Harley Quinn has had many costume changes since the red-and-black outfit she wore during her first appearance on Batman: The Animated Series, and Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) will once again redesign the character. Costume designer Erin Benach spoke about Harley's updated costume design in the upcoming film.
"Behind her story is always something a little bit off from center and a little bit crazy, with the idea being that caution tape may be a place to stay away from, and maybe it’s a way to caution the world against what she might do," Benach told Collider about Harley's now caution tape jacket.
Benach also said Harley's outfit was designed to look like she'd made it on her own. "That’s why we did it like that. It’s fun and a little bit crazy like her.” She also noted inspiration for the Birds of Prey costumes was taken from the characters' comic book backstories, personalities, and older costume versions.
“I think it was a combination of allowing myself to look at it and then also sort of keeping myself away because I really want to create something new but inspired by [the comics]," Benach said. "We started with those characters and all their looks and I was able to kind of see what had been done over the different versions of the comics over the years. I think we took more of the backstory and the personality from there and then used the world that we were creating with Gotham to actually create the costumes.”
Directed by Cathy Yan from a script by Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) stars Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Steven Williams, Derek Wilson, Dana Lee, Francois Chau, Charlene Amoia, Chris Messina and Matthew Willig. The film arrives in theaters Feb. 7, 2020.