Hear me out: lapels are wings
I’m going to sound like a mad conspiracy theorist here, but I can’t stop thinking about some very subtle costume design patterns in Good Omens.
First, let’s have a look at the angels. All of the angels have nice, spotless, crisp suits in pale colours, as we know. Let’s have a look:
Specifically, let’s have a look at the lapels on those expensive-looking blazers:
All of them are wearing a peaked lapel that points up. But that’s fine - peaked lapels are more formal so maybe Heaven’s just a fancy place. How about Hell’s emissaries?
Great big overcoats with floppy collars that point down. Style choice, right? Well, let’s have a look at our two favourite ineffable idiots.
How odd - they seem to have got it backwards.
Now admittedly, through many of the scenes that involve lapels, Aziraphale is wearing the same coat - but Crowley is remarkably consistent through time:
(No picture from the Odegra presentation or church scene, because I can’t for the life of me get a clear screenshot bright enough to tell.)
Aziraphale, on the other hand, varies a bit. Just after the duck and top hat scene, where the two had a mini-breakup, Aziraphale is doing good deeds and is back on the side of the angels, as it were:
When he’s figured out where the antichrist is, and lies to Crowley about it, and is trying to figure out what to do, he’s wearing this, which is arguably neutral:
But when he’s discorporated and makes the decision to return to Earth to help, having finally learned that no one in Heaven wants to stop the war, he’s in his old coat again and back on side:
So, what does this (probably not actually) symbolism mean? Well, first you could suggest that peaked lapels are fancier than notched or floppy ones, so may Heaven is just stuffy and overly formal and Crowley really is a flash bastard, while Aziraphale just enjoys comfort.
I prefer the second, more allegorical option, which is that the lapels indicate their allegiance. The angels up towards Heaven and the demons down towards Hell make sense. For Crowley and Aziraphale, though, the up from Hell and down from Heaven are…well, Earth, Humanity, in the middle. (Or, for those with a romantic streak, their attachment to each other.)
If you want more evidence (and I use the word evidence with extreme disregard for semantic accuracy here), this vertical alignment is replayed in their wings when Crowley stops time. When they first appear, their wings show their original alignments (Aziraphale up, Crowley down)
Then as they relax, they take on each other’s arrangement, reflecting their change in priorities (Aziraphale down, Crowley up):
And finally, as they prepare to speak to Adam, they settle into the same position: both horizontal, both neutral, both aligned with humanity:
It seems likely that this is style and not substance, and there are plenty of counterexamples (e.g. Gabriel wears a “neutral” lapel at Aziraphale’s trial, and Michael none at all at Crowley’s = subtle hint that they are deviating from their allegiance to Heaven by willingly associating with Hell?; Beelzebub wears an “up” peaked collar but doesn’t seem too heavenly to me; etc.). So maybe I’m just seeing things that aren’t there. But there is one final possibility why Crowley always puts on a fancy peaked lapel every time he sees Aziraphale (quote from this same site):
Maybe he just lives in hope.
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