One concern about The Hunger Games films fans have had is how filmmakers would create Capitol residents with their wild styles, and not go too overboard so they look like they’re all in costume for a Halloween party.

Today lead hair colorist for the film Cherry Petenbrink spoke to the LA Times about how they achieved their goal.

Quotage:

“The look of the Capitol as it’s described in the book is bright and we stayed true to that,” says
Petenbrink, who dyed more than 600 wigs and hair pieces for main characters and extras in the film. “The color couldn’t look ’80s punk, it had to be very high fashion in a couture kind of way.”

Getting an elegant and refined look while using eye-catching neon and pastel shades for the hair color was no easy feat and to nail the right feeling, Petenbrink says there was a real mix of time periods. She referenced the ’20s and ’40s as well as Edwardian and Victorian eras, adding that while there are a lot of brights, there are also strange and antique shades like mustard yellow and moss green.

But the key was to keep a refined finish to the hair seen in the Capitol, even if it was an offbeat color. “The people in the Capitol are very refined, almost like a big group of old moneyed people that get together,” she says. “A very rich and disturbing group of people.”

Are you happy with how the Capitol members have been looking so far? Below is one example:

Read Petenbrink’s thoughts on designing Effie on the full article.