The question, “why does the color of a clicker’s clothes matter?” might not be one “The Last of Us” fans think of often, but it certainly isn’t far from the mind of season 2’s costume designer Ann Foley. From character color palettes to personalized Chucks, Foley brings a fresh take to the show’s costuming that seamlessly follows season 1’s success while also contributing to the storytelling in subtle yet significant ways.

Foley’s time on “The Last of Us” follows her work with other franchise shows and movies such as MCU’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” and Adam Wingard’s “Godzilla vs. Kong.” “Craig and Neil were amazing and so supportive,” Foley says when discussing her experience first joining “The Last of Us” team. “We talked about what everything looked like in the game, but they always wanted to see my take on it.”

Practical Changes

This collaboration led to some important logistical and character-based costume changes throughout the season that varied between protection against weather to portrayal of character mindsets. For example, the extreme temperatures during the first two episodes of the season required a different approach for practical reasons.

“In the game, everybody’s in these lightweight coats, and that’s great,” Foley says, “for the game. But that’s not gonna work for us in real life. So, we had to make those changes.”

There are other instances throughout the season, either due to location or the adjusted timeline, where such practical changes had to be made. But the game’s costuming choices were never far from Foley’s mind.

“I did work really closely with Naughty Dog’s [former character art director], Ashley Swidowski,” Foley says. Along with her concept costume illustrator, Imogene Chayes, Foley worked with Swidowski to better understand the games’ design process. “We would take that,” Foley explains, “and then we would just take it to the next level for all the characters. It helped us stay true to the them, even if we had to make changes.”

Dellie and Color Palettes

Part of the process for staying true to the characters was Foley’s adherence to color palettes that reflect a character’s journey or purpose in the story. This is largely between Ellie and Dina, and especially through the creative team’s choice to put Dina in a colorful Aviator Nation jacket.

“I had the jacket on my mood board for Dina because it had a really cool late-nineties vibe to it,” Foley says. “It also just spoke to me as to who Dina was as a character: bright and effervescent, and I loved the idea of color on her [in contrast to] Ellie’s much darker palette.” Foley explains that it was important to show such a difference to highlight the pull between the two characters. “Dina is the light in Ellie’s life. She represents that sort of hope, of bringing Ellie back from the dark.”

Ellie’s color palette this season, with deeper and darker tones, reflects not only her emotionally riveting journey, but also Joel’s impact on her life. “As the season progresses, especially in episode 5, Ellie is channelling Joel,” Foley says. “They might not have been related by blood, but they were father and daughter in every other way. It made sense to me that they should mirror each other in that color palette.”

Character Journeys

Ellie isn’t the only character with a darkness to her wardrobe this season. Foley also points to the similar colors we see on Abby, which reflects the similarities between the two young adversaries. “They’re mirrors of each other in this journey,” Foley stresses, “it’s almost like they’re the same person. So, you’re going to see a lot of similarities, and that was definitely done by choice.”

The importance of character color palettes extends even to Tommy, who we see dressed in red a lot this season. “Tommy is a pillar of that [Jackson] community,” Foley says about the color choice. “During the attack on Jackson in episode 2, I wanted the audience and Maria to be able to track Tommy in the middle of all that chaos. So, we purposely kept red out of all of the infected that were down on the street.”

The consideration of Tommy’s visibility to both Maria and the audience speaks to perhaps the most important part of costume designing, especially in a show like “The Last of Us:” collaboration. We see this especially with the immersive Cordyceps spores scene in episode 5, which Foley’s team started contributing to about six weeks before shooting.

Collaboration

“The workmanship in that room was next level,” Foley says. “My team’s job was to help plant the clothes into the Cordyceps and make it all look like it’s one.” Once they received the Cordyceps pieces from the special effects team, led by Barry Gower, Foley’s team began their work. “We wanted the Cordyceps to look like they were growing out of the weave of the clothing, and then we painted in the moisture and the texture.”

“It’s disgustingly beautiful,” Foley says fondly. “It’s art.”

Part of the art that makes the costuming so beautiful this season also resides in the subtler details. Even something as small as doodles on a pair of Converse. Foley’s choice to have Bella Ramsey contribute to Ellie’s costume by drawing on her shoes came from the idea that doodling teenagers rarely keep their art confined within the pages of a journal. “I gave a pair [of Converse] to Bella and said ‘you take these, channel Ellie, and make these Ellie’s’.”

Though audiences don’t see close ups of Ellie’s Converse on the show, Foley believed they were important nonetheless. “For Bella, I think it was helpful to channel Ellie. It’s those little touches that help bring the character into focus. Some of it, I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it didn’t matter. Bella knew.”

A Little More Special

Foley’s focus on how the smallest details contribute to a character’s larger arc, both for the audience and for the actors themselves, certainly makes season 2 of “The Last of Us” more visceral, real, and emotional. As she says herself, “it’s those little details that make it fun, make it a little more special.” Make it, even, a reality we could place ourselves in.

Though maybe that’s better saved for one of Foley’s other, less apocalyptic, projects.

The season finale of “The Last of Us” season 2 premieres Sunday May 25^th at 6pm PST/9pm EST on HBO Max.