The cast of Stranger Things may look effortless in their looks, but so much attention goes into the actors’ tresses and outfits, thanks to costume designer Amy Parris and hair director Sarah Hindsgaul.
The duo exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about the thought process — and hidden details — that went into the characters, and even debunked some rumors ahead of the show’s Volume 2 episode release on Thursday, December 25.
“I think the hardest [look to design] for me in season five was Max in that cave,” Parris told Us. “The cave look was a mix of a lot of different pieces that she’s found. A story to figure out [is] where she’s come from and what she’s found in the in-between of what we don’t see as a viewer, knowing she’s been searching Henry’s mind for a long time.”
The costume designer explained that Max (Sadie Sink) “picked up” items from characters that she met throughout Henry’s memories, “so [her wardrobe] should feel like it’s a boy’s shirt over a woman’s blouse with some jeans from a dude and maybe some boots from Joyce [Winona Ryder].” Parris played with the idea of Max wearing the exact boots that Joyce was wearing in a throwback memory, sharing, “The boots are actually very similar to the boots that Joyce is wearing [in] that really quick 1950s scene. Those could have been her boots, right?”
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While hiding from Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the cave, Max patched up a number of her clothes with pieces of the villain’s closet, which Parris gushed to Us she was proud of.
“It’s kind of hard to notice [but the] patches on her jeans are actually fabrics from young Henry’s closet,” Parris told Us of the Easter egg. “If she’s going through his memories, she is going deep. She goes back to the young moments around the time that they’re at the Creel’s house. “
The exact item that Max pulled from was a brown plaid shirt that Henry wore while growing up. “She knows he can’t wear this anymore. It’s too small for him, and then she repurposes it as patches to fill or to fix her jeans,” Parris said. “That’s a little one that I don’t think anyone’s noticed yet.”
Because Max is living in a cave, Parris relied on Tide to help keep Sink’s clothes feeling and smelling fresh while looking distressed. “I have to make it look dirty, but keep it clean, which is why working with Tide was so helpful, because their liquid formula really helps clean clothes for an actor,” she said, gushing about her partnership with the brand. “It’s nice and fresh and it smells good. It keeps clothes that you want bright to stay brighter, but when you want them dingy.”
Another character who wasn’t in their usual clothes this season is Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo). “Dustin became dark this season because he’s mourning his best friend Eddie [Joseph Quinn],” Parris shared, noting that even his sneakers “went from white Reeboks to black Reeboks.” Another detail of Dustin’s look that viewers may have missed is that he wears “rings like Eddie had.” Parris even made sure that his Hellfire shirt went from new and crisp to “worn in and faded” to show that he’s been wearing it since Eddie died in the Upside Down.
When it came to the characters’ hair, Hindsgaul told Us that the character who took the most planning this season was Will Byers (Noah Schnapp). “I started that really early because we knew he was gonna have a story arc this year,” Hindsgaul told Us. Will famously has sported a bowl cut through the seasons, but this time around, Hindsgaul wanted him to show he was “moving through all these emotions.”
Many fans were surprised to learn that Sink, 23, was wearing a wig while filming because her hair perfectly matched her natural strands. Hindsgaul explained that while they were filming, Sink actually had a shaggy mullet for her character in O’Dessa. She shared that the wig was hard to pull off for Sink, as well as Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), because she was “matching their own hair.”
“You’ve looked at these characters since you were really young, so you’re like, ‘I know exactly what they look like,’” Hindsgaul said. “You’ve seen them in interviews. You know how their hair moves. You know how much curl there [is] in it.” She continued, “For this show, it’s always a little bit nerve-racking, because the fans will get very upset if I don’t nail it. [A wig] has to be perfect, otherwise they know straight away.”
One of Hindsgaul’s most impressive hairstyles throughout the series was when she created Millie Bobby Brown’s shaved head wig that she wore in season 4 while playing Eleven.
“When we did it, nobody had done it before,” Hindsgaul recalled. “Everybody was like, ‘That’s impossible. It cannot be done.’ And I was like, ‘I think we can do it.’”
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“I was lucky enough that [writers and directors] Matt and Ross [Duffer] gave me a little bit of money so we could develop one wig.” The brothers warned Hindsgaul, “If there’s anything wrong with it at all, we’re not going to do it, because it’s going to take people out of the story line.” Hindsgaul was able to make Brown’s hair as flat as possible underneath the wig so that the actress didn’t have to shave her head (again) while filming.
One rumor Hindsgaul debunked for Us is that Nancy’s shaggy season 5 hair was not a nod to Eddie’s mane, despite the similarities.
“It is a similar haircut that was like the most used haircut of that time,” Hindsgaul confessed, sharing that “Eddie’s is much more rock and roll.”
“Nancy’s was layered to some kind of extent,” she explained. “It’s more in the details. It’s how you style it. Nancy’s is soft and bouncy while Eddie’s [was] gritty and manly.”
Fans can watch Volume 2 of Stranger Things on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET.
