Netflix is known for their hit or miss exclusive movies and TV shows. Things like Stranger Things, Sex Education and my personal favourite The End of the Fxxxing World.
The End of the Fxxxing World is a rollercoaster of a dramedy that at its heart, is a love story. It focuses on James and Alyssa, two seventeen year olds that come together from very different circumstances and compliment each other perfectly. James is a questioning psychopath who ‘feels nothing’ and Alyssa is an obtrusive girl who isn't afraid to say anything on her mind. Alyssa fills in the emotion that James lacks and they complete each other. It makes perfect sense that their costumes in the show do the same thing.
Everything in film and Tv is done for a reason, the colours, the settings, the props, the camera angles, everything. It’s all done to convey different messages about the characters or plots subverted but obvious. In TEOTFW (abbreviated for reading pleasure) the costumes directly reflect their mood and personalities at different times.
Episode one:
When we first meet Alyssa she is lying on the grass and making a speech about taking breaks from life when it gets too much,
“I get these moments when I have to lie down because everything feels sort of too much and I look up and see the blue, or the grey, or the black and I feel myself melting into it. And, for like a split second, I feel free. And happy. Innocent. Like a dog, or an alien, or a baby."
As Alyssa says the yellow sweater she is wearing shows her innocence and happiness.
Yellow is the colour of the sun, warmth, happiness, innocence and childlike nature. It perfectly represents how Alyssa feels in this scene.
Later Alyssa is seen in a red cardigan and a mostly neutral outfit, this is the moment she meets James. This is also the scene where we really understand Alyssa’s personality (and this was the moment I started to absolutely love her). She smashes her phone after a girl she’s sitting at the table with texts her instead of talking to her in real life. She then walks over to James and the following conversation proceeds:
(Alyssa) “Hey.”
(James) “Hey.”
“I’ve seen you skating”
“yeah?”
“You’re pretty shit.”
“Fuck off.”
Alyssa in this scene is boisterous and loud so it makes sense she is wearing a red cardigan. The colour red represents power, anger, assertiveness, daring, and impulsiveness. Alyssa practically is the colour red.
Later in the episode Alyssa takes off her white t-shirt to reveal-guess what?-a red bra. The bra is red because, like I said before, Alyssa is the colour red. The costume designers give her something red to wear in every outfit before episode 4, when everything changes.
James in this episode is wearing a dark blue shirt with black jeans. He wears this outfit when he first encounters Alyssa. Dark blue is the colour of submissiveness, importance, significance, intelligence, and stability. He shows all of these traits in his tone of voice and lack of almost any emotion. He is the stability to Alyssa’s explosiveness.
Another significant fact about blue and red is if we look at colour theory, blue and red are contrasting colours but also quite complementary to make a chaotic statement in a piece. They contrast in colour but look great together. Just like Alyssa and James. They have contrasting personalities but their personalities complement each other almost perfectly.
Episode 2:
This episode takes place immediately after the first so it makes sense that Alyssa is wearing the same white t-shirt and jeans combo (with the red bra underneath of course) but she has added a large brown leather jacket-her father’s jacket-to the outfit.
This was used, not for colour, but for plot and character significance. Alyssa made a point of talking about her father in the first episode, making him seem like an end destination for her. Hate your mother and step-father? Try finding your dad again.
It adds a paternal and comforting element to Alyssa’s costuming through the rest of the series. It keeps her on her toes about her goals and reminds her of what she’s really after halfway through the show. Her dad.
James actually loses his t-shirt when he accidentally crashes his dad’s car that they ran away in. You might think his costuming here doesn’t really show his personality because he’s half naked but it actually says a lot about how he is feeling at this point.
Alyssa tries to have sex with James while he’s driving (It’s not at all serious) and makes him take his shirt off, and while this is happening James can’t see and crashes the car into a tree. His shirt goes in the backseat and he panics.
For the first time we see a real emotion from James because he just crashed his dad’s car. James is feeling vulnerable and his lack of a top perfectly shows that. Bare chests are exposed and defenseless, James feels exposed and defenseless as his sense of stability (the car) is destroyed.
They then hitchhike to a road and get in a random man’s van to take them to the nearest stop. The man seems friendly enough and gives James a light brown sweater.
Brown symbolizes friendliness and stability. The man gives James back a sense of stability after he loses the stability of his dad’s car. It is also a symbol of the friendliness the man wants James to perceive.
Episode 3:
After they hitchhike, James and Alyssa break into an empty house to spend the night. The owner of the house comes back and things escalate and Alyssa ends up with red blood all over her white shirt.
As well as red meaning power, anger, assertiveness, and daring it also is a colour that can make people make quick decisions. The blood is a symbolic return of Alyssa’s daringness and of James’s impulsiveness.
Episode 4:
In this episode they both change their wardrobes (drastically in Alyssa’s case), sticking to these outfits for the rest of the eight episodes.
Alyssa changes her bold and casual fashion of red cardigans, red bras, and jeans for a girly pink flower print dress accompanied by her father’s big brown jacket. Alyssa also bleaches and cuts her hair but that’s beside the point.
Pink is a delicate colour and Alyssa is the opposite of delicate. She masks her real self in this disguise of pink delicateness, tenderness and approachability. She is covering up the girl we once knew in the beginning of the show.
James, instead of masking himself with his new guise, lets his true nature out through his choice of clothes. So far we’ve only seen him in dark colours or neutral tones so to have him pull out a bright red Hawaiian shirt is pretty life changing.
James is past his turning point in the series and starts to become more chaotic and strong. He starts to embody the colour red just like Alyssa, just with a bit more stability. His red Hawaiian shirt draws the eye’s attention and embodies his newfound power, courage, and assertiveness.
Alyssa and James’s wardrobe choices do a full 180 after the turning point and that just shows how the event affects them. I won’t disclose what the event is because spoilers but their costuming shows James’s rise of confidence and Alyssa’s retreat into fear.
Conclusion:
Costuming is extremely important for any television show or movie that is produced. If the director or costume director wants to make a statement about character or some subverted meaning they need to research colour and know their characters well. TEOTFW definitely did that extremely well in their first season and I hope the costume significance carries on throughout the new second season.
Thank you for reading,
HB
me at the costumes from this show:
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