the biggest problem i have with the IT chapter 2 costumes is that conceptually they're exactly what they should've been! they reflect bits of their childhood costumes without being exact copies of them. but in practice they were so badly executed that they ended up dull

bill is the best example of this because his costume is objectively well done! it's got the same color/style of flannel as he wore in ch1 but it's buttoned and the sleeves are rolled up rather than being open, it ages him while still making him notably the same, but it's boring!

they didn't do anything interesting with it, they didn't add any flair, they didn't represent anything that happened in the 27 years. the way they matured him was unimaginative and made him dull, but even that would've been fine if he hadn't been dressed the same as mike and ben

mike should've been dressed more appropriately for the cavern. of the losers, he's the only one who knew what they would be doing going into it. he had time to prepare, he should've been! he should've worn waterproof hiking boots, more suitable pants, etc.

mike should've had a costume change between the jade and going into the fight, but of course that would require anyone working on the movie to think about him as more than a narrative prop, so he didn't get that. the issues with his costume stem from the entire treatment of him.

had he not essentially been shelved in ch1, he might've had a more imaginative costume to base his adult costume off of, but that's a discussion for another day. i think his costume in ch2 should've been the most different from his childhood, specifically because he knew what..

..they were going into, and because he kept his memories so he was allowed to grow up without being called back to childhood. remember the passage in the book about richie bringing only kids clothes to derry? mike didn't have to deal with that! he would have been prepared!

to that point, ben Did change - at least physically. i think the issue the costume designer had with ben was that in ch1 he was dressed delightfully childishly, and it makes sense for him to not wear graphic tshirts in ch2. but because they erred away from it, he ended up with..

..nothing from his childhood reflected in his adult costume. his costume is boring, both as clothing and from a design point of view. it completely lacks personality and ends up looking, again, like mike and bill's. the denim vest in ch1 to jacket in ch2 would've been..

..an interesting choice if they hadn't made the rest of his outfit just dreadfully boring. he could've worn a tshirt without any sort of graphic design on it, maybe even fitted to show how he developed over the 27 years and looked fine! adults wear tshirts too!

the biggest issue with eddie's main costume is that it's ill-fitting and completely lacking any sort of personality. this also comes from the writers losing a lot of his personality but, again, that's a thread for another day. i do maintain he should've had Some accessory though

(one problem that both the film crew and the costume designer had was that they cast "big bill" at 5'7 and eddie, who is supposed to be smaller, at 5'9. they played with a lot of angles to try to mask this, which is funny at times and awkward at others)

but because they wanted eddie to look smaller, they put him in clothes that are too big for him, which only succeeds in making him look like he doesn't know how to dress. he does! he should! or should at least tuck his shirt into his pants! he just looks awkward!

eddie's second costume is just boring. that's all there is to it. i did see someone analyze that it's the same color scheme as the leper which is certainly interesting to consider because it's what he died in, but i don't know if they had that much foresight honestly.

bev's costume was made duller and more typically feminine in ch2, just like her personality. it's like they forgot all the things that made her character and costumes interesting and just turned her into "the girl of the group". which would've been fine if they'd done it well!

but they didn't! so she ended up in heeled sneakers and a colorless outfit that was obviously gunning for fashionable but ended up looking like a spread from a GAP magazine. if she was a guy i'm sure she would've been dressed exactly like bill, mike, and ben.

i wish they'd given her something fun and more colorful. something green, maybe, to complement her ch1 outfits! and more comfortable shoes, like a modernized version of the brown boots she wore. those are still in style! utilize that! don't give her heeled sneakers!

(definitely don't give her heeled sneakers if you want to make bill look significantly taller than her )

stan's costume is... fine. that's about all there is to it. they did a decent job adapting it. it's not excellent, and i do wish it had been more casual than what he had on considering he was just hanging out at home with patty, but it's not terrible. it's alright.

it might've benefitted from being a sweater - or, better yet, something light to show that he lives in georgia and it's the middle of august because there's no way he would've worn a flannel and a cardigan unless he had the ac on full blast and hadn't stepped outside all day.

a short sleeved button up, pressed but still comfortable, and probably also shorts would've set the time better (because none of them are dressed for summer, which i haven't even touched on) and probably would've been more effective.

it could've done with a red accent too, since eddie and stan were the only ones who wore red when they fought pennywise the first time and eddie wore red again at the beginning of ch2, but asking for a consistent color scheme might be asking too much of these lackluster costumes

richie's costume is without a doubt the best by far. it's the only one that effectively ages up his childhood character into an adult with the same personality but still managed to mature. it's fun! it fits him! it's not the same as ch1 but it has the same vibe!

after i saw it for the first time, my main complaint was that i didn't like the mustard color of his shirt, but it is effective as a callback to jesse walsh so i'll excuse it. the jacket was probably a little heavy for august (which is true for all of their costumes) but it did..

..serve its purpose when it was removed to staunch eddie's blood and showed richie being stripped of his layers (and again when he takes off his overshirt before going into the quarry). i think his costume was by far the best and was the only one i'd actually call a good design.

all in all, the costumes were massive letdowns, especially after how good they all were in chapter 1. and yes, modern costumes are more difficult than period costumes and there are limitations to how expressive you can make casual adult outfits, but they failed at their purpose.

could i have done better? i don't know. maybe! i'd like to think so! but i am also a college student and not a hollywood professional. i sure think i would've put a little more thought and effort into it though, because they weren't effective costumes.

a costume shows time, place, character, and status primarily, and these... did none of those things. you wouldn't know from them that it's the middle of summer, or that they're all wealthy, or who they were. half of them are essentially indistinguishable from each other.

they obviously took very little care when making these costumes, which is truly as disappointing as it is reflective of the lack of care they took for the rest of the film. like the writing and the cgi, they fell flat. that's the only way the costumes reflect anything.

it's upsetting because they had so much potential! and with very minor changes they could've been infinitely more impactful (which is true for the film as a whole)! but as it was done it was completely ineffective and lazy.

it's nothing to do with fashion, it's about nuance, of which there was none. the costumes are dull, flat, and only serve their most basic purpose as clothing while doing nothing for the movie as a whole.

tl;dr i've been thinking about how much i hate these costumes for a year and will not stop anytime soon. thank you for coming to my ted talk. hire me to design the costumes for the 2044 remake.