Loki Season 2 – which is currently streaming new episodes for anyone with a Disney+ subscription – reacquainted viewers with a number of the characters they met in the first season. Among them is Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie, the God of Mischief’s female variant who has issues with the Time Variance Authority. She’s had an interesting arc thus far in these recent installments thus far, and the season kicked off with her landing in the ‘80s and working at a McDonald’s. As part of her gig, she had to wear the fast food chain’s uniform from that time period. Series costume designer Christine Wada spoke to CinemaBlend about how she and her team designed the vintage fit and revealed the “funny” aspect of putting it together.
Those who frequented Mickey D establishments back in the day surely know the company’s employees used to sport very distinct uniforms. The duds had a distinct shade of red, which was mixed with white stripes. And of course, there’s also that headgear faithful workers had to wear. Christine Wada and her collaborators did an awesome job emulating the look, and I couldn’t help but ask about the work while chatting with her over Zoom. The veteran costume designer explained that quite a bit went into recreating the work attire, but she had a key resource at her disposal:
Well, I had a handbook that outlined what that uniform looked like, which ended right at the year that McDonalds’ stopped using that uniform – right on the year that we see Sylvie. But we actually had to sublimate, which means we had to print that stripe on a polyester. Thank God, because you really have to always sublimate on polyester. … That’s a little minutiae detail there. But we printed that stripe and then had to build the whole thing.
It’s interesting that the producers of Loki chose to have Sylvie venture to 1982 after she killed He Who Remains in the events of the Season 1 finale. Had she ended up at an Oklahoma-based McDonald’s just a year later, she would’ve been handed a totally different set of duds. It’s possible that the creative team liked that specific design (but there’s also the fact that the year and location serve as a Thor Easter egg). The aspect of the design process that Christine Wada found to be humorous, though, is timeless when it comes to fast food work in general:
Well, it was funny to try to make it ill-fitting, because somebody with so much swagger… I think that Sophia actually has all this swagger as an actress, so she can pull off anything and kind of make it look cool, which helped. But still, it’s hard to make. It was hard, because we really want it to feel like a, you know, a bad uniform or it’s small, medium large, and you might be a small but ‘Hey, we only have a medium.’ [Laughs] … Finding that sweet spot for her was a challenge?
Those who’ve worked in restaurants (or other service positions) surely know what it’s like to be saddled with a uniform that doesn’t quite fit you due to the level of availability. Such a situation can be cumbersome and quite frankly, annoying. In the case of Sylvie though, she doesn’t seem to have too many problems with her gear. Plus, as the Our Flag Means Death designer mentioned, Sophia Di Martino does have plenty of swagger to pull off the look.
The partnership forged between Marvel Studios and McDonald’s for this new season – as part of the latter’s “As Featured In Meal” campaign, has been entertaining. Of course, it wasn’t all done for the sake of product placement. Series EP Kevin Wright explained that the multiversal fugitive’s tenure at the restaurant represents a reprieve for her and allows her the opportunity to find true comfort. Given that she’s since been drawn back into the titular god’s shenanigans, I’d say she probably needed that breather. It remains to be seen whether she’ll end up donning that ill-fitting uniform again and, if she doesn’t, I’m sure she’ll cherish the time she was able to wear it.
New episodes of Loki Season 2 drop on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT as part of the 2023 TV schedule.