‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’ costume designer Sarah Arthur on recreating the 1970s for the prequel series [Exclusive Video Interview]

“The Continental: From the World of John Wick” wastes little time before putting the audience right into the middle of 1970s culture. After a brief prologue, the show opens during a raucous New Year’s Eve party inside the titular hotel – and before the action kicks into Wickian high gear, there are countless high fashion moments. 

Credit for the costumes goes to Sarah Arthur, the two-time Emmy Award nominee, who handled the wardrobe on the Peacock limited series – and tried to stick to the period as carefully as possible. 

“I had Ian Schrager’s Studio 54 book, which was full of photographic references to Liza Minnelli, The Rolling Stones, and Jerry Hall. I mean, you name it. They were they all went there,” Arthur tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview as part of our Meet the Experts costume designer panel. “So it was an incredible reference point for certainly for that opening sequence. We had the Lady Godiva on the horse. We had a Bianca Jagger lookalike. We did mimic a huge amount of those costumes. I also used the Allan Tannenbaum book ‘New York in the 70s,’ which was also full of photographic references.”

Arthur says she managed to procure a lot of original ‘70s costumes for the series – which was shot in Budapest – but still had to create numerous duplicates due to the show’s heavy action.

“We stuck within the realms of the real ‘70s clothing and shoes and bags and accessories,” she says. “Right at the beginning, we had all these henchmen in the classic ‘John Wick’ setup. And so I decided immediately to get 200 suits manufactured and shirts, and so that we could accommodate all of these stunts and car drives. The prep for this was extremely important because of all the action.”

“The Continental” takes place long before Keanu Reeves played the franchise’s title character, instead shifting the action to the 1970s and the rise of Winston Scott, the Continental proprietor played by Ian McShane in the film franchise. For the series, Colin Woodell plays Winston, and the character is not yet in charge of the assassin-friendly hotel. Despite this, Winston still has some recognizable wardrobe items – including his famous ascot. The cultural differences in the naming conventions of the silk accessory – which Americans call an ascot and Europeans recognize as a cravat – ended up as a joke in the show thanks to director Albert Hughes.

“He was adamant that the Americans call what we call a cravat an ascot. So there was a massive, ongoing joke about this,” Arthur says.

Another familiar character for fans of “John Wick” is the idea of the Adjudicator who works for the High Table. For “The Continental,” that role is filled by actress Katie McGrath, who plays the character with an outlandish costume and a frightening mask that covers the lower portion of her face.

“I based her costumes on early Thierry Mugler – slightly exaggerated shoulders, which may not be slightly correct for the ‘70s, but edging more towards the later ‘70s. But I felt that she needed that stature. And then with the mask. It was such good fun to do all of these characters and to individualize them. And a lot of the main characters wore original pieces that we copied, identically. So it was really nice to have that feel of original pieces and then exact copies for the stunts.” 

All episodes of “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” are streaming on Peacock.

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