This Halloween weekend is the perfect opportunity to watch The Witches, Vogue takes a look behind the costume designer’s, Joanna Johnson, inspiration to dress Anne Hathaway’s eccentric character.

The Grand High Witch in Roald Dahl’s The Witches is notoriously terrifying – as anyone who’s watched the 1990 film adaptation will confirm. For his 2020 take on the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s story, director Robert Zemeckis tapped costume designer Joanna Johnston (Lincoln) to make Anne Hathaway’s character equal parts fashionable and traumatizing – with plenty of help from hair and make-up team Paula Price and Peter Swords King. On their mood board for Anne Hathaway: classic style icons of the ’60s such as Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, as well as the “supermodels” of the day, including Nena von Schlebrügge and Carmen Dell’Orefice.

17 bald caps, 22 hand covers, 198 finger extensions…

Over the course of her stay at the Grand Orleans Imperial Island Hotel, Anne Hathaway’s looks evolve from deeply glamorous to overtly witchy – her fitted suits, prim capes, and lacy negligees giving way to dark gowns that feel more Macbeth than Monroe. (In contrast, the team sourced old-fashioned hats, ’50s-style floral dresses and duster coats for Octavia Spencer to wear in the role of Grandma.) The Grand High Witch’s make-up also becomes more and more demonic as her quest to rid the world of 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren progresses – with Swords King using plenty of deep purple shadow around her eyes and Price backcombing her various wigs to give the appearance of horns at Anne Hathaway’s request.

The Witches

Warner Brothers Studios

The Grand High Witch’s make-up also becomes more and more demonic as her quest to rid the world of 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren progresses – with Swords King using plenty of deep purple shadow around her eyes and Price backcombing her various wigs to give the appearance of horns at Anne Hathaway’s request.

The Witches

Warner Brothers Studios

Then, of course, there are the Grand High Witch’s facial prosthetics – which required Anne Hathaway to sit for four hours in a make-up chair. (Famously, Anjelica Huston’s make-up for the role in the original movie took seven hours to apply and five hours to remove each day.) In total, over the course of filming, Anne Hathaway wore 17 bald caps to give the appearance of a vein-covered scalp; 22 hand covers to make it seem as though she only had three knuckles; and 198 finger extensions, applied in a dedicated finger “tent” on set at the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden, where the bulk of shooting took place. As for her feet? All of her heels were custom-made to give the appearance that she had square feet per Dahl’s description in the book.