The much-talked-about One Piece live-action adaptation based on Eiichiro Oda's wildly popular manga is currently streaming. Starring Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Taz Skylar, Jacob Gibson, and others, the series dives into the East Blue saga. The show has won over fans, seemingly breaking the adaptation curse. Everything about the production was carefully planned, keeping the iconic characters and the fandom in mind, right down to the costumes. In an exclusive interview with Filmfare, costume designer Diana Cilliers opened up about Nami's outfits inspired by early sketches by Eiichiro Oda, putting Mackenyu in those flattering shirts, and more. What was your process for adapting the costumes from the One Piece manga? The most important thing was that we really wanted to honour Oda sensei's manga. We didn't want to detract from that in any way at all. And I guess from a costume point of view, I had to look at the drawings and then turn it into something that was three-dimensional with fabrics and textures and so on. That was a great challenge, and we wanted to stick to the colours, the designs, and everything else exactly the same. It was difficult to turn it into something that moves.
What references did you look at for the costumes? Oh yes, we had many conversations. We went through many tests because we wanted to remain true to the manga. Eiichiro Oda's Color Walk 1 and 2 were referred to all the time. We also had many conversations about which costume would be used for which scene. Another one of the serious considerations we had to make was safety. We were shooting in dangerous settings—in the water on a boat. Actors had to jump and move around, so there were a lot of safety issues that we had to consider for the costumes. How did you decide on materials and textures considering all your research material was 2D?
It was quite interesting because using the actual manga designs and then actually interpreting them into fabrics was a very tricky thing because I had to go through all the fabrics and decide which one was absolutely perfect for which costume. So it was quite a specific process. Unlike other movies where you just deal with whatever comes to mind, this was very specifically based on 2D art. We wanted to turn it into something that felt real and wasn't in any way made up. We wanted the characters to feel like it's a part of their identity, like they lived in their clothing. We didn't want it to look new, so all of these things were considered in the process.
Nami's costumes are noticeably different in the show. How much were the costumes tweaked keeping the cast in mind? We did a lot of research other than looking at the manga and the anime. For instance, the stripes on Nami's t-shirt are slightly different from the actual manga drawing. We had to also think of what was flattering about the actress (Emily Rudd). You want to remain very, very true to the manga, but you also want to make the cast look good. And of course, they also have a say in what they want to look like and how they interpret it. So everyone worked very closely together, especially the showrunners and us. We worked very closely together with the cast to make it work for all of us so that everyone was happy. Most importantly, Oda was absolutely happy with the outcome before we actually manufactured and used the costumes. Fans can't get enough of Mackenyu's Zoro. How much of his flattering styling was intentional? Well, Mackenyu is beautiful. He is a very good-looking man, so it wasn't that hard. But we also put him in exactly the same costumes as in the manga. We chose certain fabrics, like his shirts, which are mostly made out of nice raw silk, fabrics that would also be flattering on his body and that would still not take away from the manga in any way. It is exactly the same shape and the same outfit as the manga, but we obviously wanted all our actors to make them look as good as they possibly could, bearing in mind that they had to look like the characters and not just be attractive. With Mackenyu, it's very hard to make him not look beautiful and attractive. He's very good at sword fighting and so on. So he had a lot of input as well in terms of how he moved in his outfit during the sword fights. It was really important that everybody could move really well in their outfits without them falling apart or coming loose. So there was. It was very important that everyone was comfortable. And I think Zoro's earrings we had to spend quite a bit of time on because we didn't want them to hook on anything, hurt him, or pull, you know? We spent a lot of time getting the weight correct so that it wasn't too heavy for him and looked perfect.
Outfits in manga can get repetitive. Tell us a little more about some of the experiments. We used the iconic looks of each character, and that's what we introduced them in. From then on, we also had to think of the practicalities: would they keep on wearing the same outfit or would they change? We had to make multiple of the iconic outfits. So when they spent a lot of time on the boat, we wanted them to be able to change their clothes as well. We talked colour with the production designer as well. It was important to know exactly what the sets looked like and what the costumes looked like on the sets.
What was your experience working with the cast?
It was hard to imagine how they found exactly the right cast, especially Inaki Godoy's Luffy. When we met the actors, we were all completely overwhelmed. It was one of the best castings that I had ever seen in my career. The actors were absolutely perfect for the characters. And each character had so much of their own identity, and that was what was so wonderful about it. So when I met them and when we started dealing with the costumes and the characters with the cast, it was overwhelmingly wonderful. It was really magical the way the cast got along with each other and the way they related to one another, especially the Straw Hats. It was wonderful to see the magic between them.View this post on InstagramWhat were some of your favourite characters to style? It's a very hard question to answer because, of course, the Straw Hats were just fantastic with their iconic looks. But then there was Dracule MiHawk, Arlong and his guys, the military outfits, Garp, and his people. Everything was very different. We didn't really have a timeline, so it was done in a way that there wasn't really a very specific period that we were dealing with. That wasn't contemporary; it wasn't 1920 or 1800. If you think of Gol D. Roger, that was quite a period. Everything was so completely different, and that's what made it such an incredible journey. Every costume had its own styling and its own sensibilities.
One Piece characters have extravagant elements. Which character was the most challenging to dress? I think Arlong was quite difficult. We covered him a little bit more than he would have been covered normally in the manga. We chose the colours because we wanted a darkness about him as well. We put some laser-cut leather into his costume. But it couldn't be too dark because we put in the pure essence of the manga character. The same goes for MiHawk as well. His hat was very important. It had very specific colours and textures. What wardrobe essentials would you recommend for fans who want to dress like One Piece characters? The Straw Hat itself is an important item. We had the wonderful Jackie Colby, who worked with us and she had a team of people who made a massive amount of hats. And of course, one had to consider that nothing had to fit properly because Luffy's clothes were not made for him, they were clothes he found. So we weathered them and put a little bit of sewing on them to make it look real. There's also shoes we had to deal with. We had many meetings and decided to make the shoes look like sandals, but to keep them safe. But I think of all those elements, the reality of it is the most important thing. Nothing is perfect because they were not perfect and the costumes were not perfect. And I think that is something I would advise any fans to do as well, to put a bit of reality into it. Rather than make it fantastically costumey, make it look more real. That would mean that it doesn't fit perfectly or that it has some mending stitches on it or something like that. Can you give us a little teaser for season 2? Our second season is confirmed, and we're very happy about it. It's going to be a completely new character and a wonderful new experience for viewers. Nobody needs to think that it's not going to be as exciting, if not more exciting, than the first season. One Piece is currently streaming on OTT.
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