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After honing her craft on films like Her and A Wrinkle in Time, California native Amy Parris landed what many people would consider a dream job when she became the lead costume designer for Netflix’s hit sci-fi series Stranger Things in season 3.
Parris approaches costume design as a form of storytelling, and that has definitely been evident in her work on the show since then. The Scoops Ahoy uniforms, the Hellfire T-shirts, Max’s skate and rock-inspired looks, Dustin’s hats… they’ve all been key to selling the authenticity of Stranger Things’ 80s setting. Not only that, but many of those looks have also been iconic in their own right.
However, when Parris sits down with Den of Geek to discuss Stranger Things’ final volume and promote the show’s partnership with Tide, she reflects on a small costume detail from season 4 that got way more attention than she expected.
“The high school guidance counselor’s necklace! It had a little clock on it, like a clock-key pendant,” Parris says, recalling Ms. Kelley’s (Regina Ting Chen) season 4 costume. “Some fans saw it and immediately started speculating that she might be connected to Vecna, which definitely wasn’t my intention. I just liked the idea of using the clock symbol throughout the series. I even printed a clock-patterned fabric for Virginia Creel’s dress, though we didn’t end up using it. The Duffer brothers were like, ‘You don’t really have to put the clock everywhere,’ but I added the necklace anyway. I didn’t expect it would spark that much speculation.”
For Parris, moments like this highlight how costume design can take on a life of its own once it reaches fans. “It’s funny. Something so tiny, just an accessory, can completely change the way people interpret a character,” she says. “I love that fans notice these little details, even if they’re not meant to be clues. It reminds me that costume design isn’t just about making something look good on camera. It’s about storytelling, symbolism, and sometimes, the unexpected ways the audience connects with the world we’ve built.”
Parris is more than aware that one of season 5’s costumes has already caused a stir with fans, albeit differently than Ms. Kelley’s necklace, and that’s Eleven’s shorts-over-joggers and cropped sweatshirt look, partially inspired by Josh Brolin’s costume in The Goonies. But she says fan confusion over Eleven’s looks is pretty typical. “I saw a comment from somebody who was like, ‘Why did she look like she got dressed in the dark?’ And I’m like, ‘That’s the point! You’re doing it. You’re paying attention to the story.’ She should not look straight-up fashionable, because how would she know how to do that? She’s from another dimension!”
Certain Stranger Things cast members are more keen to collaborate with the costume department and put their own stamp on a character’s arc through their clothing, Parris tells us, citing Winona Ryder as particularly influential over the look of Joyce, Will Byers’ frantic mom. Ryder wanted to keep Joyce wearing a lot of the same clothes throughout the show because she’s a broke, single mom who isn’t really focused on fashion.
“The mall’s gone, so Joyce is recycling a lot of pieces,” Parris explains. “We’ve already seen a jacket from seasons 1 and 2 come back and an outfit that she wore in season 4. I mean, the town is under quarantine. Where would any new clothes even come from?”
One collab between Parris and Maya Hawke, who reprises the character of Robin Buckley in season 5, also became a real-life callback to Ryder’s youth. “Maya wanted to pay homage to a Winona look that she wore as herself in the early ’90s: a Tom Waits shirt with a black belt and denim jeans. She really wanted to recreate that image because she was finally in scenes with Winona this season.”
You may be obsessed with the little details in Stranger Things, but are you ‘digging back into photos of Winona Ryder from decades ago and recreating them’ obsessed? Luckily for us, Parris is.
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