Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Costume Supervisor Ngila Dickson is one of the country's top designers. In addition to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, she has created costumes for such hits as Heavenly Creatures (1994), Peach (1995) and the cult classic television series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess."

We hear so much about the difficulty of making these movies - what was the easiest part about making these costumes?

I'm trying to think. You've got me. I can't think of a single easy thing about these films. (laughs) I'll tell you what: Coming back to do reshoots where Pete and Fran had written new stuff changing parts of the story and therefore want different costumes. To actually come back and do the films after a break - sometimes doing other things, sometimes not - actually designing again for the films, that was fabulous. In film three, you see about this much of the results of that.

We did a scene of Arwen returning - she's ridden out of Rivendell and sees that child running past - that costume and almost every costume you see on Miranda Otto in the film: Although they were very complicated to do, they were easy because you were coming at them with a very fresh perspective. You're no longer as distraught and sleepless.

Did you ever feel overwhelmed?

Almost every day. The most pivotal part of that is that unlike Richard and Peter who had been working on this conceptually - not only are they friends and business partners, but the conceptual work done at WETA was quite considerable by the time I joined which was six months out from shoot. When I joined the production, Pete wasn't even there, so it was about two months later. That's when all the costuming got underway. It was such a fast-forward process all the time.

And working with Alan Lee and John Howell?

What was interesting about that was if you take a look at the Alan Lee drawings - I adore this man, but I say, "What is this scribble?" He is the most extraordinary drawer, but if you look at it in terms of any kind of costuming, all it is - the only thing it tells you is a vague sense of shape and personality.

Alan was like a touchstone for me. Rather than referencing the drawings which only gave me the beginnings of things, he was the person I'd go and just talk to. Of all the people, Alan was the most reasonable, which was quite a surprise to me because the level of Tolkien fanaticism involved with these films - which is really important to how it came about - but sometimes you just needed somebody who was a little more open-minded. And Alan was that guy.

What was great about was that all of us found that he was closest to what we thought would be okay with Tolkien.

When you're designing costumes for characters of such different sizes and shapes, how is it to design for a new perspective? What was it like to design for different sizes?

There were two things we were doing at the very beginning beside the original drawings for The Fellowship. The two things that were giving me a nervous breakdown were the ringwraiths and the scale issue. It used up an inordinate amount of time because no one had ever done it before and we had to test so many things to figure out what was going to play and what wasn't - what fabrics we could and couldn't use.

At the end of it, I threw up my hands and went back to the craftsmanship of the time - to bring weavers on board and weave the fabric. To make the buttons ourselves so we could make them to scale - to make embroidery the method of embellish those costumes which worked brilliantly with the Hobbits. Not only did it give me the scale easily, but it gave me the right home-spun country naivete which is integral to those little lads.

Throughout the movie, you're familiar with a certain color scheme with the Hobbits. But during the last scene, when you have the four of them lined up...

I was just looking at that. I remember not being sure whether people would know what that was. I think we shot something - or we were intending to shoot something (it's only a vague memory) - but the idea of that was that they were in the Elven versions of their own clothes, so the fabrics were much finer. I thought when I saw it that it needed a little more explanation - but that's one of the things that just moved it along. That was what was behind that.

In terms of color palettes, the films become more and more drab. Was there a challenge in both addressing the color palette of the film and staying true to characters?

When you costume - when you're budgeting something like this - and no producer is interested in your costumes the day you arrive: They want to know how much it's going to cost. I remember at that time putting in - as part of my budget - that we'd need a minimum of 10 costumes per character. So, say with the Hobbit costumes - those iconic character - we'd need 10 costumes times 4, and that was just my estimate: 40 costumes. And the producer, who was no longer on the project by the time we really got into it, he just went berzerk. "What do you mean???" (laughs)

Given how much detail is devoted to these things - how much detail ends up being just for your edification, not for cinematic effect?

The reality is that both Richard and I were aware that neither of us knew what the Hell Peter was going to do next, so the answer for that is: Be prepared for anything. All of a sudden, Peter will say, "Take that armor off - we'll do something where you look more relaxed." And if you haven't made the underpart of that costume work, you're standing there - one thing none of us wanted to do was to say no to Peter. It may have been killing us, but you just made sure you were covered. And that's a bit of the experience of working with Peter Jackson.

What was your favorite costume in the films?

Probably some of the ones that have been cut out. I'm not good at favorites - I have lots of reasons for loving all sorts of things. I always loved the Arwen ‘dying frock', which is the very dark red frock, which - God knows what process they put it through for that scene. It's all a little dodgy for me. (laughs)

I loved a scene when Theoden was the decrepit old king and he throws Grima down the stairs - those two costumes mean a lot to me, because that's quite Shakespearean. I love Aragorn's costume and that is definitely a costume that is full of detail. That's a really great relationship between a costume designer and an actor.

And Viggo came on quite late. I'm sure you were designing for Stuart Townsend then?

It was terrifying. I didn't know Viggo. It had been a pretty difficult time working with Stewart and the original design for the costume of Aragorn - the costume when working with Stewart went through a number of radical changes. At the very end of that process, it became again the original costume. And that's only something you discover when you find those old drawings again.

It was something that I really loved. And suddenly, they were like, "Well, Stewart's gone - now we have this guy." So the week before shooting, Viggo walked into my covered wardrobe dressing room and neither of us was saying very much. He's a very quiet person and sometimes I'm a very quiet person - particularly over issues like that. We were like, "I'll get you to put this on and we'll see what happens."

I was standing there and my heart was in my mouth - I was willing to start the process again because I know how much it matters. You cannot act a role like that without feeling like you were in your second skin as that character. And I was certainly prepared to do it, but there was a part of me that was knew we were knee-deep in trouble.

Viggo paced up and down and said, "Do you think we could just put a few more ties on these boots?" And in that moment - I had known the first time he put that costume on that it was ten times better on him and that was actually to do with the amount of - just Viggo's experience and age and life. He imbued that costume with its own life. The terrifying thing for me was that I might have an actor who simply wanted to get rid of it, but he did not do that.

He just wanted to add to it. I was in love with Viggo from the beginning. (laughs)