
He began his design process by looking into the mechanics of the script. He asked many questions: who are the characters, what kind of environments do they live in, how does it affect them and how does it affect the clothes. Then images from the period filled in more blanks.
From the beginning, the goal was to create the character of Einar Wegener as though Lili Elbe was in him the whole time. One of the challenges Delgado faced was doing a work that was faithful to the character. The brilliant use of color helped him accomplish this goal. “With everything that happens in Copenhagen, we used blues, greys and blacks and then when they move to Paris it was a more modern, avant-garde and fashion-conscious city and we started moving into warmer colors like greens, oranges and reds. For us, it was trying to depict this new freedom, this much more emotionally positive place.”
Delgado created many memorable looks in The Danish Girl and one stands out to him especially because of the emotional response it caused. For better or for worse, clothes can make people feel intensely and seeing this in effect was rather fascinating to him. “It was an outfit worn by Redmayne and it was for me a very transitional point in the movie. It’s a suit that still has aspects of masculinity but at the same time is very feminine…and it happens when he is wearing this outfit, rough men in the park attacked his character. It shows you how sometimes people can get offended by clothes, even to the point of having really violent emotions,” the costume designer said.