John Wick: Chapter 4 perfectly builds a world for the titular character and all those he comes into contact with from New York to Berlin to Paris to Osaka. The costume design has a signature style to it and the costume design in this installment was done by two time Academy Award Nominee Paco Delgado. We had the pleasure of speaking with him about his work on the latest John Wick film.

Kenzie Vanunu: Hi! It’s so nice to meet you. I’m such a huge fan of John Wick Chapter 4 and the costume design is truly outstanding. I’m a huge fan of all of your work.
Paco Delgado: Thank you!

Kenzie Vanunu: The film takes us from New York to Paris to Osaka to Berlin, what was it like to create costumes for each segment of the films? Was there a different approach to how you developed the looks for the characters in each location?
Paco Delgado:I mean, obviously, we have, like, sort of like, like a person who, who goes through the whole story. The thought is, like, you know, every section of the movie, we thought to have a definite, different look. I mean, Japan is a really fascinating country, that in one side is so similar to us, because it’s so westernized. And it’s so modern in the sense that, you know, it’s like, Tokyo is like a super modern New York to say something, but at the same time is so anchored in, in tradition, and, and in their own aesthetic, then, you know, we were looking at samurai costumes and Geishas and, and you know, many, many things more Japanese movies, traditional, you know classic Japanese movies, everything. And when it came to Paris, I mean, you know, we thought in a sort of like much more so like westernized, sophisticated environment, whether we have the Marquis , you know, that there was like, you know, old fashion, European aristocracy, you know, and building obviously, as you know, now is like the modern capital of Europe. And you know, it’s like, a lot of young people is a very young city, with like, an amazing music scene. I mean, we were lucky that we had the opportunity to shoot in very many different places. For example, we were in Berlin most of the time. And then we moved to Paris. And then you know, I mean, it was like, perfect, but unfortunately, part of Osaka we made it in Berlin, in a studio.

Kenzie Vanunu: That’s so amazing. It’s all so detailed. I have to talk about the beautiful suits Bill Skarsgård’s Marquis wears. He has such an aristocratic energy to him and his suits truly match that with all of the fabrics used. What was the process behind creating each of his looks?
Paco Delgado: We wanted to make like a character, it was like, as you say, an aristocratic character. And we thought of the French kings, for example that they were like, you know, the Sun King and all that, but they were like, not too worried or scared to wear like gold or silver materials on their costumes. And actually, the other person I was thinking of was Karl Lagerfeld. Because we were in a hotel in Berlin, and there were all these old photographs of Karl Lagerfeld in the hotel and as you know, he was a very flamboyant character, always, like really, really fashionable, but at the same time, he was always good at wearing things out of the normal. I mean, for example, he had this picture of him taken coming out of the underground in Berlin on the tube. He was wearing like a silver suit. And I just thought, well, you know, why not? Let’s let’s do this. And that was where the whole idea came from.

Kenzie Vanunu: That is so incredible. I love that reference so much. John Wick is always wearing black, but the color of his suits never looks flat or dull. I typically only wear black so I know how much work goes into bringing life into the color. Is there a special fabric you look into for John’s looks in the film to make the color black really pop on screen?
Paco Delgado: We found this amazing fabric by a mill in Europe called Scabal and they do really so like really high end fabrics for men’s suiting. And they had a line of fabrics that they called ‘diamond’ and we saw black with like a shine inside. And then I asked, ‘What is this? Why is this called diamond?’ And he said to me, ‘this is because we sprinkle diamond dust on the fabric to make it to make it shiny.’ I don’t know how much, but I thought it was so one side it was so extravagant and so lavish and at the same time, really gave the fabric a shine. That it was quite interesting. And it wasn’t like a flat color. It was a black that reflected light instead of absorbing light, because normally black absorbs light. And this fabric actually reflected light, then it was like, it was one of the situations that you think ‘bingo, we got it,’ you know, and, and then to make the suit, it was like a long, long process, because we made all these suits bespoke. You know, like really, really in a really hand crafted way, you know, like really making it to measure and doing like many, many fittings to get the right proportion right. That he can do the right movements. Because I mean, you know, you have to think that Keanu not only wears a suit to look to look dapper and to look elegant, but he has to move in it, he has to jump in and make many many things, then, you know, it has to involve a lot of qualities this John Wick suit. Yeah, that was actually a long process.

Kenzie Vanunu: I was actually going to ask about that. The film is obviously an action film filled with stunts and all of the choreography that goes into it. How does that impact your designs?
Paco Delgado: I mean, the first thing I try not to do is that the movements will condition the aesthetics of the movie, because if you start making things that you if you think well, they have to move in it and you get obsessed with it, then basically you you, you make them wear jogging pants, then, you know, you need to be very obsessive about that. I mean tailoring for men has changed quite a lot in the sense that now they are like, especially in Italy, and and probably in Japan and all this. So like more avant-garde countries with respect to fashion, they are a lot of men’s fabrics for tailoring that they have a stretch in it. Because people because you know, we are all used to I mean, you know, we all wear jeans with a stretch in it, because we want to have the same look. But we want to move about you know, like, in a modern way, like we all do a sports or some sort of activity, it’s not like before, so obviously, the fabrics has changed quite a lot. Then one of the things you do is like you try to find all the fabrics, that they have a certain stretch on it. And when you do a suit with these fabrics, you can allow the actors to have more movement. And then you do many tricks you use to like put sections of you know, underneath the armpits and in many places to be able to accommodate movements. And sometimes you do a suit, or a couple of suits very, very well fitted. And then you do a couple of other ones, that they they are not so fitted, but when they are in movement jumping around or anything, you don’t notice that they are not so fitted but they can move perfectly with them. You know, there is a lot of trays. I mean, when you don’t actually move, you have to approach costumes in a different way somehow, you know, but at the end of the day, as I said at the beginning, you have no you shouldn’t be taking very much by the fact that this the city has to compromise with the movement.

Kenzie Vanunu: It definitely didn’t impact the aesthetic of the film, it’s some of my favorite modern costume design of the year. For Rina Sawayama’s Akira, her look is both modern and traditional. What was the inspiration behind her look as she really transitions from a concierge to an action queen?
Paco Delgado: The thing is the first thing about it comes to mind with me with Akira is she’s under the wing of her father, then that’s a very traditional like maybe Japanese way I imagined nowadays is not the case but it used to be like that. And then I just thought she was a really fierce character and obviously her father has brought up brought her up that way, you know, to be self sufficient and almost like a ninja character, but at the same time she’s very obedient to her father and to tradition then I was just like, you know the whole thing came from thinking about again Geisha outfits but also one Japanese fashion designer, Issey Miyake, he embraced tradition, he is no longer with us I think that he died a couple of years ago. But he used to do a lot of like, very, very modern fabrics and very modern shapes, but all of them based on the Japanese tradition, then that’s the main inspiration that came to my mind to do me, basically, so Miyake and traditional Japanese ladies garments, you know, like kimonos, or, you know, tabi shoes, for example, you know, all these sort of things.

Kenzie Vanunu: I love that. Her look really stood out to me and was so excited to see her on the screen. I was really lucky and I spoke to Chad about all of his influences on the film from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to Bob Fosse films. Did he bring many costume references to you? He has such a specific vision over the John Wick universe. 
Paco Delgado: I mean, Chad is very, very into fashion. I mean, he loves fashion. And he’s very, very self aware of how costumes are important for the characters. You know, he’s very focused in that, because sometimes you work with directors that they aren’t. I mean, all directors care about costumes, but some of them more than others. And Chad is definitely one of them that really thinks costumes are very, very important. Obviously, he had many, many, many, many, many ideas, and many, you know, many, many, many pictures and cutouts from magazines. And yeah, I mean, definitely he hasn’t. He had a lot of big, big input in the costumes.

Kenzie Vanunu: Awesome. I love that so much. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate it. And I love the film so much and your work is so great. I’m very excited to see what you do next.
Paco Delgado: Well, thank you. I mean, I might do some other work with Chad. We had a conversation. So at the moment, I cannot say what, but…

Kenzie Vanunu: That’s so exciting! We will definitely be keeping our eye out on that to see what is coming!
Paco Delgado: Thank you! It was nice speaking to you.

You can read our review of John Wick: Chapter 4 here.
The film is currently available to purchase or rent at home.