When Costume Designer Lizz Wolf recruited me onto Creed 3 in 2021, it’s safe to say that we as country had collectively, lived thru some craziness. After a lot of conversation, the idea of draping Adonis/Michael in the American flag regalia of Apollo Creed felt rather…irresponsible to the moment.
So, the challenge was, how do you reinterpret something so iconic? This is where Lizz’s genius shined thru for me because she put Theaster Gates and David Hammons on my plate. She knew and was unafraid of where this had to go, and we were off to the races.
In these illustrations, the robe’s stripes are made completely out of fire hoses, giving honor to Theaster’s work. As the robe goes from front to back, it morphs from the muted tone of red, white and blue, to the colors of the Pan-African flag, giving honor to the work of David Hammons. The stars, references folded flags and hand wraps (my own two cents).
This robe is fully American, fully Black, and fully Creed.
For Damien, when Lizz started describing him to me, he was pitched as feeling like a motherless child with no sense of belonging, and whose dreams were perceived to be stolen. From that hollow, brutality grew, so, there was a lot to work with!
In the beginning, she really pushed the use of West African fabrics because of how important the rumble in the jungle was to Dame, but as we found out more about him, I pitched the narrative of Anansi, the West African trickster god, due to Dame’s fighting style, and it surprisingly hit!
Like the Adonis robe, the story that Lizz built around Dame’s clothing was deep and incredibly well researched, which made it quite easy to come and imagine what this guy might look like!
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