Something I really like about The Umbrella Academy is the attention to detail in the costume department. Iโm going to use Klaus as an example cause he has the most visual style and in my opinion had the biggest change along the season (also because i love my boy ok)
Beyond the flamboyant looks that represents Klaus so much, we can analyze the meaning of his clothes.
To start we need to acknowledge that thereโs a point in his story that completely change him, we are going to call it before Dave and after Dave
Morphologically speakingย the use of layers in his clothes (coats,scarfs, necklaces and even the fringes in the skirt) show us how much he hides his real self and its also a metaphor for this drugs how he used them to separate himself from the ghost world. But these layers are thin, in most of the scenes we can see his skin. That show us vulnerability, they represents a fragile and fake protection against the outside world
If we see the colors (yes Iโm going to talk a lot about color theory cause thatโs my favorite subject in the world and I could talk about it all day long. OK enough of me)
B.D.Klaus wears a lot of black, yes yes itโs a funeral, but ha! like if Klaus would care. No he wears black cause 1. Black means death obvious choice, death is closer to him than to any other person in history but 2. and more importantly cause black is the absence of light. Even if we can see Klaus smiling and laughing more in the first chapters we know is fake. Thereโs no light in his life, he already gave up and gave control to the drugs. (notice how Ben clothes are darker too since drugs also affects our perception of him) All his life to this point has been lightless.
Thereโs an exception in his nicest outfit but green has a lot of meanings and one of them is greed and ambition. The reason Klaus was joining five was to get money but in his primary goal we see a bits of a warmer color in contrast. Iโll let you to decide if you want to believe this warm color is for having his brother back but in my opinion red means spontaneity and dare.
In the first scene after he comes back from Vietnam we see him choosing a grey shirt, grey is transition, is detachment, is sadness but then he starts using his vest. He goes back to the layers but this time his protection is Dave. And this leads to the most representative color in Klaus as they also chose it for the posters GREEN. I said before green is ambition but colors have complex meanings and also means change, evolution and hope. These are the pillars for Klaus for the rest of the season. The only moment where heโs not using his green vest is when heโs looking for Luther bc his primary motivation change for a few hours.
The rest of the season even if we see him sadder than ever, he is more connected to his feelings and boy heโs feeling a lot. He wears shirts with mixed colors as he is learning to feel different emotions, new emotions that Dave brought to his life and also the ones his feeling for his new sobriety. Its all a bit overwhelming since this feelings are inconflict with himself and we see this fight in the prints.
He wears yellows which means fear, caution and anxiety, blues that are serenity, instropection, melancholy, faithfulness and healing. Orange that means courage and confidence. And my favorite pink. Pink means love, not passionate love but a caring love, the sensible, tender and warm love. And this is important because itโs probably the first time Klaus has been receiving of this kind of love and heโs still hopeful to get it back.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk
gracieabrams
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
snowghoul
andulkaphoto
romaincrisis
sugurugetos
theartofmadeline
