“We knew we had to convey multiple things throughout her character’s journey,” says director Elaine Bogan of designing their young protagonist for the story, which is set in the early 1900s. “We had to tell a visual story about a caged young girl who begins in her grandfather’s stuffy, uptight and posh mansion home, and grows into a young woman who embraces her confidence, the outdoors and discovers who she has the power to be as she reconnects with her lost mother and cultural roots.”
Production designer Paul Duncan and the design team introduced Lucky in “stuffy, uptight” dresses to reflect her restrictive situation. “We first see her wearing her hair in a tight bun and a bright yellow gown surrounded by her cold, steely mansion home, which is meant to emulate the idea of a canary stuck in a cage,” Bogan explains.
But then, when she arrives in a Frontier town to live with her father, her look becomes more freeing. “The moment Lucky gets a taste of freedom and the outdoors, the ribbon in her hair is pulled out by the wind,” Bogan explains. “This happens the moment Spirit arrives and is thought to be the same moment Lucky’s mother, Milagro, returns in spirit to help break Lucky free of her cage.”
As Lucky progresses through her story, she discards the stuffy gowns and discovers pieces of her mother’s clothing. “This clothing included a blouse inspired by Mexican embroidered blouses from Oaxaca, paired with riding pants based on jeans worn in the west during the period in which the story is set.”
Says Bogen, “By the end, she is the perfect image of Milagro. She literally walks in Milagro’s boots. A confidant, daring and strong young woman, capable of anything when with her friend, Spirit.”
Source: HollyWood
