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‘Monday’ Costume Designer Marli Aleiferi Breaks Down Dressing Sebastian Stan as an American DJ in Greece

Sebastian Stan is best known as his superhero persona, the Winter Soldier. Clad in a leather jacket and reinforced combat pants and boots, he’s ready for battle across the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But in IFC’s April 16 release “Monday,” in which he plays a club DJ living in the hip Athens neighborhood of Kypseli, his bohemian-casual wardrobe made for a total contrast. Stan plays Mickey, an American living in Greece who meets Chloe, an American lawyer (Denise Gough) who’s coming out of a bad relationship, and the two get caught up in a passionate romance.

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Greek costume designer Marli Aleiferi, who dressed Stan, hadn’t worked with many international stars until she collaborated on the film with director Argyris Papadimitropoulos. To bring Mickey to life, she went to thrift stores and built his wardrobe using secondhand clothes. She also pulled items from local Greek designers and distressed any new items. “I didn’t want him in new clothes because his style wasn’t that,” Aleiferi says.

The designer was conscious about staying away from the latest Greek trends. Instead, she opted for stripes, earthy tones and blues, pairing things that didn’t naturally go together “because that matched the bohemian-mixed-with-flamboyant, standout look that I was going for with Mickey.”

For example, when Aleiferi dressed the character in suits, she mixed in hippie shirts or T-shirts. “It was reflective of his personality,” she notes. “I wanted to put that twist into it because that’s what Mickey would do.”

She kept her fabrics light — mainly classic cotton since the film took place in summer, and the club and party scenes were hot and sexy.

Aleiferi pulled the clothes together remotely because Stan was shooting “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” in the U.S. She worked with emailed sizes, and luckily for her, the measurements worked out. Other accessories she gathered for Mickey included a bracelet and a ring.

When Aleiferi finally sat down with Stan and started discussing the character, his response was “That’s exactly how I pictured Mickey to be.”

Stan says the wardrobe choices were helpful in portraying Mickey. “I definitely took a lot of cues off of Mickey’s clothes,” he says. “She and Argyris had a really specific take on him, and it said a lot about him to me.”

Unlike his superhero counterpart, Mickey is often seen partially dressed in the steamy romance, and throughout the film he wears a white sleeveless undershirt and white briefs. “It’s a common item here in Greece,” Aleiferi says of the tank top. “You see men of all ages wearing it under their shirts.”

She distressed the newly purchased tops to make them look old. “It might seem old-fashioned, but he made them look modern,” she says of Stan. She picked a Greek brand, Minerva, for his underwear. “It’s typically for old men,” she explains, “but at the same time, [on Sebastian] it’s really sexy.”

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