In the soot-stained streets of Victorian London, a garment is rarely just a garment. With A Thousand Blows in its second season, the visual language of the show undergoes an evolution, trading the earthy, practical tones of survival for the dangerous vibrancy of power.
At the helm of this transformation is Maja Meschede, a costume designer who treats her studio more like an engineering lab. With a background in high-stakes action films like Fury and Captain America, Meschede brings a unique action-ready attitude to 1880s London. From clashing patterns that evoke a sense of rebellion to the meticulous construction of skirts designed to hide a small arsenal of knives, her work is a masterclass in psychological storytelling through fabric.
FILMHOUNDS sat down with Meschede to discuss how the costumes have evolved between seasons, making period-accurate outfits suitable for fight scenes, and their favourite eras to dress.
What particularly struck me was the way the costumes have evolved from season one to season two. Are we seeing the characters become more armoured or more flamboyant as their power grows within the story? What was your way of bringing these costumes into season two and evolving that style?
Mary Carr is a good example. I started her off in more earthy tones, really practical—like she doesn’t wear petticoats underneath her skirts, she wears trousers because she lifts up the skirts to run. In terms of colour for season two, I used very powerful red; not as a colour that expresses beauty, but a colour that expresses dominance and fearlessness and vibrancy. It gives one a feeling that she’s a bit dangerous, she’s unpredictable. I love that very much, and I’m so happy that you observed that and the audience can see that, or can feel it even subconsciously, that there’s a big evolution. I work a lot with colour, and it says so much psychologically about the characters. For me, it’s all about their depth. Who are these ladies and gentlemen? Who are these people? We are telling their stories, and it’s not decorative, how I work, it’s always expressing something external.
For the Forty Elephants gang, you had them in really bright, bold, colourful costumes. How did you decide which colours and textures belong to which members of the gang?
The Forty Elephants are a tribe; they belong together, and I wanted the audience to feel that just by looking at them. If you put them all next to each other, it all works together. They mirror each other, and deciding on who wears which colour is an organic process. It starts when I meet the actors for the first time and I show them my ideas. I always have very strong visual ideas, but then I always work closely with the actor, and want to make sure that they’re happy too, and that the colours we then choose together work with their skin tone, with their hair colour, with their eye colour, so it makes them either look stronger or weaker. You can drain the colour of someone as well, if needed. It’s a very organic process, how I decide on these colours, and it all happens in the fitting rooms.
You’ve mentioned previously about using clashing patterns to evoke themes of rebellion. How did you balance that clash? It felt like a deliberate character choice, rather than just a costume that didn’t quite fit the era.
If you were to visit my costume studio, you would find me sitting somewhere on the floor in front of a mannequin with lots of fabrics and laces and any accessories, buttons, and I’m just trying stuff out. I’ll step back or take a photo and assess: does this work? For me, it’s about finding an energy, and I think I’ve been doing this for so long that I’ve found my own language. With clashing colours and patterns, you can find a certain vibrancy. Sometimes you might just need a white costume and in that case, it’s an instinct. It’s organic, it’s trial and error in my studio. My team and I work with amazing people like Chris Duffelen who’s an amazing breakdown artist—she’s a genius. I love it when I go, “I love this purple, but can we go more towards a red, or can we go more towards a blue purple?” She said, “Of course.” Not much time passes, and she’s back in my office with an answer. My team’s input is so important because it’s a collaboration.
What was the collaboration like between the costume department and other creatives?
You see a lot of shows where the clothes are black and brown; very earthy, very dark. We wanted to go bright and bold and bring the story closer to a modern audience. We have several directors and we work very closely, so they have a vision and I respond to that and make suggestions. There might be a moment where we disagree, and that’s not something negative, it’s something really positive because you go back to your desk and work everything out. It’s always about the storytelling and the truthfulness we want to bring to the show and story, so we always find a way because we all want the same thing. When we disagree, it can bring us somewhere else and then also, I work very closely with the production designer Tom Burton because he creates the world where the characters live in, and there needs to be a certain harmony.
Sometimes this harmony depends on what state the characters are in. Are their surroundings threatening or is it a really wonderful, happy day? Colours and textures say so much. There’s a beautiful scene in the first episode of season two. Mary Carr is in a red and white, stripey dress, and she’s seeing Sugar (Stephen Graham), and there’s a beautiful green wallpaper. I just love these moments where it works so well. It’s like a painting, and it’s so perfect. It’s in such harmony.
It creates a really nice contrast on the screen as well, and it makes it more visually stimulating. Can you tell us a little bit about the engineering required to hide knife stashes and trousers under Victorian skirts. How did you ensure that these were invisible until the big action scenes started?
I love the word ‘engineering’. I use it a lot, and also ‘construction’, because it gives our work more power and more meaning. Often, when we don’t see a knife or a gun, it’s because it isn’t there, at least until the actor needs it. We use a lot of tricks. All the costumes, especially Mary Carr’s, are full of pockets, and we constructed them in a way that they looked homemade. So it looks like she changed and manipulated the dresses that she stole to use as her work clothing in a way that it works. She needs pockets for her knives or a pocket for some stolen goods, for some coins, jewellery—they’re everywhere.
A girl likes to be prepared! I read that there were very limited references for historical boxing gear. When you were developing these gloves and these cotton jersey trousers, how did you bridge the gap between looking period accurate and also keeping actors safe during these fight scenes?
Luckily, there were beautiful advertisements and posters of boxing matches. They were all hand-painted and hand-drawn so we could see the silhouette. We could see they had belt loops on these breeches. If we make a pair of really tight trousers from cotton, the seams would split with any movement. In my research, I found out that already in the 1820s and 1830s, roughly, there were knitting machines or looms where jerseys were woven, so that already existed. It’s wonderful that we could then authentically use woven jerseys, so we made these boxing breeches from jersey fabric. In the boxing advertisement, they were all a cream colour. Some gentlemen had them dyed in black, so Sugar wore this colour, and I think that worked really well for him, because it makes him look brooding and dangerous in a way.
They also had sashes, often made from silk or cotton, depending on how much money you had available. In West End boxing, they were always made from silk because they were wealthy. These sashes were really important to show who the boxer is; it was his colours. They also had flags and lots of memorabilia in the colours of the sashes. Again, they were also very finely made.
Was there a specific piece of historical boxing equipment or other costume that proved particularly difficult to recreate for this kind of production?
It was the boxing gloves. We had hardly any reference, and I spoke to a wonderful boxing historian at the very beginning of the show during pre-production, who gave me lots of reference images and drawings, but nothing was clear enough. When you see them, they’re huge, and they look like an enormous kidney. They don’t really fit well on the hands, and our actors would have been incredibly uncomfortable, so we made about five or six prototypes with an amazing leathermaker. Our actors tried them on, and then we had to reshape them and make sure they were comfortable. These boxing gloves are made from very fine leather, and they use horse hair, which was really challenging. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right because comfort was so important.
I read that you visited many museums and galleries for your research. Was there one specific artefact or painting that served as the North Star for the visual identity of season two?
I went to the British Museum, to the V&A (which is my favourite), and to the National Portrait Gallery. There were amazing paintings and portraits, but what influenced me most was antique dealers, where you can often find the real thing. I’d find old bodices and dresses, skirts, trousers, and beautiful men’s waistcoats. These real pieces that I purchased as research pieces, they were actually the ones that really influenced me. There’s a couple of waistcoats that Sugar wore, and they are original ones. They were original 1860s/1870s waistcoats, and they were in such good condition, they could be worn many times, and they’re still okay.
Is there a particular costume you could name as being your favourite this season, or a character that you particularly loved dressing?
Mary Carr, of course. But Hezekiah’s costume with all the fabric strips—I love that very much and it was so much fun to make it. We made Victorian Halloween costumes, and from my research, it was obvious they really went for it. I would love to do a show just about Halloween. Sadly, you don’t see the costumes that much, but we had so much fun.
I looked back at the projects that you’ve previously worked on—films like Fury or Captain America: The First Avenger—which both required a heavy focus on grit and wear and tear of combat. How did your experience with those action-ready costumes influence your approach to the look of the cast in A Thousand Blows?
I feel very blessed and very lucky to have been able to experience these amazing movies like Fury. I learned so much about what stunts need and everything about how to prepare. All of this experience really helped me to approach A Thousand Blows with a clear mind. I really like preparing for that. I love it when it’s gritty and when it feels real and not just decorative. You dig deep into a character and see what you can show on the surface. That’s when I really feel most excited.
What’s your favourite era to dress?
I haven’t done medieval yet. When the ladies have their hair shaved back, and they wear conical hats and they wear the rings on the fingertips. I would love to do a medieval show or film. I’m going to start something that’s [set in] the ninth century, and I’m also very excited about that.
I would want to do Victorian times because it’s so rich with society and the Industrial Revolution. The contrast between the wealthier part of society, people in workhouses, and London being a melting pot, a diverse city, and very multicultural, and I love that. It’s generally telling a good story. That’s what I love.
A Thousand Blows Season 2 is available on Disney+ now.
