DUNE: PROPHECY Costume Designer Talks Creating Fashion Like We’ve Never Seen Before

HBO Max’s Dune: Prophecy takes us into the world of Dune like we’ve never seen it before. Building on the epic cinematic universe created by Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Prophecy occupies a truly unique position. The series takes place 10,000 years before the movies, essentially making it a Dune period piece, but, of course, is also set well in the future when compared to our present day. This remarkable placement on the timeline allowed Dune: Prophecy to build a gorgeous reality that’s like nothing we’ve seen before—from the ground up. And, so, it’s no surprise that Dune: Prophecy is nominated for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes at this year’s Emmy awards, along with nomations for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More), Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie, and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. HBO Max

In celebration of this acknowledgment, we took a deep dive into the extraordinary costumes of the show with the woman who made it all possible, Dune: Prophecy‘s costume designer, Bojana Nikitović.

Nerdist: In Dune: Prophecy, the Sisterhood and its members are the stars of the series, of course. But they already had a very iconic look from the Dune movies that Denis Villeneuve established. How did you go about translating that established costume for Dune: Prophecy, which takes place so far before the movies, and work to make it both novel and familiar?

Bojana Nikitović: The Dune movies were a huge success, and visually, they were so interesting and brilliantly done, and the look of Bene Gesserit and the Sisterhood, in a way, was established. The good thing for us is that our story in Dune: Prophecy not only takes place 10,000 years before the story of the movies, which is an amount of time that we cannot even imagine, but it’s far in the future from where we are now in our lives. Our story is also deeply connected to the Sisterhood itself, with how it started, how it was built, and that was the most important thing for us to create.

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And in a way, we were able to set the iconic look for the whole Sisterhood in Dune: Prophecy. When Valya Harkonnen comes to the Sisterhood as a young woman, it’s ruled by Raquella—and we see how that goes. As a young girl, Valya is very ambitious, and when she takes over the Sisterhood, she’s making changes. And we see that in the first episode, which jumps 30 years later, and we see visually what she did in that period.

We decided that we’d have all the sisters dressed in black in the beginning, when Raquella was leading the Sisterhood, then, when Valya takes over, in this 30-year period, it’s obvious that she upgraded the whole thing. And we have different ages and levels of girls there. We have novices, acolytes, and Reverend Mothers, and we decided to allow them to wear not only black, but also to put on some different light gray and gray outfits and costumes into the world of Dune: Prophecy, and keep the black for Reverend Mothers.

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We worked a lot on the silhouette of the outfits, and I don’t know whether many people noticed, but actually, they’re wearing kind of a jumpsuit in Dune: Prophecy‘s Sisterhood. So in the front, they’re wearing trousers, loose trousers, and it looks like it’s a dress from the back, but it’s trousers. And I must say the actresses really liked that because it gave them more freedom and flexibility.

They could move in a more relaxed way. They could sit. They could move their legs and cross them in different ways. And the cast, they really liked that when they came for fittings. We also put in side pockets to make it even more relaxed, to show that they feel good there, and they’re in a place that they want to be. Dune: Prophecy star Emily Watson herself especially liked the pockets in the costumes, and she used them a lot, and Olivia Williams did too; they both really liked to say, “Let’s use them.” When you put your hands in your pocket, sometimes it gives this feeling that you look relaxed, but also strong in a way.

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We also had Truthsayers in Dune: Prophecy, which we see a lot in the movies. And we definitely wanted to make a look that is based on the book, as well as the films. But our type of Truthsayers are a bit different, because we are in the past. There, we worked a lot on their veils; the veils are so important to the whole story. They have this laser-cut pattern that we glued on very thin silk, and it was really important that that pattern is there as a kind of barrier between them and the world, and it gives them that mysterious look.

But at the same time, we could completely see their faces and every blink of the eye. And we really wanted to be able to see that. I remember during one of the camera tests, Dune: Prophecy‘s Director of Photography, Pierre Gill, and Anna Foerster, who was directing the first episode, wanted to try to put the camera at a certain angle so that we could see the reflection of the pattern on the veil in the eye. And I think that they managed it, and they put it in the series. So the veil was really important for the Truthsayers and the Sisterhood itself.

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Then, of course, we also added many details like that buckle that they have on the Sisterhood outfit. The buckle takes the shape of a sort of infinity sign in the form of a strange animal that is chasing its tail. And on Valya Harkonnen, of course, as a Mother Superior, we added more details, some metal details, more embossing, and a more elaborate cape, among other features.

Did you add any personal flair to the costumes of the different sisters in the Sisterhood? Or were the costumes overall uniform in Dune: Prophecy? To me, Sister Francesca seemed to jump out from the rest with a more elaborate outfit.

Nikitović: In the Sisterhood, we mostly tried to keep the outfits the same within ranks; it’s a kind of uniform. They’re wearing a uniform. But with Francesca, it was so important that her arrival on Dune: Prophecy is explosive. She’s the big love of Emperor Corrino. And since Francesca is not living in Wallach IX with the Sisterhood, and she’s a kind of an ambassador, let’s say, or an undercover person when she’s away, she looks a bit different.

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But then, in a way, she’s dressed specially for the arrival when we first meet her on Dune: Prophecy, and that’s why we gave her the headpiece that is kind of similar to the one that Valya is wearing. And we added some of the embossing details and the like to show that she’s really dressed for the occasion. She’s dressed because she has a very important thing to do once she comes to Salusa Secundus.

It felt like there were three big groups of characters in Dune: Prophecy: The royalty, the rebels, and the Sisterhood. What would you say were your big style principles for each one of those groups?

Nikitović: Yeah, the groups were interesting. The biggest one was the Sisterhood, and, as we discussed, that was a really important look to resolve. And then to get the quantity of fabric that we needed, which was astounding, was a feat. We bought thousands and thousands of meters.

Then we have, as you say, the rebels of Dune: Prophecy and their costumes, and we have all these scenes in a spice den that featured these figures. There were some interesting characters there, and it’s fun to work on characters like that.

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And the last big group are the Corrinos themselves and the nobles in the Landsraad. And for those Dune: Prophecy groups, we tried to make very specific color palettes for each costume, for each group, for each family. The Corrinos represent royalty, tradition, power, and elegance in Dune: Prophecy. It’s almost like any real royal family today. They have an ancestral tradition, and we wanted to show that. So for the Corrinos, we went with different tones of blue, burgundy, pomegranate, red, and gold. We wanted to highlight that they are the royal family, a powerful family.

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Then, in the first episode of Dune: Prophecy, we have the Richeses, a family who are nouveau riche. They have money, they are very powerful, Duke Richese is very powerful, but we wanted to show that he doesn’t have the class that Corrino family has. And the whole family is a little bit over the top.

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In the Landsraad, we had different families, and we tried to find a different look for each of those families, like a specific tone. And it was really fun. And the interesting thing with projects like this is that you are building things from the true beginning, from scratch. We started from zero. It’s something that you truly cannot rent or buy. It really has to be made, but the fun is bigger when it’s like that.

Costumes create a setting and build atmosphere, but they also can, as we touched on, tell a big part of the story. What do you think your most narrative costume piece was, and what story do you think it told in Dune: Prophecy?

Nikitović: I think it would be a red dress for Ynez because it was really important for me and the whole team to make it in a certain way to be not only decorative and beautiful, but also to tell the story of that dress and of the women in that family. We see Ynez’s mother in the portrait that we have in the set design, we see her in that red dress. So the dress is important in Dune: Prophecy, it’s a part of the heritage that Natalya is bringing and giving to Ynez.

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At the same time, it also shows the history of arranged marriages that runs in this kind of family in the world of Dune: Prophecy. And again, Ynez is there because of something more important than her freedom and her future. She has to go through with the engagement and marriage for her family.

So I always wanted the feeling that the red wedding dress is kind of almost a net or something that she’s trapped in, and she wants to get out of it. But the net is around her. And that continues with the veil that she’s wearing and the headpiece. They are very beautiful and decorative, but in a way, they create this golden cage. So yes, building that red dress for us was critical. We built that red wedding dress from the ground up, and even made the fabric for it by putting one layer of laser-cut fabric on the top of the other and creating something that was entirely our design. And that costume was really important for the whole story of Dune: Prophecy.

That dress is amazing. And, of course, no one could have missed it. But what is one costume or accessory that may be more subtle that you’d like fans to look out for when they rewatch Dune: Prophecy?

Nikitović: Me, personally, I really like the costumes that Javicco Corrino is wearing. I love the embossing on his jackets. I’m proud of the way we made it because we had many tests before we came to the solution and made it work. Every detail on his costumes is really connected with the Corrino family. All the embossing that he has on his coats, the design for them comes from the Corrino crest that we also made. My assistant created the Corrino crest, and then we used that inspiration from there.

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If somebody has enough time and interest to go through all the details on Javicco Corrino’s costume, they’ll find it comes from the crest. For example, he has the Corrino Crest on his collar. Then he has this embossing on his outfits that depicts elaborated details from Corrino’s family crest. And then he has a belt sash and a belt, and on the belt we took care to add details from the crest, but also it carries his rank. He’s like a marshal or the highest strength one can be.

The other soldiers that we see in the Dune: Prophecy series are wearing similar belts as part of their costumes, and they have different insignia on the belts. Probably only we know that they have insignias there, but now if you look, you can see them too. And if they have two dots or three dots, that signifies a lower or higher rank. We had a whole board with ranks, who is what, and that’s what we created. And we were dressing extras, we said, “Okay, he is of a certain age, we can give him a higher rank.” That’s the fun in doing these things.

Costuming by design is meant to look effortless when it’s complete. But what was the trickiest costume that you put together for Dune: Prophecy?

Nikitović: The Truthsayers were difficult to make work. The drawing we originally made for the costume, we were happy with it. And when we started to build it, we found the most fantastic fabric for it, and we bought the quantity we needed. But then it turns out that on a camera test, it started to create like an optical illusion when it was filmed. It was really, really minimal, but it was enough that we had to change the fabric. For us, it was devastating because when you find something that you think looks absolutely perfect, you don’t want to start over. But we started over, and it worked out well.

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And one costume that I thought “it’s very simple, but we have to get it right,” and I think it is right for the character, is the costume that Desmond Hart is wearing on Dune: Prophecy. It needed to be simple, but very recognizable. And in a way, iconic. When he comes, we need everyone to ask, “Who is this guy?” You have to immediately understand that there’s no one else that looks like him around and say, “This guy came out of nowhere, what is going to happen now?” So for him, we did many tests and had many different options until we found the final silhouette and all the details, stitchings, and things that we added, including his epaulettes and insignias. All of that was really well thought out, and it was a process to make it, but it was worth it.

Speaking of Desmond, of course, he has a big reveal of his identity at the end of Dune: Prophecy—did you ever hint at any of that in his costumes?

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Nikitović: Yes! It was one detail that I don’t know whether the audience caught, but Desmond is always, even in the beginning when he arrives, wearing or carrying a piece of black fabric as part of his Dune: Prophecy costume. And that black fabric is an embossed fabric from his mother’s Sisterhood costume. So, actually, when he was born, his mother, Tula, young Tula, wrapped him in the costume and gave him away, so that’s the only thing that he has from her. And that was a really important thing for Travis Fimmel’s Desmond to have—this one piece of his mother and her family with him.

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What character do you think went through the most significant costume evolution throughout Dune: Prophecy?

Nikitović: Well, Ynez had so many changes. For her, it was really important that we were always showing her rebel nature, her real nature. In the palace, she’s dressed as a princess, but even there, she tries to show her sincere self. Very often, she has some leather details, or some belts, or some buckles that are not really princess style. And for me it was really important to put her in a heavy boots. So even when she’s wearing very elegant princess dresses, she’s in high, heavy boots, and that gives her a special way in which she walks.

And Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, who played Ynez on Dune: Prophecy, she really liked that element in her costumes. And you have different moments like changing out of the red dress, from when she’s all prepared for the engagement party, to all of a sudden getting dressed down to go to a spice den. So those moments showed her real nature through her costumes and changes.

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You mentioned several techniques that you used to make costumes of Dune: Prophecy. Did you create anything that you did for the very first time for this show?

Nikitović: Yes. We really tried to do something new in Dune: Prophecy. Certain techniques, like this embossing that we used on Corrino, that’s something that I haven’t seen. We created a new technique. Then the embossing that we were using on a Sisterhood costumes, on the collar and on the upper sleeves, it’s also kind of a printing that makes fabric react in a certain way. So we had that embossing on them.

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We had all kinds of these embossing techniques, and we were very focused on finding ways to make new textures. For me, it’s so important to have texture. And the camera likes things that are rich, that are not just flat and not interesting. So we tried as much as we could to add different textures to our costumes in Dune: Prophecy. I discovered this whole world of laser-cut fabric and also 3D-printing, but laser-cutting was especially amazing. It opened a whole new world for me. And we were using it in very novel ways.

I also really need to stress that it’s all handmade. Each piece was first cut, then printed, then brought back to the workshop to be finished. It’s an amazing process.

And to conclude, what’s your favorite costume or memory from Dune: Prophecy?

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Nikitović: The whole first episode is a wonderful memory. When you’re starting a big project like this, usually the first episode has everything you are introducing, all the characters you are meeting, all the new people that we will follow in the show. So the first episode was really challenging, but incredible. And I love the scenes in the Sisterhood when they are outside and doing Prana-bindu.

The Prana-bindu outfits—they’re one of my favorite costumes in Dune: Prophecy. So those scenes, I love. I remember shooting those scenes was a real pleasure. And I also love that we did the Prana-bindu costumes in a different scene, when they were doing Prana-bindu under the rain in that harsh landscape on Wallach IX, with the wind howling. I love that, that’s one of my favorite scenes.

Dune: Prophecy is now streaming on HBO Max.

Editor’s Note: Dune: Prophecy is a Legendary Entertainment production. Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.

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