Yellow in Horror – Stranger Things Costuming

Chapter 15

If you follow my blog at all, you’ve probably read my Yellow in Horror series I did last October. After months of rewatching horror films and discovering new ones for this blog series, watching out for color schemes in horror movies – specifically with yellow – is now so ingrained in my viewing of pretty much everything that it is impossible not to notice. When I rewatched the first four seasons of Stranger Things ahead of the final season, colors I had already noticed during previous viewing now took on whole personas within the show.

Part 1 of my Yellow in Horror: Stranger Things blog is all about the characters’ wardrobes. I’m going to discuss how the color scheme of certain characters shows who they are as people as well as how they connect to other characters. I hope you’ll stick around because I’m not the only one solving riddles about the meanings behind color. Enter Robyn and Steve in season 3 translating and deciphering this Russian code:

The week is long. The silver cat feeds when the blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly.

For those of us who have been paying attention, this revelation in season three when Robyn translated the song Steve had heard whilst working in the mall made us very happy. Yellow and blue have been giving us underlying meaning on the show since the beginning, as have many of the other colors in the show. Genius move making it an actual part of the show’s storyline.

Will, Eleven, and Mike

It’s mentioned on the show that yellow is Eleven’s favorite color. It is featured in her clothing multiple times including when she first escapes the lab and is given a yellow t-shirt. It is what she is wearing when she first meets Mike, Lucas, and Dustin when they are out searching for Will. In season three, Eleven and Max go shopping after Eleven breaks up with Mike and their fashion show mall montage is filled with gold and yellow and other bright colors. Eleven just wants to be a normal kid even when being normal is impossible so it’s not surprising that the yellow and black pattern she wears in the second half of that season stands out so much. During that same trip to the mall, the boys also spend the day there. Mike wears a yellow shirt as he mourns his breakup with Eleven showing how much he misses her. Will, however, wears blue and red, showing his depression and perhaps jealousy over Mike’s relationship with Eleven. In season four, Mike wears a yellow polo shirt over a blue t-shirt when he visits Will and Eleven in California. This shows how much he cares for both Eleven and Will and how complicated their relationships are.

In season four, Eleven’s dueling patterns in her mismatched clothing show how much she is at war with herself internally. She wants to fit in but also does not feel like herself without her powers. Being bullied certainly doesn’t help. Eleven often wears dueling patterns, a sign that there are many layers to who this girl is and she is yet to discover what they all are. By season five, she wears muted colors showing her single-minded obsession with defeating Vecna.

When Will disappeared, he was wearing a red and yellow vest over long sleeve blue shirt. This signifies his loss of innocence and is also a warning to the audience. Bad things are going to happen to Will in the Upside Down. In season three, he wears a striped shirt of the same color and wore another one in season four. In season five, he wears a jacket that is blue with yellow sleeves and red trim, mirroring the vest he wore in season one. Red and yellow are his connection to the Upside Down because he seems to wear them a lot when he is in contact with either the Upside Down or Vecna.

Will also wears a lot of striped shirts. In African cultures stripes symbolize unity, something that the group needs to survive and Will’s struggles in season three trying to keep them together certainly emphasize that. In contemporary times, striped clothing can evoke feelings of playfulness and rebellion which are certainly ongoing themes within Stranger Things. The same holds true for the purple robe Will wears in season three when the boys are playing Dungeons and Dragons. Purple has meanings grounded in creativity and imagination, something that a kid Will’s age would be drawn to as he desperately tries to hold on to his childhood while his friends move on without him.

Dustin and Steve

Dustin regularly wears yellow throughout the series. It highlights his positive, playful personality. This makes his grief over Eddie Munson’s death in season five so striking because Dustin has lost his childlike persona. Instead of bright yellows and greens, he continues to wear his Hellfire Club t-shirt knowing everyone still believes that Eddie Munson was responsible for Chrissy’s death in season four. The switch from yellow hues to the Hellfire shirt and grey sweatshirts is a great example of how the wardrobe department uses clothing to show how these characters have been changed by the events in Hawkins.

Steve Harrington is usually dressed in dark blue, green, or grey, putting together solid or striped polo shirts under a members only jacket. These colors have rooted meanings in authority, integrity, and wisdom, but also highlight the themes of rich vs. poor associated with John Hughes films of the ‘80s that the Duffer Brothers used in Stranger Things. Steve’s clothing choices highlight the differences between him and Jonathon Byers whose family’s financial situation is vastly different. It makes the dynamic with Nancy more interesting as the series progresses.

While Steve’s season one persona leaves something to be desired, he does grow as a person. In his words, he always feels like a babysitter in later seasons. The playful sailor uniform he wears in season three is navy showing his playful authority over Dustin and Erica who both wear bright yellow hues showing their childhood innocence. In season four, Steve finally wears a yellow shirt midway through the season when the group in Hawkins tries to keep Eddie and Max safe. It is the back and forth between Dustin and Steve that helps them figure out that they need to find another gate into the Upside Down. His yellow shirt highlights him as the leader and his willingness to finally be part of the group. That he has given up a lot of the members only jackets and polo shirts because he no longer needs to feel superior to the people around him.

Lucas

This character is usually seen wearing reds and oranges. These colors are often associated with warnings of danger, which is something that Lucas calls out, especially in season one. His motivations were rooted in jealousy over Mike’s friendship with Eleven, but his feelings should have been a warning that their way of surviving was together, not apart. Red also is associated with love, which jives with the relationship between Max and Lucas that grows from friendship to something deeper as the series progresses. Lucas never gives up on Max even when she is in a coma.

In season four, Lucas joins the Hawkins basketball team whose colors are green and yellow. Green has meanings rooted in both growth and renewal but also in envy and jealousy. The use of green is powerful during an episode that shows the community coming together over his game winning score but also Lucas’ disappointment that his friends were playing Dungeons and Dragons instead. The colors of Hawkins’ sports teams also highlight the divisive torches and pitchforks herd mentality later in the season when another player decides that Eddie Munson needs to be stopped even though he is innocent.

I also find it interesting in that episode that the numbers 11, 8, and 1 were featured right before Erica rolls a 20 (the equivalent of those three numbers added together) playing Dungeons and Dragons in the Hellfire Club. The numbers foreshadow the events in season five during which Vecna (1), Eleven, and Kali (8) will come together in the fight for Hawkins. I wasn’t surprised when Kali came back in season five. Be interesting to see how they use her character.

Max

From the moment Max Mayfield set foot in Hawkins, she was adorned in yellow and red. The yellow showing her as the new bright spot for Dustin and Lucas to obsess over. Red showed her as someone who marched – or skateboarded – to the beat of her own drum. She was sporty. A total tomboy. She was also someone who could be trusted, even if the boys tried to keep her out of the loop and Eleven perceived her as a threat to her relationship with Mike.

By season three, her wardrobe became more fun and slightly more girly. She had friends now. A support system outside of her less than great home life. As I already pointed out, she and Eleven even have a fun day of shopping where they get to just be teenage girls proving they don’t need boys to have fun. The colorful prints and patterns follow that trend.

I discussed the yellow raincoat in horror during Spooky Season (read it here), but I’ll mention it again now. Max and Eleven wear red and yellow raincoats while they search for Heather, a missing lifeguard, in season three as they ride bikes in the rain. It shows their tenacity in finding the truth but also serves as a warning that they are arriving in a dangerous situation when their investigation leads them to the Holloway home where the family has already been turned by Vecna.

Max, consumed by grief and depression after Billy’s death at the end of season three, finds herself damaged and pursued by Vecna. Season four finds her wearing baggier, darker clothing. The one exception is her teal jumpsuit she wears when she visits Billy’s grave. Teal is associated with calmness and emotional healing, something that Max also associates with music. It’s not a coincidence that she wears that color when she tries to say goodbye to her grief over Billy’s death. By season five, she has gone wild living in the fantasy world where she meets Holly. Her clothing is patched together showing her will for survival and to work on fixing herself.

Billy

In season three, Billy is a lifeguard at the local pool. His red swim trunks signify internal evil as up until that point most of his wardrobe consisted of white shirts and denim. In season three, he became Vecna’s way of controlling the real world, so the red swim trunks weren’t a coincidence. Billy in those red trunks also became a temptation for Karen Wheeler who comes very close to cheating on her husband and destroying her family.

Holly and Erica

While Holly and Erica share little to no screen time in Stranger Things, they do share one thing as they grow up. They both use their wardrobe to stand out and in the case of Erica, it shows off her wild personality. She wears a bright yellow shirt with teal overalls in season three as she embarks on an adventure into Russian espionage with Steve, Dustin, and Robyn. Her clever quips and stubbornness made her a fan favorite, and her wardrobe certainly plays into that. In later seasons, she wears purple playing into her playfulness and creativity as she is invited into the Hellfire Club.

The costume that Holly wears as she is taken by the Demogorgon in season 5 has bright yellow, purple, and teal to signify her wanting to be her own character. Yellow is a happy color. One that shows her childlike personality. Purple and teal both symbolize creativity and imagination, which is certainly something that Holly has as she grows into being her own person. Later, Holly creates a new costume that mimics the character her bother bequeathed upon her. It uses the same teal and dark yellow color scheme with a red scarf and yellowish cape. It’s also reminiscent of Alice’s dress in Alice in Wonderland, which is exactly how it must feel for her when Holly locates Max.

Teal, purple, and yellow are ongoing themes in a show that centered itself around Dungeons and Dragons lore. Steeped in meaning related to creativity and childhood imagination, it is no surprise that the wardrobe department used these colors for both girls who are just beginning to figure out who they are.

Nancy and Karen Wheeler

Nancy’s clothing starts off as preppy and light colored, employing whites and pastels to highlight her popularity and gentleness. As she grows braver and begins investigating Barb’s disappearance, she begins wearing a red bomber jacket. This wardrobe choice shows her transformation from typical teen to monster hunter. In later seasons, she begins wearing darker reds and purples showing her further transition into a stronger leader and woman. Nancy’s role model, her mother, often tries to talk to her about her teenage problems, but once your parent shows no interest in your life, it’s hard to trust them when they finally do.

Karen Wheeler is oblivious of her children’s whereabouts for most of the series, much like most of the parents in Hawkins. Up until season three, her clothing choices had been a bit drab and unmemorable. But then she arrived at the pool in the hot pink and teal bathing suit and wore that sexy red dress on the night she nearly met up with Billy. Red is associated with love, so despite the sexy intentions of that dress, it was her love for her family that finally won out.

In season five, one of the sweaters Karen wears has a blue pattern over red. It’s a playful sweater, one that mimics her daughter’s costumes. I like to believe that this sweater was the wardrobe department’s way of showing that this formerly oblivious mother is now taking an interest in her kid. I think she feels guilty over not always knowing where Mike and Nancy are and does not want to make the same mistake as Holly. Then, Karen Wheeler employed that broken wine bottle against the Demogorgon who was trying to take Holly. She wore pastel purple and pink while doing it, soft colors associated with femininity. I love the duality of it – this feminine looking woman going scorched earth on a Demogorgon without care for her own wellbeing to protect her child. Her arc taking a big curve.

Are you still with me, Awesome Nerd? I know this was long, but I’m glad you stopped by. On my next blog about how Stranger Things uses yellow (and other colors), I’ll discuss how the show used lighting and set pieces to show off their world building and overt themes. I hope you’ll join me because I also draw comparisons between Will’s wardrobe and his relationship with Vecna.