It’s been a week since the Disney+ premiere of Descendants: The Rise of Red, and fans are clamoring for more information about the dazzling costumes worn by Red, Chloe, Uliana, Cinderella, and Bridget/Queen of Hearts. I recently had the honor of interviewing costume designer Emilio Sosa about his work on the latest Descendants installment, how his work in theater helped prepare him for the latest movie musical, and where fans can next catch some of his work live on stage.
(Disney/Kwaku Alston/Emilio Sosa)
Alex: Congratulations on all the success! Most recently, Descendants: The Rise of Red is doing major numbers for Disney+. I’m sure you’re getting a lot of feedback on the costumes, especially from Disney fans who like to replicate them for cosplay. What have you been hearing since the movie launched?
Emilio Sosa: You know, with it being my first really big studio film, it's overwhelming the response it has gotten from the world. I come from the world of Broadway, where our biggest house might be 1,800 people. This is like millions and millions of people reacting to the work at the same time. For me, that was a huge learning curve. I was just amazed at how far the Descendants tentacles reach around the world, and for them to respond to the work I did is very rewarding.
Alex: Literal tentacles with Ulana and Uma. Obviously, you're stepping into a world with an established aesthetic, but these are all new characters, so you have a lot of freedom to explore. Can you talk about your approach as you got the script and worked through each character and their costumes?
Emilio Sosa: This was a team effort because the Descendants are so loved and revered that you have to be aware of the legacy and how to move it forward. Coming into something so established, I wanted to put my own spin on it but also respect and honor the work done in the other films. For me, it was all character-driven. The scripts are really great and descriptive, and they read like novels to me. The relationship between Red and Chloe made me fall in love with the script and characters. I grew up with Disney, and seeing how Disney characters were allowed to still be there but handed over to a new generation is genius. We all believe in happily ever after, but then what happens when you get together and have kids? That's the real fun and joy of it, the multigenerational aspect. For people who grew up on Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, to now have their kids connect to their kids makes it a full-circle family enjoyment.
Alex: With Descendants, the characters often have wigs in bright, unnatural colors. Did you have to work closely with the hair department as you were designing the costumes to make sure all of the colors would be complimentary?
Emilio Sosa: That goes across all departments—costumes, props, sets, location, background. It all has to work cohesively. We were all given a bible of color with specific color ranges for each character. Once we honed in on the character's color palette, we could work within it, knowing it would all complement each other. It's very coordinated, with department meetings to pick a color. It’s me finding the right shade of blue, so then the hair department can work off of that. It's a collaboration, so it was a push and pull. You give and take a little, like, ‘That color hair is beautiful. Maybe I can change the color of this trim.’ We just collaborated so well together.
Alex: Since you work so frequently in theater, where movement is critical for actors, did that skillset help you on this film, given its musical nature and frequently choreographed dance numbers?
Emilio Sosa: It totally helped. It all starts with the fabrics you select. If you're making something original, which we did a lot of, you start with the fabric. If you know there's going to be a lot of dancing and choreography, you pick fabrics with stretch. It might look like a beautiful beaded gown, but you have to make sure that the actor can move and dance in it. My theater career has always been about the actor's movement, especially since I started working in dance. My early career, I designed a lot for dancers, so for them, and for the choreographer, it's all about the movement. The costumes complement, not restrict, the movement. That was always been my discipline. This project had choreography and fantastical costumes. I've worked with the Rockettes, which are iconic. I’ve done circuses, but this was a nice mix of everything I've worked towards in my career and in my aesthetic. It's theatrical, it's fashion, it moves, it catches your eye, it’s about color and shape. I was able to put all those little crayons in my arsenal to good use.
Alex: Have you ever worked so much with rhinestones before? Do you have a rhinestone count for this film?
Emilio Sosa: I don't have one on the film, but I designed for the Rockettes, so that's second nature to me. I can put 2,000 rhinestones on one costume, and that's just a blink of an eye.
Alex: For my generation, the 1997 TV remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Brandy was a defining moment. How much did you look at the 1997 Cinderella when creating Brandy’s queenly look in 2024?
Emilio Sosa: That Cinderella is the Holy Grail. Brandy and Whitney Houston are huge icons, and I remember it well. I was a huge fan of them individually, and then to have them together and in that story really elevated it. She's contemporary, she’s not 100, she's of now. She's Cinderella, so she probably has access to a lot of the coolest fashion out there. She understands what's happening with the generational shift. She still wants to look good. She still has a little spice. At that age, people's style and spirit don't die when they get older. I wanted to make sure she looked great. She still had some sex appeal, but she’s Cinderella, so she’s a mother. I just wanted to make sure that she looked beautiful, confident, and could really embody the dress. That shade of blue is so iconic, but we had to find the right shade for her to make sure it really complemented her.
Alex: In preparation for this interview, I read an interview you did with The New York Times where you talked about blue resonating with your story. Is there a specific shade of blue that particularly speaks to you?
Emilio Sosa: I love everything from navy to sky blue. For me, blue is freeing, and that’s why I’m always attached to it. When I first came to this country, we flew on PanAm Airlines, whose color was blue. Being on my first airplane ride in a world of blue, going to a new country, it just layered in a way that made me gravitate to that color.
Alex: When I was a kid, things like Brandy’s Cinderella and Mary Martin’s Peter Pan helped me get into theater. For today’s generation, Descendants might be that gateway. You’ve worked on a lot of projects, but Purlie Victorious, recently filmed and broadcast on PBS, which makes it easily accessible for todays’ youth who discover a love of theater through Descendants. Can you talk about that show and your frequent collaborations with Leslie Odom Jr.?
Emilio Sosa: Working on Purlie Victorious was an honor. It premiered on Broadway in 1961, and this is the first revival in 63 years. So it's a long time, but it's so brilliant how much the show, in general, speaks of today. Leslie and I met when he first started in New York. He was always brilliant, even at a young age, even when we were doing Off-Broadway and struggling, making no money. Everyone who works in theater and is really committed understands you have to do it for the love of it because you don't start on Broadway, and some people don't make it to Broadway. It's a tough road. I've seen his progression and work ethic. We had our great director, Kenny Leon. Without a director, we’re just great artists sitting around talking to each other. We need to be told what to do. Working on Purlie was layered with a lot of personal relationships. The same with Kara Young. I met her a couple of years ago when she first started, and this was our first show together. It took us three years to get here. Some actors come open, like, ‘Tell me what the character is.’ And then some actors come, ‘This is the character, this is how I see it.’ And I'm open to both, knowing that we will meet somewhere in the middle. I'm very collaborative with the actors because I want them to take ownership of the costumes. I don't want them to feel like they're putting on a costume and trying to be someone; I want the costume to become clothing of the character, in a sense, and that comes from my fashion background. I don't design costumes; I design clothing that is worn on stage. I want my costumes to be relatable. We meet in the middle. There's a push and pull. But one thing I try to stress to people who want to come into the theater is that just because you design a beautiful sketch on day one does not mean that that is the sketch you're going to end up with on opening night. You have to be able to adapt and still retain what made you special, your DNA, in the design. It's negotiation. An example with Purlie Victorious is in the script, it says he's wearing a black suit. We thought black wasn’t right for how we wanted to present him. We found this beautiful 1933 suit. It's Navy, but it has some texture to it. All that to say, if I would have said, ‘Well, the suit has to be black,’ then I'm fighting the organic process of designing a show. So working with Leslie was very easy in that way because he understood what the character needed to be, I understood his aesthetic, and we just vibed.
Alex: Your transition to film is interesting. How did Descendants: The Rise of Red come your way? Did you have a prior working relationship with someone involved, or was it an open pitch?
Emilio Sosa: This was my first big studio film. My first film, I worked on a film with Spike Lee, assisting Ruth Carter on Bamboozled, which had Savian Glover and Tommy Davidson. It’s an amazing, fun, relatable film. I hate the term ‘Before its time,’ but that film was before its time. It's about creating a show within a show, and I love that premise because that means I get to design a film, and then I get to work on a show. It's double the work, but it's double the fun. [Disney] contacted my agent and asked if I would be interested in taking a meeting. This was last year. I was in Atlanta doing a musical adaptation of Trading Places, the Eddie Murphy film. So they asked for a meeting, and I said yes. One of the things I tell everyone is to always say yes and then figure out how to get it done. That's been the secret to my success. I was super excited during my first meeting. I spoke too much. I just overshared because I had read the script, and the generational connection is what I thought was great. I love the relationship between Chloe and Red. I had a cool conversation with the producer and director. And then I was working on another show in Boston and I got a call for another meeting. Every meeting I took, the group got bigger and bigger. I'm learning that that means that the work is getting closer and closer. They asked me to create mood boards of how I saw each character. When I was selected, it just blew my mind.
Alex: Actors often say their character solidifies once they get into costume. Were there any moments on Descendants: The Rise of Red where an actor’s perspective changed once they put on the costume?
Emilio Sosa: Kylie was the first one I fit in her costumes. Sweet young lady, unassuming, chill, just cool. When she started putting on the pieces of the costumes, this rougher, tougher, edgier side came out of her spirit. That's when we knew that we were going in the right direction. She was very aware of how the costume pieces were going to move. We were selective on the shape of the pant, where does the leg start to break, is the zipper in the front or the back. Those are the fun things that actors enjoy because it is a puzzle. Putting on a character is a puzzle The costumes, hair, and makeup are a huge component of transformation. When she started looking at the pieces and reacting to them, I knew we were on the right path for her.
Alex: I know you’ve done Project Runway and worked with the next generation of costume designers. With Descendants: The Rise of Red, you’ll likely inspire many kids and teens to reach out to you. Are you prepared for that?
Emilio Sosa: I love what I do, and I'm blessed to have done the work I've done and continue to do the work that’s in front of me. I knew when I read it that it moved me, so I'm happy to see how it's been received. Whatever comes from it, it's all a blessing. I'm here for it. Rain down blessings.
Alex: Is there anything you’re working on now that you can plug? Anything fans of Descendants might be able to see live on stage?
Emilio Sosa: I'm working on an exciting production of Romeo and Juliet at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge on the campus of Harvard University. The director is Diane Paulus, who won Tonys for Pippin and Porgy and Bess with Audra McDonald, that’s how we first worked together. The production starts in late August and runs into September. So, if you're in the Boston/Cambridge area, come and check it. It's not period; it speaks of today, the language of today, and it's a love story. It's about movement, beautiful sets, it’s serene, it’s tough, it’s about love, and it's a great production.
You can see Emilio Sosa’s work in Descendants: The Rise of Red (now streaming on Disney+) and the filmed production of Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch (streaming on the PBS app).