing was animated based on the body below it, so tight to the skin that we didn’t animate the clothing.
“But now, 10 years later with the advances of CG animation, now we are actually animating all the clothes; the clothes have their own software. They’ve programmed into it where it wrinkles, why it moves,” she said.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” Uses Practical Costumes Combined With CGI
Prince Caspian,” the follow-up to the popular 2005 adventure “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” is set one year after the events of the first movie. The four Pevensie children (Susan, Peter, Edmund and Lucy) find their way back to Narnia only to discover that the peaceful land they left behind has been overrun by an invading Telmarine army.
By using CGI, the Telmarine army is 5,000 members strong, but Mussenden still had to oversee the creation of 330 practical costumes for the soldiers. “Every piece of armor they wear, from their boots that were made in Italy to their helmets that were pounded out in Prague, were made by us,” she said.
“Costume Designing is About Telling a Story”
Mussenden, who grew up in Hollywood as the only girl among 5 children, said her mother taught her to sew at age 9. “We would pick a picture out of a magazine, make a pattern and go fabric shopping on the weekend,” she said.
Since she grew up in Hollywood, her combined love of making clothing and the movies led to her future career choice. “I always wanted to make costumes and by the time I was 14, I knew that was what I was going to do. I was going to be a costume designer, but I didn’t even know what it was,” Mussenden said.
“I didn’t do fashion because I love a story. Costume design is about telling a story; it’s not about fashion and pretty pictures and pretty clothes. It can be pretty clothes, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about telling a story and it has a beginning, a middle and an end,” she said.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” rated PG for epic battle action and violence, opens nationwide on Friday, May 16.
