How the concert costumes of “The Lion King” gathered with bodysuits and baskets

Costume designer Marina Toybina has made one of the greatest jobs in her career – preparing the costumes of Disney’s 30th anniversary at Hollywood Bowl.

The live concert was recorded in May 2024 and now broadcasts on Disney +.

In 2024, Toybina invited Variety In his Glendale studio a week before Showtime. There is a calm in the air. Prints and animal fabrics are everywhere while cutters and assistants are seated at their stations, zero on their tasks. “I have not yet exploited my directors … It will start on Friday,” explains Toybina. If she feels pressure, she does not give him back.

You have to ask yourself, how will it do it? Can she do it? Spoiler alert! Yes, she succeeds effortlessly.

Toybina, whose credits include “The Masked Singer” and “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration”, is no stranger to pressure work and benefits from a difficult project. Disney’s 30th anniversary of “The Lion King” was an immersive concert experience celebrating the evolution of the 1994 animated film franchise at the award -winning musical Tony Award, and the films live 2019 and 2024. Among the actors are the alumni of the original animated film Jeremy Irons and Nathan Lane (who expressed Scar and Pumbaa); Billy Eichner (Timon in the 2019 remake), Jennifer Hudson, Heather Headley and North West. The project is one of the largest in Toybina to date, with 10 main members of the distribution and 30 dancers.

Before winning the post, Toybina reveals that she had seen all the iteration of the franchise “The Lion King”, including the episodic television series. But as it would be on stage, one of the first things she did was to work with the Broadway team. “I wanted the directors not to arise against the background projections and do not exceed what had been presented in the production of Broadway,” she said. “We had an appeal to make sure that we were aligned and there was a clear distinction between Broadway and what I was doing, which did not imitate them and did not support it with my creations.”

In addition to that, Toybina spent hours looking at photos as part of her research. “Zea ears with giraffe tails, to all the colors of the animals, to the rhino horns, we have zoomed in all this,” said Toybina.

Toybina paid particular attention to being culturally precise when designing tribal prints. She explains: “It is the South African tribe. We had to have the right colors and jewelry and ensure that there were no multisgments, that we did not shoot others. ”

By approaching the real costumes, the Toybina process was to break it down by the characters. Toybina created a deck and a style moodboard for Hudson, which was then presented to his stylist and his team. With West, which appears as a young Simba who was then given to their respective stylists and teams. “Regarding the vision, I know what the whole show looks like.” West, who sings the song Young Simba, “I can’t wait to be King”, says Toybina: “I spent time on the board to make sure it is its aesthetics and its atmosphere.”

Once she had this, it was a question of choosing fabrics, prints and colors. She also had to take into account the rapid changes. “I have three hyenas. They wear masks for a while, and they are behind the scenes, throw capes and become wildebeest, “she explains.

Rhinos, zebras and elephants are among the terrestrial creatures of pride that it was responsible for giving life to the costume. Toybina used the bodysuits as a basis for many conceptions and added elements to the top, whether airographer stencils or hand details. “Everything is light and dancing. He has the durability of being a performance piece, “she said, making sure that each outfit was comfortable for the dancers to settle.

Everything was not tailor -made – Toybina notes that some items were based on materials purchased in stores – “at one point, we were at Joann and I bought weaving baskets to cut.” These baskets were finally part of the troop of elephants.

Having taken up the challenge of designing costumes for “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” live, Toybina has another article on her list of buckets: to design costumes for a live Disney film. Your move, Disney.