Costuming and design in NBC's Hannibal: Abigail Hobbs

Previously: Costuming and design in Hannibal, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (Hannibal's wrist watch.)

While Hannibal Lecter's suits are undoubtedly the most eyecatching costumes on the show, I found myself really warming to Abigail's costuming when rewatching season 1. Her clothes in "Potage" are particularly interesting, because they were bought for her by Alana Bloom. This means that rather than wearing her own clothes, she's actually dressed in Alana's interpretation of Abigail-clothes.

Abigail may be an emotionally fragile 17/18-year-old girl, but I'm glad to say that she's neither dressed up like a TV teen (which wouldn't remotely fit in with the overall tone of Hannibal), or styled to look more childlike and therefore ~vulnerable. Like the adult characters, she has a very specific dress sense and colour palette, which in her case is very "outdoorsy". Either she's wearing sensible hunting clothes to spend time in the forest with her father, or she's dressed in green and brown, often surrounded by natural imagery of plants and flowers. While Hannibal is a Francis Bacon painting and Will is an Edward Hopper, I think Abigail is a botanical illustration.

Screencaps via screencapped.net

Abigail's hospital room is very serene, with her butterfly-patterned nightdress matching the pale blue-green bed linen, furniture and patterned wallpaper. This delicate floral motif is directly at odds with Freddie Lounds, who shows up wearing a leopard print dress, a red-lined cape and gloves. Freddie looks practically Disney villainesque in her predatory role as Abigail's unwelcome visitor, and is the one central character in the episode who isn't wearing an outfit that fits in with Abigail's colour palette.

Compared to indoor characters like Bella and Bedelia, Abigail's scenes often take place outdoors and surrounded by plants. Her outfit for her first trip outside her hospital room is a floral scarf (matching her hospital room wallpaper) and a teal coat that complements the blue/teal outfits worn by Hannibal and Alana when they visit Abigail's family home later in the episode.

As ever, Hannibal's costume is significant. Taken on its own, Hannibal's sweater/jacket combination is already relatively unusual for him because it isn't a true three-piece suit. Along with its complementary colour scheme to Abigail's outfit, it has a couple of other possible meanings. First, the high-collared look is somewhat reminiscent of the kind of vampiric 18th/19th-century European aristocrat that Hannibal is partly modelled upon as a character. Secondly, the sweater/plaid jacket combination is basically a hunting outfit, which fits perfectly with his current role of stalking Abigail as potential prey.

When they revisit the Hobbs house later in the episode, Hannibal has changed into a brown/red version of his earlier outfit, which immediately gives him that demonic undertone we know and love. After Abigail stabs Nicholas Boyle, we get this brilliant shot of Hannibal's blood-coloured sweater and brown hunting jacket perfectly complementing the brown interior of the Hobbs house -- and the drying blood on Abigail's hands. Meanwhile Abigail and her blue-green outfit stand out from the background for the first time in the episode.

Abigail's outfit when visiting Hannibal's office has far more in common with the clothes we see in flashbacks, as opposed to the Alana Bloom coat she wore in earlier scenes. In Hannibal's office, she's dressed in earth tones once again: a brown, outdoorsy jacket, her floral scarf, and grey jeans. (N.B. I'm fairly sure that Abigail is the only main character we see wearing denim in this show, a practically unheard-of feat on American television.)

One thing I found interesting when rewatching these early episodes is that while the show makes an effort to characterise Abigail as Will and Hannibal's "daughter," she actually looks way more like Will and Alana's child, both physically and in terms of costuming. With her fair skin, dark hair and scarf/coat outfits, Abigail looks a lot like Alana, while her more outdoorsy outfits firmly put her in Will's camp. Will (an angler) and Garrett Jacob Hobbs (a hunter) both dress pretty similarly when they're not at work, with both wearing warm sweaters and pocketed gilets -- a look we see on Abigail herself during flashback scenes, and in her brief appearance in Will's fishing dream in season 2.

"Potage" is really the only episode where Hannibal and Abigail look remotely similar, although Hannibal is approaching the hunter aesthetic from the English country gentleman end of the scale, while Abigail is the daughter of a typical American working-class hunting enthusiast. Still, it means that Hannibal actually changes his own style in a way that fits in with Will and Abigail's more casual dress sense, which we never really see again for the rest of the series.

To be continued...

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Costuming & design in NBC's Hannibal: Hannibal Lecter's wristwatch.

As part of my ongoing series on costume and design in Hannibal, I'm going to post my first guest blog with contributions from an outside writer. My brother is a watchmaker and an avid fan of Hannibal, and recently mentioned to me that he had some thoughts on Hannibal's watch in the show (a $176,300 white gold Patek Phillippe 5270G Chronograph, apparently). Here's what he had to say:

via weartherude

Patek Phillippe are generally seen by most watch people as the big brand leaders. They have an extremely prestigious rep, although reputation is very, very weird with watches. It doesn't just vary by brand but also by model. The Rolex worn by a particular James Bond in a particular Bond movie may be seen as some amazing piece of art, but a gold-cased Rolex of the same model but a different year could be trash. To give you an idea of Patek Phillippe's marketing brand, here's a recent advert:

Obviously this is schmaltzy as fuck. It's all about getting rich guys to buy into this notion of some noble patriarch father-son connection through this status symbol. Hannibal would think it was pathetic. That said, the aesthetics of the particular watch they have him wearing seem pretty spot-on: It's large, but not distasteful. It's also expensive, but not some horrendous diamond-encrusted monster.

However, I'm still on the fence about it thanks to Patek's image as a brand. If Hannibal is into his mad expensive watches enough to shell out that kind of cash,  I reckon he would either go for one of these:

Source: Lang und Heyne

Or this:

Source: A. Lange & Sohne

The first is a HANDMADE GERMAN MAMMOTH IVORY WRISTWATCH. WTF PERFECT. The second is a watch which occupies to same kind of price bracket and technical style as the Patek but is from a brand that Hannibal would probably like more, the gravitas-laden A. Lange & Sohne Datographe. This watch is generally seen as one of the best designs to come out of the industry in the last 10 years. There are also other options from that brand, including this brown/gold model, and the circular watch in this photo, which I think is the right kind of fussy for Hannibal. 

Hannibal's Patek Phillippe, via weartherude

So, in summary: The watch Hannibal wears is a good choice in terms of characterisation: luxurious yet reserved, with incredibly expensive material (platinum) and a billion complicated extra functions (moonphase, a calendar that doesn't need correcting, etc). BUT it's from a brand I personally think he would sneer at. Honestly, if it weren't for the advertising, the Patek Phillippe one would be nearly perfect. But if it were a choice between the Lange and the Patek I think he would get the Lange, as it's more "niche."

THAT BEING SAID, WHAT CANNIBAL WOULD PASS UP A WATCH MADE OUT OF BONES, AMIRITE?

HelloTailor: Perhaps this is just my own personal taste coming into play here, but I can't really imagine why Hannibal would bother to spend $176,300 on a wristwatch. Taking into account things like accuracy, raw materials and craftsmanship, there is still NO WAY that this price tag serves any purpose other than to indicate that the watch's owner is Very Rich. In fact, my opinion on almost all high-end watches of this type is that they all seem like obnoxious status symbols for men who want to wear something super expensive and sparkly, and see overpriced watches as the only socially acceptable outlet for this desire.

Considering Hannibal's dislike of classless displays of wealth and bad taste, my instinct is that he'd be pretty scornful of the super-rich culture of buying ostentatiously pricy designer watches. Hannibal may be a master of conspicious consumption, but it's always towards a very specific goal. Super-expensive timepieces are altogether a different flavour of connoisseurship than a bespoke suit or an art collection, particularly since they all seem to include these functionally useless extra features like the ability to work in zero gravity or ten miles underwater. I like the idea of Hannibal with an antique watch, perhaps an heirloom from his uncle. I pitched this idea to my brother and he came back with this:

Good point. The least expensive watch I listed is (I think) the mammoth ivory one at around 30,000 Euro:

Source: ablogtowatch

One of the reasons why I was put off by the Patek is it was a little TOO expensive. I can see Hannibal shelling out maybe $50k at maximum if he found something that really tickled his materialism tastebuds, but Patek are infamous for being aggressively highly priced. They kind of rely on being more expensive than their competitors, which is part of the con of "exclusive" luxury products. 

Regarding your more specific issues about jewel-encrusted watches and pointless zero gravity stuff: the brands I listed are considered to be the conservative elegant options. Part of their branding is focussed on them being restrained as opposed to the really ostentatious stuff you see from people like Rolex. Brands like Patek and Lange & Soehne make their name on not being jewel-encrusted. Each kind of mechanism has a different market audience, so for example, Chronograph functions are marketed at "practically minded" clients (i.e. playboys with yachts), while Minute Repeaters (which sound out the hours and minutes on musical gongs inside the watch) are seen as the haute couture complication, and are a source of prestige for any brand.

Ultimately I was only speaking in the context of wristwatches that I would substitute into that modern, posh, exclusive bracket that the show dictated with the Patek. If I were to pick any watch for Hannibal I would agree that an heirloom would be the best choice.

In an antique heirloom context we are limited to wristwatches from around 1930 to 1960. Early men's wristwatches were very small by modern standards, and non-military watches from the '30s and '40s might actually be too small for showy Mads Hannibal with his big ties. I'd probably recommend a classic Jaeger Lecoultre Reverso. Why? It's the perfect murder watch: you can flip the case around to protect the glass from being damaged. It's also just as classy and refined and exclusive as the other watches, but less expensive. Modern Reversos retail at around £10k I believe: much more comfortable.

Source

If we were talking about something really old-school, Hannibal might conceivably have what is known as a "montre-a-tact." In many ways this is the polar opposite to some of the watches I originally listed. It's a pocket watch designed to be both as luxurious and discreet as possible. In early 19th century France the famous maker Breguet made a few of these. The watch is designed to have a hand on the outer case that you can feel in your pocket to tell the time without looking rude by checking your watch in front of your guest. It's the ultimate rich asshole watch. 

[Note from HelloTailor: I particularly appreciate this choice because it plays into the tactility of Hannibal the character and Hannibal the show, which always attempts to engage all five senses rather than just concentrating on sight and sound. Hannibal's sense of smell is often in the foreground, and we regularly characters discussing and experiencing the taste of his cooking. Plus, Hannibal clearly appreciates the sensual pleasure of high-quality clothes, furniture, and so on. It's also worth noting that Will Graham has the habit of touching and stroking things all the time. A watch that works partly by touch wouldn't be a bad choice for Will, either.]

Source

One last thing: Bone clocks. There is a subgenre of clocks called "skeleton clocks," which despite the name are not typically made out of dead things. The descriptor is visual, as in a skeleton leaf. They are clocks where the brass plates have been finely cut away into patterns and swirls. In the mid 19th century a few (and by "a few" I mean only a handful as showpieces by famous or skilled makers) were made in papier mache, ivory, and bone. Bone is a poor material for clock wheels due to humidity issues and it isn't very tough, hence the mammoth ivory watch having all the important bits made out of metal. For obvious reasons, a bone clock would be absolutely ideal for Hannibal Lecter.

(If you want to read more where that came from, my brother has a Tumblr blog all about watches and watchmaking: Practical Horology.)

Next: Costuming and design in NBC's Hannibal: Abigail Hobbs.

Previously: Costumes and design in NBC's Hannibal, Part 1 and Part 2.

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Costumes and design in NBC's Hannibal, Part 2.

Previously: Part 1

Rewatching the first few episodes so close together, I quickly began to notice the many instances where characters are wearing colours that either match or complement each other. Part of the reason I picked up on this is because the transition between the pilot ("Aperitif") and second episode ("Amuse-Bouche") is so noticeable.

In "Aperitif" there's still no overarching colour scheme linking the cast together, but as soon as Hannibal switches from his normal-person disguise of beige and brown sweaters to his own "real" clothing in episode two, everything begins to come together. After this, there are moments in every episode where certain characters are seen wearing complementary outfits or somehow fit in with the colour scheme of their surroundings. This is surely no accident, either as an aesthetic choice or as one of the many moments of visual symbolism in the show.

Before we move onto the rest of the season, I'd just like to spend a moment on Hannibal's uncharacteristically bland outfits in "Aperitif." Someone else has already written about Franklyn's habit of "mirroring" Hannibal's dress sense so I won't go into too much detail here, but as Hannibal's most obsessive patient, it's possible to theorise that Franklyn is attempting to copy Hannibal's style. There are several scenes throughout the series where we see Franklyn wearing layered outfits and "loud" ties that seem like a pale simulacrum of Hannibal's costumes, but in the instance of "Aperitif," I think the reverse may be true: Hannibal is mirroring Franklyn.

Screencaps from screencapped.net

Take a look at Franklyn's outfit in his introductory scene. Brown everything, and an open-necked shirt. Meanwhile, as I pointed out last week, Hannibal is dressed like a bright summer sunrise, and looks like the millionaire that he is. Jack Crawford looks between the two of them and shakes hands with the man who looks most like his mental image of a celebrated forensic psychiatrist. My theory is that Hannibal, inspired (and somewhat tickled) by this mistake, decides that the best way to fly under the radar at the FBI is to cosplay Franklyn, thus fitting into the expected visual mold for a consulting specialist. He shows up the next day wearing the blandest outfit he could conceivably cobble together out of his own wardrobe, and his next outfit after that is another brown/beige jacket/sweater combo. Significantly, for the rest of the series he is dressed almost exclusively in three-piece suits.

This rare visual hint towards what Bedelia du Maurier refers to as Hannibal's "people suit" actually serves to make him stand out more to us, the audience, because he's the only central character who is wearing beige and brown. It's only in episode two that we see his costumes begin to gel with the rest of the cast.

In "Amuse-Bouche," we see a lot of blue with dark red accents, both in the costumes (including the widespread use of blue crime scene gloves) and in the overall colour scheme of lighting and set design. We're also introduced to one of the snappiest dressers in the show, Freddie Lounds, who appears in Hannibal's office wearing an extremely ostentatious raspberry-coloured outfit. This provides us with one of the most memorable tableaux of the episode: Freddie and Hannibal posed together on the couch, offset by Hannibal's blood-red wall in the background.

Personally, I think that Freddie's first costume in this episode is one of the many little cannibalism/murder jokes we see throughout the series. To put it bluntly, she looks like meat. In this scene with Hannibal, she thinks she's the hunter (note her plaid/tweed blazer with suede elbow patches: a hunter's jacket), but we know that she's really the prey. While she's wandering into Hannibal's office, pretending to be a harmless client, Hannibal is prowling around behind her, waiting for her to make her move. The difference between them is that Freddie thinks of herself as a predator, whereas Hannibal actually is one. To stretch the metaphor a little, Freddie is more of a scavenger.
Freddie's outfits are always full of little cues that tell us she's "aggressive," such as leather, fur, and animal print. In this scene she's playing innocent, with her hands folded demurely over her handbag (which hides a tape recorder), and wearing lace patterned tights. But a secondary effect of the red leather dress is that it almost looks as if it's slick with blood. Particularly when combined with the imagery of the next scene, a cheerful jump-cut to Hannibal pouring red Cumberland sauce over a plate of sliced meat. New viewers are left to assume that Freddie has just been added to Hannibal Lecter's meat fridge, although we now know that she lived to spy another day.

One final thought about Hannibal's costumes in this episode: it's the first explicit sign that he's a very deliberate, thematic dresser. This is one of my very favourite characterization details because there are plenty of TV shows where characters are shown wearing beautiful and/or expensive clothes, but with no real explanation as to why. If you take a closer look at Hannibal in "Amuse-Bouche" and "Potage," you'll notice that he's actually wearing two very similar grey-blue suits, not one. In his scene with Freddie Lounds he's wearing a slightly glossier suit with a brighter tie, whereas in other scenes we see him in this tweedier suit with a darker tie and a different cream striped shirt -- although to a casual viewer, they seem like practically the same outfit. Not only does this show the depth of his wardrobe (two near-identical, probably bespoke suits!?), but it indicates that he chooses very specific visual themes for his outfits on any given day, and sticks to them.
One of the most consistent aspects of Hannibal Lecter's character throughout the books, movies and TV series is his love of "good taste." Vulgarity is punishable by death while Hannibal surrounds himself with objects of beauty, but in the end, "good taste" is an incredibly soulless form of self-expression.Will's collection of stray dogs tells us more about his emotional life and personality than Hannibal's office and wardrobe, which mostly serve to tell us that he's very rich and well-informed about menswear and interior design. This brings us back to the "people suit" once again. Give Hannibal a mask and he will tell you the truth: Without all these obnoxious displays of wealth and good taste, people might begin to realise that underneath the many layers of expensive tailoring lies the cold, unbeating heart of a vampire.

Continued in a guest blog on Hannibal Lecter's wristwatch. (Yes, seriously.)

OR, Costuming & design: Abigail Hobbs.

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Costumes and design in NBC's Hannibal, Part 1.

I probably should've been writing about the costumes of Hannibal from the very start, but I confess to feeling a little overwhelmed. The quality of the costume design (and set design, and food design, and soundtrack...) in Hannibal is so incredible that not only does every episode deserve its own post, but lots of other people have already been analysing it since day one. Is there even room for another reviewer? But as luck would have it, I just moved in with someone who has never seen the show, and we decided to watch season 1 from the beginning. I can now verify that it's one of those rare TV shows whose rich detail means that it actually improves when you watch it for a second time.
In "Aperitif," Hannibal's costumes are far more varied than in later episodes, mostly because he's wearing a kind of everyday camouflage half the time. A more literal version of what Bedelia du Maurier refers to as his "people suit," if you will.

At home and in his own office, we see Hannibal in his typical uniform of luxurious three-piece suits. But whenever he has to go to the FBI, he wears what basically amounts to normal-person drag: a scruffy blazer, brown sweater, and unbuttoned shirt. The colours complement each other, but it isn't the kind of daring fashion choice we see him making in most other scenarios. I suspect this was him testing the waters at the FBI, attempting to fade into the background until he's scoped things out. Hannibal doesn't actually make much effort to disguise his eccentricities in day-to-day life, but he does ease people into them. That's how he gets away with making so many cannibalism puns during his dinner parties, I suppose. But while Hannibal's uncharacteristically scruffy FBI outfit was something I noticed when I first watched this episode, the moment that I found most visually arresting this time round was his first appearance onscreen.

The first thing we see from Hannibal Lecter is his hands, cutting into some meat as he eats alone in the dark of his house. Virtually all reviews of Hannibal comment on the way the show concentrates on the journey rather than the inevitable outcome of Hannibal's arrest and incarceration. We know that Hannibal is a cannibal, and the writers know that we know. There's very little suspense in that regard. So the show can cheerful jump-cut from Will Graham saying, face twisted into a grimace, "He's eating them!" to a lingering shot of Hannibal tucking into his first sumptuous meal of the series. We're all in on the joke, which makes Hannibal's frequent "I'm having an old friend for dinner," puns all the more delicious.

This introductory shot of Hannibal uses a darker and more muted colour palette than any other scene in the episode. It's almost like we're viewing him through smoke, or through the glaze of an antique oil painting. This is Hannibal at his most satanic, with the shadows accentuating the planes and hollows of Mads Mikkelsen's skull. Plus -- dare I say it -- Hannibal's hair is kind of edging into Hitler territory here. His suit, shirt and tie are all similar shades of murky brown, with the overall effect looking rather similar to the poster for the original Hannibal movie.

There's a very noticeable contrast between this and the daytime suit he wears in the next scene. When Jack Crawford visits Hannibal's office, Hannibal is dressed like a spring sunrise. His collar is as wide as you can get, his white-gold necktie is almost cravat-like in proportion, and his suit may be the palest he wears in the entire series. He's also very pleased to see Jack, almost eager to confront the possibility that he might be under investigation by the FBI. Comparing the Hannibal we see at the beginning of season 2, I found it striking how much the Hannibal of "Aperitif" is craving the stimulation of interesting human contact. He's not "lonely" in the usual sense of the word, but there's a certain ritualised boredom to that first scene where we see him cooking and eating alone. Soon enough, he will discover that manipulating Will Graham and his colleagues is far more entertaining than sitting home alone, or listening to all those Franklyn-ish patients whine about their lives.

This is also our first look at the marvel that is Hannibal's office. Blood-red walls, gorgeous furniture, a collection of slyly meaningful pictures (next to Will at the top of the ladder is a framed photo of human ears), and those hilarious surgeon's-pole curtains. Hannibal has read and white striped barber/surgeon's pole curtains in his office. I can't get over this. However, my favourite aspect of the office set is the second-storey walkway.

Hannibal isn't the kind of show where people stand around quipping at each other or exchanging expository dialogue. Any conversation that includes Hannibal Lecter is more like a teasing exchange between predator and prey, or perhaps a duel. The therapist's office set is perfect to facilitate this kind of scene, particularly when it's with Will Graham.

A lot of viewers have picked up on the way Will and Hannibal's chairs move closer and closer together as the series progresses, but to me the most effective detail in "Aperitif" is the way Will immediately makes for the upstairs walkway. Not only does this allow him to avoid the awkwardness of a traditional face-to-face conversation, but it also highlights Hannibal's predatorial role. Although Hannibal, looking up to watch Will, is technically in what might be interpreted as a submissive position, he's actually more like a cheetah waiting in the long grass. Twitchy, frenetically nervous Will Graham scurries around upstairs like a frightened squirrel, while Hannibal expends almost no energy at all, just turning slightly from his position in the middle of the office, keeping his eyes on the prize.

Hannibal is a multisensory experience. Hannibal Lecter himself is gifted with very acute senses and a love of luxury, and the show caters to these characteristics by forcing the audience to identify with them. The visual language of Hannibal is unusually rich and complex for what seems on the surface to be a network TV crime show, but we are also gifted with a sumptious feast of sounds, tastes and smells to experience alongside the visual design. In a typical horror show the audience would expect to hear some suspenseful music in the background and see a few gruesome murders, but Hannibal requires a far more creative view. The costume and set designers have to achieve Hannibal's own level of aesthetic snobbery -- plus, of course, anyone who's seen Pushing Daisies will already be aware of showrunner Bryan Fuller's love of colour.

It's not uncommon to see a procedural crime drama where every single character is outfitted in generic neutral-toned leather jackets and suits. Which is, you know, not totally unrealistic. But I enjoy the fact that in Hannibal, the FBI characters are effectively dressed like the cast of a crime procedural... while everyone else has a very distinctive sense of style. Even Alana and Will, the two characters who bridge the gap between the FBI and civilian life, have very individual fashion tastes, with Alana wearing all those colourful wrap dresses, and Will wearing wrinkled khakis and flannel shirts practically every single day.

The strength of Hannibal's costume design is that you can easily imagine how and why each character dresses the way they do. Hannibal is obviously the focal point (and should be, because one of his central characteristics is a love of style and beauty), but side characters like Abigail Hobbs and Freddie Lounds are never neglected. But considering how many words have just been eaten up by looking at Hannibal's costumes in the very first episode, I think the other characters will have to be discussed in a later post.

Continued in Part 2.

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