The story of The Handmaid's Tale and its main character, June Osborne, is one of the most riveting stories being told on TV today. It's also one of the most unique TV stories ever told, period. The thought and effort put into its creation is simply astounding, and there are about a thousand details in every frame of the series that can be pored over and analyzed for some significant meaning.
Out of every character in the series, it's June who understandably gets the most attention to her personalized details. Although June spends most of her time in identical or nearly identical costumes, the consideration put into the creation of her costume and appearance is impressive. June's costume is meant to simultaneously stand out and blend in, and here are 10 details on her costumes that you almost certainly didn't notice.
Everything Is Handmade
No, that isn't just a painfully obvious play on the title of The Handmaid's Tale. The show's costume design is undeniably impressive as well as being extremely striking, and there's a reason for that.
June's costume, along with most of the other costumes in Gilead, all had to be created from scratch. It's obvious that no one could just go out to the local mall and find some nice cloaks and Pilgrim-style dresses that would fit the televised adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale, but the amount of work that goes into making June's costume from scratch is insane.
Everything Is Dyed By Production
The color coding within The Handmaid's Tale is one of the most visually obvious distinctions between the characters, and it's one of the most important visual rules of Gilead itself. The book The Handmaid's Tale describes the appearances of the characters, but there isn't enough detail to say exactly how everything looks.
Readers know that the handmaids wear red, but the distinct and vibrant shade of red used in the TV adaptation was a choice on the part of production. Because everything needed to look uniform, all of the fabrics are dyed by the production as well.
The Bonnets Are Blinders
The concept behind the bonnets is something you would assume is simple to execute, but not so much when it comes to actually filming the series. The bonnets are an important part of the handmaids' uniform because they're meant to hide the handmaids from the world as well as keep them from seeing the rest of it.
When it comes to June and filming her for the TV show, the bonnet adds a significant complication that production always has to be working around. When 75% of your lead character's face is obscured, working the right angles is essential.
The Bonnets Make Elisabeth's Job Harder
So the handmaids' bonnets are a filming issue that the crew has to be constantly aware of when they're setting up every scene. However, the bonnet obviously makes lead actress Elisabeth Moss' job a lot more difficult as well.
She not only has to be constantly aware of where the camera is (without actually being able to look at it) in order to ensure that they're actually capturing her face, but she also has to have a very good idea of where exactly she is going to be moving and looking as the scene progresses without making any mistakes.
June's Sweatshirt Is Personalized
One behind the scenes tidbit about the costumes that has never been mentioned in the show is the clothes that are from the pre-Gilead era are still being used today.
Obviously, handmaids have a uniform they traditionally wear, but they also have a piece of clothing of their choice from the time before (obviously one that matches Gilead's color scheme though). The red sweatshirt that June wears is her holdover from before. The sweatshirt was chosen specifically to signify June's casual style, and usually she's only wearing it when she's somewhere she feels relatively comfortable.
The Ear Tags Have Serial Numbers
The ear tags put on every handmaid in The Handmaid's Tale have been a source of curiosity and confusion for audiences. A lot of viewers wondered if those tags are some kind of GPS tracking device however, they're not.
They're just meant to identify women as handmaids even if they're not in their required garb, and the idea was essentially modeled after the kind of tags that are usually put on livestock. Even though they're not some kind of technological trackers, the ear tags are all outfitted with serial numbers to identify the wearer.
The Red Is Her Lifeblood
In case it wasn't obvious by now, both the book and TV versions of The Handmaid's Tale overflow with symbolism. Since June and the rest of the handmaids are the story's focal point, there are few things in the series that are more symbolic than the clothing they wear.
There is an obvious reference to The Scarlet Letter with the handmaids' bright red outfits, but in the eyes of Gilead the color red is meant to symbolize and acknowledge the fact that handmaids are the literal lifeblood of Gilead, being the state's source of children.
The Red Is Unique
Costume design is a really fascinating facet of television and filmmaking because although it oftentimes needs to be visually striking, it also needs to have a natural and realistic feel. All of the clothing in Gilead has been dyed by the production of The Handmaid's Tale, and choosing the uniforms' specific red was not an easy task.
The dramatic shade that the production eventually chose was the Pantone color 202 CP. Although the color didn't have an official name from Pantone, the costume designers nicknamed the now very recognizable shade with the appropriate moniker "Lifeblood."
Elisabeth's Taste Influences June's Original Style
When it comes to the Gilead era, there aren't a lot of possibilities for costume variations in June's wardrobe. However, for the scenes before Gilead's rise, there is obviously a lot of room to play with June's personal style. In fact, a lot of June's style has been inspired by actress Elisabeth Moss' own personal taste in clothing.
It's unclear how this decision came to be, but Elisabeth is an executive producer herself, so maybe she just wanted to be comfortable! This presumably adds to the performance as well, showing June/Elisabeth being more at ease in her normal life.
There's No Way Out Of The Clothing
If you haven't been convinced of how amazing the costume design on The Handmaid's Tale is by now, this detail will push you over the edge. There are a lot of specific costume choices that help to sell the series' narrative, but the costume designers have been extremely clever in designing costumes that doesn't have any visible ways of escaping.
The designers have gone out of their way to avoid any visible buttons or zippers on the clothing. They did this to symbolically as well as literally demonstrate how trapped June and the other handmaids are.