The Fantabulous Fashion of Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey

DC Comics is known for many iconic characters such as Batman, The Joker, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Supergirl. Many people also love the publisher’s live-action series, animated features, and video games like Arrow, Batman: The Animated Series, and Injustice: Gods Among Us, respectively. Yet remarkably, DC is also known for the controversial nature of its films. Sometimes, it seems that every single time DC Comics is in the news, it is because someone is pointing out a flaw, reporting on unsavory events, or criticizing a movie. From Zac Snyder’s style to Justice League’s convoluted behind-the-scenes drama to Wonder Woman 1984’s positive reviews dwindling with time and divisive nature for a film that tries to spread the opposite, negativity has been a synonym to DC Comics brand image.

That “bad press” hinders people’s enjoyment of some lesser-known gems that the publisher produces. Many of the movies under DC Entertainment have a unique footprint that distinguishes them from any other feature film of the genre, made unknown by the assumption that they are generally bad, messy, and all over the place. (You can just research “dc comics movies bad” and see the criticism for yourselves). One such overlooked “diamond” is Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, later renamed Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Arguably, this film is the most stylish and bold superhero movie of the genre to date. The soundtrack, the colors, the production design and cinematography, and most importantly, the costume design are all expressive and complementary to the characters on a whole new level.

Because it has been officially one year since Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’s release, I believe the best way to honor and remember this female empowerment BANG! of a movie is to break down its costume designs. From Harley Quinn herself to the antagonist Black Mask to the supporting cast of heroes/anti-heroes, everyone’s garments are stylish fantabulous trendsetters.

From the get-go, costume designer Erin Benach, best know for her work in A Star is Born, did not want to continue Harley’s Suicide Squad style. Since the movie’s production envisioned Birds of Prey establishing a new identity to Gotham city, Benach had to imagine how to design an “offshoot” style to Harley’s previous appearance, one that looked far from the “Daddy’s Lil’ Monster” and booty shorts male-gaze combo. She went back to the character’s inspiration, a clip from the series Days of Our Lives where Arleen Sorkin, Harley’s voice actress from Batman: The Animated Series, dresses as a Harlequin, to use as a base for her design for the female anti-hero/villain (really, she is both and neither at the same time). As Benach mentioned in an interview, “I think the Arleen Sorkin bit was always affecting me because I loved the look of that scene.” One of the changes that came out of this process was the expansion of Harley’s color palette from pinks, reds, blues, and whites to a palette that would highlight her bubbly personality and love for sparkle and glitter, something that is very prominent throughout all the 8-9 costumes Quinn wears in the flick.

One of her prominent costumes in the Birds of Prey first act consists of a caution tape pom pom see-through jacket with overall shorts and a pink top. Benach chose the idea of the caution tape as, in her opinion, “Harley, she's anti-establishment... Caution tape is the scene of a crime and the establishment,” so by wearing it, Harley is defacing the status quo and taking it on as her own. But also, caution tapes means warning, a sign of a don’t mess with me attitude, a message that is further explored through the white t-shirt that says “Harley F* Quinn” all over, which the anti-hero/villain wears throughout the second act. Moreover, Benach designed the costume’s pom poms to resemble bird wings to fit the title and create this idea that anybody could craft them.

Another of Harley’s main outfits is her golden jumpsuit. Erin Benach designed it with four colors in mind and ended up selecting the golden hue after seeing the color in action. As she explains, the golden jumpsuit “felt like the sparkle and the glitter and sort of the glam part of Harley that was sort of waking up inside of her” after seeing it under the lighting and frame of a camera test. The designer had to make several adjustments to the jumpsuit textile and composition because it had to be worn by Margot Robbie and her stunt doubles during the third act’s action scenes.

Harley Quinn also wears a couple of garments ephemerally throughout Birds of Prey. One of them is the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes inspired dark magenta dress Harley dons after Black Mask traps her, when she begins to imagine herself in a black-leather recreation of the “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” scene. At one point, as the costume designer mentions, “there were talks of it being something totally different and new,” but while researching ideas she could use to stylize the piece, Benach decided to transform Marylin Monroe’s dress skirt into pants and call it a day. Another quick-but-swell costume of Harley’s is her roller derby uniform at the start of the movie. Besides being an easter egg, it also retains some of Harley’s original red and black palette. Benach mentions that she chose to use the palette as it is “a nod to [Harley’s past] and reminds us this is where she came from." Finally, at the very end of the movie, Quinn sports a fierce outfit made of golden pants, a black and red top, and a fiery blue blazer full of embroidered icons. The designer collabed with high concept fashion-forward brand Discount Universe to create the blazer, which features icons that encompass Harley’s personality and fire detailing, representing Harley’s explosive personality.

For Harley Quinn, like her fourth-wall-breaking nature, the big screens never limited her designs. People have heavily cosplayed with both her Suicide Squad and her Birds of Prey outfits (once again, you can research “Harley Quinn cosplay” on the internet and find the prevalence of especially the former everywhere), signaling the massive appeal of such character. To play with this idea, Erin Benach designed some of the costumes to be easy to replicate in a DIY fashion, as mentioned before, but more interestingly, she created a company called Billie Valentine that licensed the movie’s jewelry collection (including Harley’s Hyena “Bruce” name tag, J fishhook, Queen Chess piece, female sign charm necklace) to officially sell it through the brand’s website. And for Benach’s delight, retailer shops like Hot Topic are selling high-fidelity replicas of Harley’s garments, which is something that captivates any designer and helps blur the line between film costumes, cosplay, and everyday wear.

For now, I have only mentioned the protagonist’s style, but a movie is not made up of only a single character. Starting with the villain Roman Sionis, a.k.a. Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor, Erin Benach wanted him to look “over-the-top but aspirational in a good way,” so his looks could make him feel like he is a character that belongs in the movie’s extravagant plot and style. Sionis is the crime lord of Gotham’s East End and owner of the Black Mask Club, so his clothing had to both acknowledge his wealth and style and be intimidating at the same time. His attire is mostly made of brocade and velvet tailored suits to pop in the dim lights of his club and the dirty streets of Gotham.

But when Black Mask is at his house, his pajamas show a much more narcissistic side for the character. As Benach explains, “There is a scene where, for the silk pajamas, we created a textile of Roman's face on it to reflect his very egocentric kind of personality.” If having his face printed in sleepwear is not enough to represent Sionis’s egotism (if you haven’t picked up, faces are this character’s obsession), Benach designed a logo for him that she later monogrammed into all his handkerchiefs, scarfs, and gloves. “Everything is just as personalized as you could be.”

Moving on to the side characters, I will only highlight Black Canary and The Huntress’s costume designs because they are the most intricate and à la mode of the rest of the ensemble cast. Dinah Lance Black Canary, played by Jurnee Smollett, goes through a drastic change in style from singer to urban hero. In a scene where she sings, It’s a Man’s Man’s World, her costume takes a lot of inspiration from the comics and plays with it to become a haute couture dress. Erin Benach explains that Dinah “looks like the type who would buy in vintage stores, and her fashion sense included fishnets, black leather, and gold,” which is precisely what Black Canary wears as her crime fighting uniform in comics, so she translated the hero’s vintage street look into an ultra-chic dress almost entirely made of black fishnets and gold accents. This inverse mentality carries over into Canary’s fighting outfit, where instead of using her iconic muted black (sometimes navy blue) jacket and bodice and minimal gold touches, Benach styled her with vivid blues and golds to complement Harley’s gold and pink getup and make her shine in action. The golden-orange crop-top and belt and the dark blue pants and bra accentuate Dinah’s body chains and arm cuffs to create something the designer calls “a sort of boss look in the suit.”

Finally, Helena Bertinelli’s The Huntress, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, packs an outfit that Benach calls “Supreme Meets Louis Vuitton.” Her style maximizes action and stealth, so she wears dark hues to blend in with the shadows. The designer had to test a range of shades of black with diverse iridescence levels to them so the outfit could also be dynamic in the light, mixing purples and blues to add an extra layer of color to it. Huntress style is sporty, so rather than donning tight-fitted garments like most of the other character’s getups, Helena’s bodices are both tight and lose depending on her outfit, her high-waisted pants are baggy in nature, and she wears a hood a cape to hide whenever she needs to perform a quick kill. In Benach’s words, “There is still a roundedness in her street clothing, yet she is still hero-esque. She is a kind of quiet warrior hero.”

Overall, I don’t think anyone sums up the costume design experience of this movie better than the director herself, Cathy Yan, when she says, “I had never seen that before, that level of understanding the fashion zeitgeist in a superhero film.” The movie’s fashion-forward neoteric trendiness transcends the big screen’s borders and sets up a precedent that superhero costumes and day-to-day fashion or runway fashion can look more alike than expected. In the end, there was so much more that I could have written about, from hair and makeup to other character’s clothing, so if you want to see more of Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, you will have to watch the movie, and as is my humble opinion, you won’t regret it for its personality, feminist perspective, and style. As Benach once stated, “I really, really, really might have had the most fun I’ve ever had in costume design making this movie,” the viewer experience is not far from the level of entertainment she had doing so.

You can watch Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey now on HBO Max.

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