To continue analyzing The OA on a mis-en-scene level, I decided to look at the costume design for episode two. I think you can tell a lot about a person based on how they dress, truthfully. I know that we should never judge a book by its cover, and that's not what I'm really going for, but clothing and appearance in general is a way to gauge who a person is even before they speak a single word. This episode proved to be particularly important for analyzing costume design because the main character actually went full detail into her first encounter with the person that changed her life forever. Because this was the first time that the audience saw what she saw, the first impression had to be spot on and therefore the costumes had to convey the right kind of message.
Analyzing Prarie/the OA/Nina is a pretty daunting task. What we know about her identity and history is extremely limited, so any kind of hint or detail becomes important in piecing her together as she tells the tale of her life. As she explains her childhood, at least in the beginning, she wears bright, crisp white and her hair is neatly pulled back and well maintained. Once things started to go south with her aunt she wears dingy clothing and has actual caked in dirt on her small forehead. Without even paying attention to the content of the show, this shift in clothing tells the audience that she is not the same girl that she was and is definitely going through a rocky patch in her life. As the story progresses and she gets older, she is constantly shown in draped, flower print clothing, almost like a young girl dressing up like a grandmother. To me, this is an early sign that she is/will be wise. When there is a flash of her currently in time telling the story, she wears draped clothes again, but with some sort of crochet wrap. At first I thought that this was just a way of making her look homely or perhaps more welcoming since the town is a little intimidated by her, but I noticed that her mother wears similar clothing, so I'm pretty sure that's just the designers way of saying that she wears whatever's left at her house and maybe sometimes her mom's clothes.
Her mother actually follows sort of the same costume path as she does. In the beginning of the story she tells her mom has neat hair pulled back and bright eyes to match a bright smile, however in the present time her hair is more unkept and her face is definitely losing its shine. Like previously stated, she wears lots of crochet vests and wraps over plain clothing, so as to highlight her natural features that she loses as she ages.
As far as the man that changes the main character's life, he is an easy one to explain. Before even visually following him, she explains that she "cast a beautiful net, but didn't catch beautiful fish," so the audience already knows he's not going to be good. As she plays the violin in the subway station, the man hears her and physically runs to find her. The camera never shows his face a the while, only glimpses of his black leather shoes moving swiftly up the stairs coupled with shots of his back clothes in a dark suit and coat. Once the camera finally pans around to allow look at his face, he appears almost gentle and kind due to the small wrinkles on his face and nice-casual look to his suit. At this point I'm thinking he's not the bad guy and maybe just introduces her to the bad guy, but I was very wrong. The costume designers did a great job disguising him as a caring, curious, intelligent, perhaps wealthy, and kind individual, and that's exactly how he should've been dressed to later show how good he is at concealing his motives.
I think it's interesting that different clothing changes how the audience views a character in a show, and how sometimes that can distract from their true selves. It's almost like you can tell a lot from what people wear, yet you can also be totally and completely wrong going off of what they wear. I think paying attention to the costume design, however, is a great supporting detail for who and what the characters are especially upon first meeting them because the audience will either not pay attention to the clothes because they support their idea of who the character is, or the details of the clothes will later force the viewer to go back and realize that it was just a well-administered facade.
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