The Story Behind Hocus Pocus ’s Iconic Costumes

When asked to conjure up the “most popular Halloween movie of all time,” Google will present you with three faces: those of Winifred, Mary, and Sarah Sanderson (as played by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker) in 1993’s Hocus Pocus. Directed by Kenny Ortega, the film about three resurrected 17th-century witches is a beloved seasonal treat for good reason. It’s a reliable film the whole family can watch (and actually enjoy). It’s also a tradition that’s hard to avoid—it makes a generous 30 appearances on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween this year.

And aside from their goal to, oh, suck the life out of all the children in Salem, the film’s sorceresses are fairly tame. There’s no blood or gore, and the witches are both comedic and glamorous. Emphasis on that latter trait—which was brought to life by costume designer Mary Vogt, who crafted the Sanderson sisters’ looks. For the past 38 years, Vogt has been the sartorial architect behind classics like the Men in Black trilogy, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, the Naked Gun films, and Crazy Rich Asians. In short, it’s clear Vogt knows how to dress captivating characters.

So we reached out to Vogt herself to get all the details on these unforgettable costumes. Find out how Midler influenced the colorful looks, what Disney princess inspired Sarah Sanderson’s look, and more.

The actors’ personalities had a big influence on the costumes.

“On Hocus Pocus, we were really lucky. We had the wonderful director Kenny Ortega, who was a performer…. Kenny was great because a lot of directors, they don’t want to do anything too weird or outrageous. But not with Kenny.

“When I talked [to him] about my vision for Bette, I said, ‘You can’t put her in some black witch outfit. You have to put her in something that’s colorful and fun and has a little sparkle to it.’ And the other girls as well—Sarah Jessica was a child stage actor, and there was Kathy Najimy. But Bette was the main one. So when I did sketches and talked to Kenny about it, he responded, ‘Now let me talk to Bette, because this might not be what she was thinking of.’ So he talked to Bette, who said, ‘Well, of course. I’m not going to wear some black dress.’ She was great, and Sarah Jessica Parker was fantastic, and so was Kathy Najimy. They all got along so well together, and they just clicked.”

The zombie character was meant to look like another iconic Halloween character.

“[Zombie] Billy Butcherson, oh, my God. One of the childhood stories I always liked was that of Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and that’s what that character reminded me of. So his costume is very much like a black-and-white drawing I had of Ichabod Crane in an old children’s storybook. It was the 17th-century coat and boots.”

The symbols on Bette Midler’s dress were purposely designed to be vague.

“I started with [the costumes for] Bette. She was going to have red hair in the film, so I thought green would look good with red. I always think green and purple together is a great combination. So we decided to do Bette in green with purple as an accent, along with some symbols.

“Symbols are always tricky to do because you don’t want to accidentally use some ancient symbol that’s evil. So we did the symbols on her robe from the rune alphabet—and some from Stonehenge—and then we added a line here and there to make sure they were unrecognizable. Almost like crop circles.”

One of the witches was inspired by a Disney princess, while another was inspired by bakers.

“Sarah played the little beauty queen…. She was more like a Sleeping Beauty princess. That’s what I was going with—more like a witch princess. And then, Kathy was more like an alchemist, the one who was always mixing the potions. So she looked like the cook witch—she was busy doing things. Her outfit was meant to look like a witch baker.

“I looked at a lot of storybook references. Arthur Rackham—who is a storybook illustrator I really like—I used a lot of his stuff. And Goya, a Spanish artist, did a series called Los Caprichos, which are really creepy Spanish Inquisition drawings. My inspiration was a combination of fairy tales and Los Caprichos.”

Dani (Thora Birch) needed to stand out among the witches.

“You think the other girls had big personalities—[Thora] was the sunshine. She was little, but she burst onto the scene. Her costume was supposed to look like her mother made it, but I wanted it to be bright in color so that you can see her amongst the other witches.

“She was so bright, and her personality was big—even as big as Bette’s. She was never shy. You would have thought she was 18. She was extremely mature and funny, but also slightly sarcastic.”

Most of the costumes from the Halloween party scene are Disney hand-me-downs.

“Toward the end of the film, we shot the big Halloween party scene, and I had completely run out of money. I spent all our money on the witches, Billy Butcherson, and Thora Birch, so there was nothing left. Fortunately, I had access to the Walt Disney costume department, and they had saved the clothes from all the movies they had done. I think that if you paid $5,000, you could have whatever you want. So I went through there and took everything that looked like a costume. In some movie, they must have had these three girls in red sequin dresses, so I said, ‘Let’s get that! We’ll ask three women to play The Supremes!’ I just looked at what costumes they had and created characters from what was available.

“If we had to create our own stuff it wouldn’t have been as good. And since it was a Disney movie, we didn’t have to worry about the rights for things. We did use some Tron things [from the 1982 movie], which could have been a problem, but I think we used a Tron costume with an animal head or something. It turned out to be great.”

At one time, people were able to rent the actual witches’ costumes.

“Now studios keep everything. They have their archives and keep absolutely everything. But at that time, it was different. I think the real Hocus Pocus costumes...people would rent them all the time, so they could get money out of them. But then when the movie got more popular, they stopped. I’ve seen photos of the real costumes, and they actually look like they’re in pretty good shape—even though they were rented out for years.”

The movie was not immediately a hit.

“The thing is, when the movie first came out, it was not successful. I remember I went to one of the early screenings, when the studio people were there. When the cat dies in the film, all the little kids started crying. So the studio people were like, ‘Oh, my God. This movie makes kids cry. Forget it.’ I don’t think the studio was behind it. But when it got on television, a younger generation of people started to watch it and like it. And then it had a life, which was at least five years after the movie came out.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour