Amy Westcott reveals the secret behind Fallout’s costumes: “Functional, but believable”

Fallout arrived on Prime Video this week and was an explosive surprise. The video game’s universe has been well adapted to real life, with many elements and nods to places, factions, locations, and other aspects that have enriched the game so much. One of these elements is the costumes of the characters, a task that did not look so easy, but which has managed to look plausible in this version. To learn more about this work, we spoke with Amy Westcott, the series’ costume designer, who told us about the meticulous process of creating them.

For Westcott, it was a process of research and finding items that made sense. Each faction had its own challenge, recycling and reusing clothing and items that fit into this world.

“It was a research getting all these different feelings for all these different worlds. There’s the Brotherhood of Steel, the Wasteland, the Vault dwellers, and many different elements. We were taking things from the 50s and re-recycling them re-using them and making them into something. We would scrounge everything from flea markets, at estate sales. Every element was found out there and then we put something together. I had these insanely talented textile artists bringing it to a place where it looked like 200 years old,” Westcott said.

Bringing the Vault jumpsuits to life

One of the most complicated details for Wescott was the costume worn by the Vault dwellers. There were several elements to this challenge, from the tone, to the iconicity, to how realistic it could look. Of course, there was support from Bethesda with art and other elements from the games to bring this element to life.

“The Vault jumpsuit had the most challenging details, because everybody knows it,” Wescott revealed. “It’s such an iconic look and it had to transfer into a living breathing thing. The details, the pieces that were applied, and all the things had to be represented. It has to be functional,” Wescott stressed, " but also has to be believable. All the best adaptations from video games to screen keep a realistic element. You want things to look real, they have to be taken to a place of realistic aging.”

With that in mind, Wescott also revealed that there was support from Bethesda Game Studios to get even the tone of the suit right. “For instance, the blue of the vault suit was the Bethesda blue. So we had to get the exact Pantone color, which is no easy feat to get it dyed. They were happy with that, they approved it. There was a lot of art that they used in the game and the numbers on the back that was all straight from the game and they given to us as reference.”

Fallout is now available on Prime Video.