How Agatha All Along Wove Witchcraft Into Every Stitch

Costume designer Daniel Selon says his approach to Marvel’s Agatha All Along was to make every outfit tell a story, using color, texture and talismanic details to chart each witch’s identity and power. In a new interview, he reflects on how character psychology and the show’s occult world-building shaped the wardrobe, a conversation he acknowledged publicly after the piece ran.

According to a studio profile, the design team’s process blended scholarship with ritual: tarot pulls and candlelight in the workroom informed choices that fold symbolism into the seams. Kathryn Hahn’s signature “traveling coat” for Agatha — conceived early and tailored to the character’s swagger — hides printed runes along its lining, a narrative map that surfaces in motion. Joe Locke, who plays the Teen/Billy Maximoff, has said the costumes “hold all the secrets of the show,” underscoring how visual clues were planted across garments.

Subsequent conversations with the designer further cracked open the craft. For Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal, a green witch later revealed as Death, Selon cites concept art with quasi-religious iconography as a key influence, translating tree bark, ribs and a crown-like headpiece into a silhouette that reads both natural and ceremonial. Agatha’s spectral return was achieved practically: fiber-optic threads woven into organza created a dress that literally glows, engineered with internal power packs and heat shielding to keep the actor safe on set.

Actor collaboration shaped the fine print. Plaza’s recurring “bloomed” flowers began as a fitting-room improvisation; Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer Kale carries potion symbols across a pink dress; Ali Ahn’s jacket hides an inscription inspired by a 12th-century poem about loss and clarity. Even Detective Agnes’s flannel was chosen to feel lived-in, a deliberate contrast with later, tightly orchestrated looks.

The work arrives amid fresh recognition. Agatha All Along earned three 2025 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for episodes “Follow Me My Friend / To Glory at the End,” a nod that lists Selon as costume designer. He previously took home an Emmy as an assistant costume designer for WandaVision, experience he has said informed the new show’s layered graphic language.