Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Getting Camp Half-Blood t-shirts right required trying 20 shades of orange
The costume department had to dye 350 shirts, 19 at a time.
When you're enjoying Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 once the first two episodes arrive on Disney+ on December 20, 2023, you'll want to be sure and appreciate the Camp Half-Blood t-shirts. It turns out that this unassuming costume piece, worn by many characters in the narrative, took quite a bit of planning and preparation. This includes testing a whopping twenty different shades of orange! But that's only the beginning of the adventure of the orange t-shirts.
Costume designer Tish Monaghan shared the whole affair during the Percy Jackson and the Olympians panel at New York Comic Con 2023. "While the art department was working on the [Camp Half-Blood] logo, the costume department was working on trying to find the perfect color for the t-shirt," said Monaghan. Testing "something like 20 shades of orange" proved a necessary but complicated step in the process the t-shirt's creation.
"We had to find a shade that would work outside under the sunlight, under a gray sky, in the forest, in an interior as well," she said. After several camera tests, they had settled on a tight range of shades. However, locating the proper color of pre-dyed shirt proved elusive.
"So we had to end up dying over 350 t-shirts, basically in a witch's cauldron," Monaghan explained. "And you could only fit 19 t-shirts at a time." Further complicating the issue was the fact that they needed so many shirts meant the base t-shirts being dyed were a variety of different colors at the outset.
"It was quite a long and scientific process before we were able to get the right color," Monaghan stated. And once the shirts were properly dyed, they still had to be screened with the brown Camp Half-Blood logo, a process unto itself. "We had our 350 t-shirts screened, but then we had to wash them all," said Monaghan. "So we had to start the process over again: into the cauldrons, and you had to protect the color that we had."
However, all the hard work paid off. Monaghan was excited to see that some of the audience members were wearing Camp Half-Blood t-shirts. "I am glad to see that there are lots of orange t-shirts out there," she said. "I heard just before I walked on that there had been a 500 t-shirt giveaway, so it's just nice to see it scattered among the audience."
If you want to experience the entire Percy Jackson panel for yourself, you can so now, right here at Popverse. And if you're looking for everything we know about Percy Jackson and the Olympians so far, click here.
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