'Descendants 2' Costume Designer Kara Saun Talks the Inspiration for Uma's Costuming (Exclusive)

China McClain‘s entire look for Descendants 2 is striking, but as it turns out, she wasn’t the easiest character to design for.

“Every Descendants villain kid has their own color,” costume designer Kara Saun told JJJ, “So purple was taken obviously. So I thought, ‘Where can I get a color for Uma?’”

It turns out, she took inspiration from Ursula (Uma’s mom)’s make-up.

“Ursula…has very loud eyeshadow,” Kara continues, “That’s where I got the color for Uma. When it came to the hair I just wanted the movement of Ursula… the octopus, the tentacles, so I thought she should definitely have braids.”

As soon as she had the idea, everyone immediately loved it.

“I had the turquoise braids and they were the same color as China‘s and I went into a meeting and Kenny Ortega and everyone was like UMA!” she remembers. “When she moves in the movie it just reminds you of the tentacles. That’s also why I gave her the French skirt. Everything just moves together.”

Wow! We can’t wait to study China‘s costuming and movement in the film.

Read what Kara said about designing Dove Cameron‘s princess attire here.