Jim Jarmusch‘s “Father Mother Sister Brother,” now in theaters, is made up of three very different segments, each with a notable cast discussing the nature of their family relationships. One thing they have in common is a specific color: A deep red, the color of a jammy merlot, is a throughline that appears in each character’s contemporary clothing.

Set in New York state, Dublin and Paris, the three segments each revolve around an adult sibling pair. While in the first two, the siblings have somewhat uncomfortable interactions with their parents, in the third Paris section, the twin brother and sister have only memories of their late parents to excavate.

The clothes worn by cast members including Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett and Charlotte Rampling appear to be everyday items, but costume designer Catherine George explains that all the pieces seen onscreen — even Tom Waits’ very mundane hoodie — were made by iconic French fashion house Saint Laurent, a backer of the film.

The idea for the crimson theme came from Jarmusch, about whom George enigmatically says, “In the last few years, he’s been seeing colors in a different way. Red specifically looks different to him than it used to.”

“Jim called me about the movie pretty early on,” George says.

“He said, ‘We’ve got this movie, it’s shooting in New York, Dublin and Paris.’ I’m from Ireland and shooting at home was amazing, and also shooting in Paris, incredible.”

“And then he said, ‘Well, it’s a little complicated, because YSL will be collaborating with us, but I want you to design the costumes. We’ll be using some of their pieces that already fit the characters, but if they don’t, then you’re designing them.’”

“Jim already had a color theme — I think it was for one character — a sort of red and pink combination, and he wanted to carry that theme through all the stories, at least the red.

“It’s nice to start a project and already have a sort of a theme that you’re working within, rather than just grabbing at straws,” she says. “It sort of gave me a base to think about while I was designing.”

George, who has worked several times with Bong Joon Ho and also has “Die, My Love” this year, previously collaborated with Jarmusch on “The Dead Don’t Die” and “Paterson.” Below, she breaks down how the wardrobe for each segment was created.

Tom Waits wore a hoodie custom made by Saint Laurent with a subtle burgundy lining.

Part One: Father

Tom Waits is an eccentric, solitary dad who is visited in his rural New York home by his wary, traditional son (played by Adam Driver) and daughter (Mayim Bialik). Driver and Bialik’s styles mirror each other; they’re both in conservative blazers over crimson sweaters, while Waits sports a casual zippered hoodie.

Driver’s clothes were “not unlike his real clothes,” says George. “Tom’s character was a little more involved,” says George, “because he lives in a cabin and he’s portraying himself as a penniless father.”

Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik’s sibling pair mirror each other in conservative blazers and pullover sweaters in tones of deep red.

For Waits, they had originally though he would wear a robe or pajamas. “We initially had thought of sort of a dressing gown for him. But when I went to fit him, I went to his studio in California and had the tailor from YSL with me, and Tom tried on the dressing gown and wasn’t quite feeling it,” she says.

“When we arrived, he was in a hoodie,” she recalls. “So we used the pajamas that we’d made for him, and I said, ‘Let’s try your hoodie on with it.’ He felt more like the character, more comfortable and natural.”

Of course, even the drab hoodie got a subtle burgundy lining.

“Each each item of clothing, they would either send me images of something existing, or I would send them an image of a particular piece, and they would source the fabric. So it was a back and forth across continents,” George says. 

Though Waits’ character acts like he’s possibly broke, it turns out that might be an act — one clue is a snazzy suit he dons at the end of the segment.

“When Tom changes at the end into a suit to go out, that was fun to make a really beautiful suit in the specific color, and his shoes I really loved,” George says. “He wore some creepers, like he wears in real life. So we had a pair made in burgundy, which were unbelievably beautiful.”

Charlotte Rampling’s red Saint Laurent coatdress was adapted from a jumpsuit design.

©Mubi/Courtesy Everett Collection

Part Two: Mother

In the second segment, strait-laced Cate Blanchett and free-spirited Vicky Krieps make a once-a-year visit to their rather stiff novelist mother Charlotte Rampling in her Dublin home. The trio’s distinct personalities are evident in their wardrobes.

“We seem to be accidentally color-coordinated,” Rampling’s character says, underlining the awkwardness. “How embarrassing!”

With pink-tinted hair and a fluffy fake fur coat over a printed red sweater, Krieps’ character is “a bit of a party girl,” George explains, though she’s also putting on a show — she’s possibly not the successful influencer she makes out to be.

Blanchett’s character is frankly uptight, which is instantly signaled by the way she wears an oxford shirt over a burgundy turtleneck. Her clothes weren’t pulled from existing YSL collections, George says. “We had come up with the shirt, but then we wanted to incorporate the red, and that was, again, finding a balance. A whole red sweater would have been too much, but putting the shirt on top added to her sort of buttoned-up version of herself.”

Rampling’s character, meanwhile, makes the most of the couture tailoring in a burgundy coatdress that was based on a YSL jumpsuit design.

“They made beautiful pieces,” George says. “The thing with working with YSL is they have access to so much incredible fabric and their production is gorgeous. When the pieces arrived, they were beautifully made: the shoe, the bags. Even Kate’s sort of dowdy pieces were really beautifully made and executed.”

But even YSL pieces need to be aged to make them look lived in, she says.

“I find it jarring when I see something that looks too fresh, too new, if the character is not that kind of person. You know, Tom’s hoodie, his his sweatshirt, his pajamas — they all went through a process of being washed and aged,” says George, though she adds that Rampling’s character is the type who would take very good care of her clothes.

Luka Sabbat and Indya Moore play twin siblings, who wear leather jackets with slightly different designs.

©Mubi/Courtesy Everett Collection

Part Three: Sister, Brother

In the final segment, siblings played by Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat drive through Paris to their late parents’ empty apartment to talk about their family. They’re as naturalistic and free-spirited as the other siblings are rigid.

“They’re twins and they have some kind of psychic messaging system, and their biker jackets, even though they’re two different versions, are quite similar,” says George. “His is a classic sort of motorcycle jacket, and hers is more of a fashion type.”

Though the color theme isn’t as obvious, Indya’s character does wear a red tank top, which was based on a piece George actually owned but in a Saint Laurent-designed version.

As for Sabbat’s character, “We decided to keep him in a classic white T-shirt as just a sort of iconic movie character,” she says.

After working on fantastical films such as “Mickey 17” and “Snowpiercer,” George says working with Saint Laurent was a welcome change of pace. “It was nice to get very specific and go back to a combination of costumes and fashion. I trained in fashion design, so it was nice to combine the two things.”

Luka Sabbat, left, wore a classic white t-shirt, while Indya Moore’s red tank top was based on one owned by costumer designer Catherine George.

“Father Mother Sister Brother” (Courtesy of Yorick Le Saux/Vague Notion)