‘Shogun’ Costume Designer Carlos Rosario Talks Creating 2,300 Costumes and Breaks Down Key Characters’ Looks
variety.comCaroline Brew editor While working on “Shōgun,” costume designer Carlos Rosario created approximately 2,300 costumes for the FX limited series spanning 10 episodes. “It was a massive.
It was a huge show and a huge crew. There were consultants on set that were checking every day to make sure that the dressing of each costume was accurate for each scene,” Rosario said. “Shōgun” follows Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) on his quest to become the shōgun, the military leader of the nation, joined by his translator Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai) and English ally John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis).
Because the series is set in 1600s Japan, Rosario had limited primary sources to study. After visiting every website and museum that had Japanese pieces from that period, he said what helped him the most was studying paintings from the 1600s and chatting with historians.
Since the series is rooted in history, Rosario was able to draw inspiration from the characters’ real-life counterparts. For instance, he designed the first costume Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) appears in based on a painting of the “Lady Ochiba of that period.” “That was the first time that I used a painting to create one of my costumes,” he said. “In the beginning of Episode 2 in the flashback, we see Lady Ochiba for the first time, and she’s wearing this beautiful uchikake that we made from scratch.
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