Young would lead a massive effort to design and create thousands of costumes for Willow’s eight episodes, involving some 100 crew members over several months of production. The original 1988 movie of the same name was new to Young, although she’d grown up in England loving similar fantasy films like The NeverEnding Story (1984) and Labyrinth (1986, a Lucasfilm co-production). “They’re films that make you dream and believe you can do anything and be anything,” she says. “That’s what I love about Willow.”
From her earliest years, Young can recall being creative. “I was always designing wedding dresses and drawing matching outfits,” she says. She was interested in clothing, but also in storytelling. At university, she learned a lot about fashion, but felt she didn’t fit into that world completely. “Then I learned about costuming, and that was it. You could create characters and tell stories with it. I loved the research and everything involved.”
Initially working in theater, Young had a particular interest in film. She moved to London and never looked back. Willow is her first official “costume designer” credit. Having worked as both an assistant and associate costume designer on large studio features like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Cruella (2021), Young felt ready for the scale of the project, but found that television was different. “I now think that if you can do episodic television, you can do anything!” she says. “It was a lot harder for loads of reasons.”
Young’s self-described right hand on Willow was costume effects supervisor Marc Trunk, who also happens to be her husband. She met the Australian artist in the costume department on Mad Max: Fury Road, and the two have collaborated on projects ever since. “We both have our strengths, and that makes us a great team,” she says. In addition to being self-taught in computer design tools and 3D printing, Trunk is also a lifelong Willow fan, and his enthusiasm helped attract Young to the project.