Because some scenes require Streep to scurry around the woods, Atwood says that she created about three different post-makeover dresses—each with plenty of give—just in case one was damaged during Streep’s more active scenes. “Because the costume is black, you really can’t tell but it has a lot of stretch in it under the arms and in different areas to allow movement,” Atwood says. “We did a couple different lengths. One that was shorter and easier to move on the ground in. Different variations of the same dress.” Although Streep was mainly concerned with her costumes “being functional so that she could do her acting,” she did have one practical request: “solid footwear.” Because, as Atwood says, “the ground in the forest was really uneven.”

Although The Witch and her daughter Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) have little in common sartorially, Atwood did try to link them in terms of their elaborate wardrobe surfaces. For the princess’s dress—which had more Medieval and bondage-y elements—Atwood says she layered “a pale pink washed taffeta” under a layer of dyed silk organza in pale green. “It’s two layers together and then covered with satin, which I made the bondage-y bits out of.” Atwood used the same Medieval inspiration for Rapunzel’s love interest (Billy Magnussen) by dressing him in a jacket in “a traditional doublet shape from the Renaissance era.” She updated the look slightly with leather pants and studs on the jacket. “He is a romantic prince but there is a biker kind of vibe that makes people connect with the character.”

In the musical, you will notice that The Baker and The Baker’s Wife are told to find a “slipper as pure as gold,” which they eventually steal from Cinderella (Anna Kendrick). Atwood says that this is a nod to fairytale tradition because “in the original Cinderella the shoes were gold. They were not glass slippers.” With that wardrobe constraint, Atwood had to figure out how to dress the character as “a reluctant Cinderella,” who has some hesitations about her Prince and life in a palace. She did this by “tying Cinderella into the tree and her mother” by creating a more modest dusky gold gown with flecks of brown, and a green chiffon underlay.

In the musical, The Baker goes to elaborate lengths to get his hands on Little Red Riding Hood’s cape. And Atwood says that designing that piece, for actress Lilla Crawford was just as much of a headache. The costume designer used an illustration of Little Red from the 1930s and 40s as inspiration, but “had a hard time finding the right red.” Ultimately, she found the perfect shade but it was on a piece of red suede, which is not what Atwood imagined. Fortunately for her, “you can’t tell what [the cape] is made out of in the film.”

Atwood says that the last characters’ wardrobes she figured out were the stepsisters’ (Tammy Blanchard and Lucy Punch). “I really wanted them to look like they were really trying hard but I had to be careful that [their costumes] weren’t too nasty [and sexy].” In fact, Atwood first designed the costumes as being “tackier and a little more Hollywood Boulevard-ish” but ultimately pulled back from that vision to create black-lace and nude-colored concoctions that look more high end. “That was the one costume that I had to take a step back and soften a little bit. They were a little bit more low-brow originally,” she says, “but I think this worked better.”

Related: Johnny Depp’s Into the Woods Wolf Costume Explained by Colleen Atwood