Okay so, I have been having many many thoughts about how season 5 will be the first season we get to see a Mike outfit that is entirely himself. Like hello???? We are getting an entirely authentic Mike Wheeler!!! For maybe the first time ever!!!! Which is really exciting!!! So, while a lot of this stuff might not be new by any means, I wanted to analyse the themes in Mike's outfits so far and suggest what I think this confirms for his character come season 5. I absolutely love the Stranger Things costume department and so this is a bit of a love letter to them.
Starting with a bit of byler proof:
Both of Mike and Will's primary outfits are matching each other. Stranger Things loves to make romantic pairings look visually good together and so very often couples will have similar clothing silhouettes, matching colours, similar motifs, that kind of thing. I think maybe the most blatant example of this happening is Joyce and Hopper literally changing into the same outfit as they kiss for the first time. But here's a couple examples that do this in different ways:
First we have an example of the matching colours and styles with the button ups and all the blue; then an example of a matching outfit (to state the obvious they have to have chosen to match so uniforms and costumes don't really count here, though uniforms are used to symbolise unity); and then an example of matching silhouettes and motifs with the similarly cut shorts and vest, and Max's belt matching Lucas's top.
This kinda thing happens pretty consistently between romantic pairings. In Mike and Will's early season 5 outfits their colours are matching, they have similar collar details, and when they both wear the jacket their outfits have similar compositions. The late season 5 outfits clearly also share very similar colours and softer shapes and fit. If I didn't already think Mike and Will are getting together this season because of the show's narrative and themes, this shows that the show wants us to think of them as a unit. They are meant to look good together. They want romantic couples to look visually pleasing! Not to mention they've already been doing that with Mike and Will, just through complementary, split complementary and triad colour schemes.
Mike's early season outfit with the yellow collar is probably going to be the last time we see Mike wear yellow in the show. We all know about the yellow/blue colour theory, and that Mike wears yellow when he is not acting like himself. It's meant to be sort of jarring to see him in yellow.
Mike's first outfit of S5 being the last we see of this colour on Mike (as far as we know) is super significant because it means he's finally being himself. The collar's colour is also much less jarring than the bright yellows, being muted and in one place. Mike will probably still be struggling with conformity early on but this will be resolved for the second half of the season. Also, scenes at Hawkins High, maybe scenes with the painting, scenes of Mike's home life before everything goes tits up, etc. will probably take place while wearing this outfit. I wouldn't think that we'd get scenes anywhere near as jarring as the airport scenes though, both because it makes less sense narratively and because the show likes to make it very visually clear that something is off in those kinds of scenes.
This is not something I've really seen anyone talk about, but this being a collared shirt also seems to be significant. Almost every Mike outfit since season 2 has had a collar. Usually it's a polo or a button up that's fastened up to his neck. In my opinion, this also represents inauthenticity. Other characters wear polos and button ups, sure, but the main person we see doing so is Ted. I think we're meant to get the sense from Mike's collared shirts in seasons 2 and 3 that his clothes are being bought for him (as Eddie would then point out in season 4), and that in some ways Mike is emulating his dad.
Moments where Mike doesn't wear a collared shirt (wearing the hellfire tee, wearing white undershirts/vests in season 4) are typically moments of vulnerability or authenticity. That conversation where Ted puts on Mike's tie, "Ah. Dad... you're choking me," "it's supposed to be a little tight," comes to mind here. His dad's clothing is metaphorically choking him.
Mike's early season outfit is still collared but it's no longer the same cut. It's looser, the edges are softened, it's a bit less preppy. It's a far cry from most of Mike's polo shirts.
Nancy and Jonathan Parallel
These early season outfits also look a lot like some of Nancy and Jonathan's season 1 outfits (much better picture of nancy in comparison to Will in this post here). Obviously there's some romantic connotations there, but it also might suggest something of their dynamic. This outfit is where we sort of have Nancy coming into her own, Jonathan talks to Nancy about her becoming like her parents, and Nancy gets stuck in the upside down. We already know that Mike and Will's storyline is likely to have some similarity to theirs in season 1, with Mike and Jonathan both searching for their younger siblings and fearing for their parents' safety.
We won't know for certain until season 5 comes out, but from what we know so far I don't think we're going to get any direct parallels between Mike and his parents. We've seen some of Karen's outfits but I haven't seen any pictures of Ted at all (this might be because he's bones sorry Ted). This gives me a chance to talk about how, not only are these two outfits from season 3 direct parallels to Ted and Karen...
...these two season 4 outfits are as well.
These are even more significant than the season 3 ones in my opinion; despite Mike's choosing his own clothing and resolving his "I love you" arc (in the opinion of the GA) he is still dressed like Ted and Karen. More himself but still ultimately choosing the path of his parents. Being paralleled to Nancy and Jonathan rather than these two in season 5 is a significant change to his clothing and I think suggests the show is going in the way we expect it to.
What I think will be the MOST authentic Mike Wheeler outfit
For Mike we've already seen a shift towards darker or edgier clothing with his black jeans last season and now we're seeing it even more so here, with both of his primary outfits being a lot darker. Both of his outfits are much softer, especially around the shoulders, and have a looser fit. This outfit is not collared, it's Mike's dark blue, his hair is no longer emulating Eddie's. And! The outfit it's paralleling is his own. Not his parents, and not Nancy and Jonathan. It mirrors this outfit from the very start of the show pretty closely, which suggests he's going to take up a similar role to season 1, probably being the drive to find Holly (and I also think Will potentially). For most other characters early show parallels with themselves might symbolise a regression, but I think with Mike's character there is a sense that he has lost something fundamental to his personality, and so I think this could symbolise regaining it instead.
This is not just about internalised homophobia and Mike's desire to conform, I also think Mike's PTSD and insecurity are going to be addressed. Especially since he is so close to the characters who seem to be most threatened in season 5. The darker clothing I think probably reflects this narrative as much as it reflects authenticity. Mike coming into his own is intrinsically linked to dealing with these issues. Mike wears a lot of dark blue in season 2 where we see him most obviously struggling with PTSD and also spending most time with Will.
I cannot emphasise enough that this outfit is so so significant, Mike's clothing is some of the most intentional in the show and this single outfit symbolically breaks from so many of the themes we've seen in his clothing. Huge props to the costume department, they've done an amazing job imo.
The pattern on Mike's jumper seems to look a lot like the demogorgon's face. Considering we also get demogorgon attack imagery for Mike in s5 (see the Jaws poster directly behind him) we can probably imagine he might be injured by one, or have a significant scene with one. I think he's probably not cooked but I could imagine him being pan fried a little. There's also Mike and Will's shoes being inverted from their season 2 shoes which probably means their roles will be reversed this season. Plus the shoes Mike is wearing may be Will's which would be literally putting himself in Will's shoes. With the attention put into Mike's costuming I personally believe this is absolutely intentional. It's also fun to see more red/burgundy on Mike's clothing since it appears so often on Will's in particular, even if in this case it probably means he's in danger (sorry Mike).
This is all confirmation of stuff we already thought from the narrative so far, and I know a lot of this analysis has been done elsewhere, but I mainly see people talking about the colours characters wear rather than details like cut, fabric and shape so I thought I'd give it a go. If you have read this far, thanks for reading my ramblings :]
Both of Will's outfits match his season 1 one in different ways but with significant changes to signal his progression. There's the collar details, the inclusion of both red and yellow which are significant costuming colours for Will, the little bit of plaid, the undershirt in the second outfit, but it's an evolution rather than a devolution. He's still wearing a lot of blue which is associated with his struggle with sexuality through his feelings for Mike.
Plaid for Will is used to suggest innocence or that he's 'prey' as it were (he gets kidnapped in it, he wears it throughout his possession, he spends season 4 sad gay pining in it). Plaid's meant to make us feel that he's vulnerable so starting season 5 with a little bit poking through his collar means he's being targeted but coming into his own. He's standing up for himself! He's the main character! In my opinion the season 1 parallel obviously points to the events of season 1 being re-explored, the blue suggests his sexuality is central, and the bridgerton glow up does suggest he's potentially a romantic lead. yay!!! I would like to go into more details about his outfits at some point and I'm also super interested in Nancy, El and Jonathan's season 5 outfits so I might make posts for them in the future.
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