No trees were harmed in the making of this man.

Just over a week before Wicker began filming in Hungary, costume designers András Dániel Tóth and Attila Godena-Juhász, who work together as András + Attila, were thrown a major curveball. Alexander Skarsgård, who plays—as the title suggests—a man made entirely out of wicker, was originally supposed to show skin only from the waist up.

András + Attila’s sketch of the Wicker Man’s wedding suit.
Courtesy of András + Attila

“The directors [Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson] came up with this idea nine days before we started shooting that they would like to see Alex completely naked,” Tóth says. The duo and their team of costumers got to work making Skarsgård a bottom half—wood and all. “We had nine days to catch up with Wētā Workshop [who created the prosthetic top half] and to finish the whole costume,” Tóth adds.

But there was another challenge in store: the wicker suit also had to withstand water. The team made the bottoms out of scuba material so Skarsgård could submerge in the water. Godena-Juhász and Tóth took a mannequin made to the actor’s measurements and began plotting a pattern. “This is a very traditional old couture technique: you have a body, you cover it with paper tape, and then you cut it,” Tóth explains. “So from a three-dimensional body, you made a two-dimensional pattern.” But the material was all white. “We had to paint every single printed detail and shade it with a tiny brush,” Tóth adds. In the final step, the duo treated the paint with heat, giving it a three-dimensional effect that matched Skarsgård’s prosthetic top.

Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård.
Courtesy of Black Bear

As it turns out, the key to a successful last-minute waterproof wicker suit is a good attitude. “We don’t stress,” Tóth says. “Stress is just a waste of energy and time.” It also helped that the duo had experience with the 3D-printed garment-making process they used. “We used this technique before in another movie, so we had some experience with this,” Godena-Juhász says. “And also we had a very, very, very good workshop with good people. It was a little family, so we worked together.” The endeavor began on the first day of filming. As Godena-Juhász put it, “After we survived the first day, everything was so easy.”

Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs Reed All About It How Alexander Skarsgrd Ended Up in Couture Scuba Pants for Wicker

1 What is this article about
Its a fashion story explaining how actor Alexander Skarsgrd came to wear custommade couture scuba pants for his role in the film Wicker

2 Who is Alexander Skarsgrd
A Swedish actor known for roles in True Blood Big Little Lies The Northman and Succession

3 What is Wicker
Its the film project Skarsgrd was working on when the scuba pants outfit was created The article focuses on the costume rather than the plot

4 What are couture scuba pants
Pants made from neoprene the same material used in wetsuits but constructed with haute couture techniques customfitted handfinished and made by a fashion house rather than a sportswear brand

5 Why would a costume be made of scuba material
Neoprene holds its shape has a distinct structured look and photographs strikingly It gives a costume a sculptural modern feel that regular fabric cant match

6 Who made the pants
The article credits a fashion housecostume design team that crafted the piece specifically for Skarsgrd

7 How did Skarsgrd end up wearing them
Through a collaboration between the films costume department and the fashion house the look was designed around his character and his physique then fitted to him personally

8 What does reed all about it mean in the title
Its a pun on the phrase read all about it playing on the designers or subjects name and the newsstyle headline format

9 Is this a real news story or a fashion feature
Its a fashionculture feature part reporting part style commentary rather than hard news

10 Whats the difference between couture and offtherack
Couture is madetomeasure by hand for one person offtherack is massproduced in standard sizes Couture fits precisely and uses higherend construction