Jon Morrell - Costume Designer Jon Morrell is in charge of designing all the costumes to be worn in His Dark Materials . He has had to find a visual language to support the words and ideas in the plays. He has dressed adult actors so that they look like children, and decided what characters such as Mrs Coulter or Lord Boreal might wear. He also had to decide what the non-human characters such as the witches and the armoured bears would look like. A key decision he took in consultation with Set Designer Giles Cadle was to locate Lyra’s world somewhere between the two World Wars, but nowhere too historically specific. He used predominantly browns and greys as its dominant colours, making it drabber than Will’s brighter 21st century. Jon’s job wasn’t all about creating wonderful designs; he was also responsible for making sure that the costumes could be worn on stage (i.e., that they were practical) and that they could all be made or purchased within the allocated budget. He had to search the National’s wardrobe for the materials that were to be used to make the costumes, and select the accessories such as shoes, hats, gloves that went with them. He used period undergarments so that the costumes worn over them would have an authentic period look. During the rehearsals he has had to supervise the fitting of more than 250 costumes for the 30-strong cast. | 
