It took almost year to dress all the armoured warriors, half-animal, half-human characters and a White Witch in the blockbuster film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

And there was some hard work to do. Half-man, half-goat Mr. Timnus (James McAvoy) required three hours of makeup to be created. Half-man, half-horse Oreius (Patrick Kake) is wearing 60lbs. of plastic and metal prosthetics.

Isis Mussenden, Costume Designer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, began her task by reading the novel. Each time she read it she got new ideas.

"Everybody thinks C S Lewis wrote all these massive descriptions," she says.

"But if you really read the book, which I do over and over almost daily, he doesn’t. That’s the gorgeous part of the writing. He left enough to the imagination of the reader."

An important part of Isis’ job is to create costumes for a character that shows how that character develops and changes during the course of the film. The character of Peter probably grows and develops most during the course of the film. Isis says "He makes this progression, and we will see that progression in his clothing."

The movie tells the tale of four kids from war-ravaged London who discover the entrance to a magical world at the back of the old wardrobe. Filmmakers were celebrated to drawing religious parallels between Jesus and Narnia's lion Aslan. The Aslan was voiced by Liam Neeson who was capable of bringing the "warmth and still be ferocious," according to the director Mark Johnson.

Isis Mussenden reunited with director Andrew Adamson after designing the wardrobes for his two animated classics, "Shrek" and "Shrek 2." In a career spanning two decades, the California native has created costumes for a wide range of stage and screen projects, including the recent films "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," the Jamie Foxx comedy, "Breakin' All the Rules" and "Life of the Party." 

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