The Sparrows' Umbrella Academy Costumes Weren't Exactly Built For Comfort
When we were first introduced to the Umbrella Academy back in 2019, "uniform" is the last possible word anyone would use to describe them. The Hargreeves siblings of Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, and Viktor are all tiny balls of chaotic madness at any given moment, and their vastly different personalities have always been proudly (and loudly) on display in their costuming. Luther has big jackets to cover up his ape-like body, Diego consistently looks like he's ready for a fight, Allison keeps herself sleek and stylish, Klaus is ... Klaus, Five pretty much lives and dies by his Academy uniform, Ben is dead so he keeps it casual, and Viktor desperately wants to appear as invisible as possible. Not since childhood have the Umbrella Academy kids looked in any way like a cohesive unit, and that's part of what makes them so special.
On the flip side, the alternate timeline Hargreeves siblings known as the Sparrow Academy are a well-oiled machine complete with matching outfits. They're like the Fantastic Four if there were seven of them and they didn't make a bunch of bad movies about them. Even with one of the siblings existing as a fleshy psykronium cube of unknown origin, the Sparrow Academy has got it together. Their faces adorn billboards and banners all over the city, uniformly sporting flashy, tight, and aerodynamic full-body supersuit uniforms. As the saying goes, however, beauty is pain, and as one Sparrow Academy member made it known, discomfort is the price you pay to look as good as a Sparrow.
Each suit took three people to put on
During a recent interview with Brief Take, Justin H. Min who plays Ben Hargreeves in both the Umbrella and Sparrow Academy teams (It makes sense, I promise, and if it doesn't, why are you reading this?!) gave the rundown on what the real deal was behind those polished jumpsuits. "The leather jumpsuits, it took three people to put them on each of us because they were so skin-tight," he said. "We could barely move and breathe in them, but, you know, we looked good so I guess that's all that matters. The suits were the brainchild of Christopher Hargadon, the costume designer who took comic book illustrator Gabriel Bá's designs for the Sparrows as seen in the Volume 3 book "Hotel Oblivion" and ran with his own take.
"He created those from scratch," Min said. "So he like, thought of them, conceptualized them ... I saw the initial drawings, and then to sort of see them in real life was amazing." Fortunately, there isn't a lot of action required while donning the suits, as the Sparrows are ambushed by the Umbrella Academy from the comfort of their own home. Regardless, it's undeniable that they look cool as hell. Everyone loves a supersuit.