The use of red in Wanda’s wardrobe is a clever and intriguing detail, and for Wanda, it’s closely associated with heroism. The more heroic her character, the more blatant and untarnished the red is in her clothes.
This is no more apparent than the fact that she’s introduced without a shred of red on her:
She’s not even wearing the red stone disc necklace that she wears in every other scene in the movie. She’s all in black here, completely separating her from any semblance of heroic identity. We don’t know anything about this character except she’s allied with known villains, and represents a dividing and disruptive force for the Avengers.
The next outfit she wears should come with a caveat–it was originally meant to be introduced in a series of deleted scenes depicting the twins distributing medicine and warm clothes to the Sokovian needy.
This sharp contrast from her prior appearance is emphasized by the sudden, intense introduction of red in her wardrobe.
However, despite the amount of red Wanda’s wearing, it’s being broken up quite a bit–her dress is patterned with another color, she wears a blue sash, a black vest, and then over that a red shawl. Her status as hero or villain is ill-defined and messy.
Also of note: Wanda wears more blue and Pietro more red in this scene–the one that portrays the strongest family connection between them–than any other in the movie.
This is actually the same outfit, sans sash and shawl. It’s also the same style as her Battle of Sokovia outfit, but with the colors inverted. The dress is still patterned, she wears black over the red, and this is the only instance of Wanda’s hair being tied back in any appearance of her to date–so while the audience might get the sense that there’s a hero here, that isn’t what’s on the surface.
Wearing a clear red as her top layer is the first and strongest symbol that Wanda is a hero, and it’s a pattern that’s repeated for her in both AoU and CW. In the scene where she realizes Ultron’s ultimate plan and helps out Cap, she wears a red shawl over a black dress (the skirt with minimal red patterns).
The shawl is loose, and only worn over one shoulder every time we see her in it (three separate places). Despite being the most prominent color, it’s not confidently and securely worn, and we get the sense it’s not integrated entirely into her identity.
So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that when we see Wanda next, she’s still wearing red as her top layer, but it’s an incredibly muted shade of it–enough that it might not even pass as red without scrutiny. Wanda in this scene is here to confront Tony with Cap over the creation of Ultron’s vision, and she once again represents a dividing force in the Avengers–hence why she’s wearing more black than in any other scene but the first one. But that heroic red is there, and though she doesn’t directly wear it, it’s tied securely around her.
With red representing so much for Wanda, it’s important then, that the red jacket she wears in the Battle of Sokovia is not only handed to her from the Avengers’ wardrobe, it actually belongs to another Avenger, Black Widow.
She wears red as the top layer, and red as the innermost layer. It’s in her jewelry, she’s even wearing red lipstick for the first time.
She’s nearly fully realized as a hero here, but she’s not yet separated from her past misdeeds–black is still a prominent color, and even her red jacket begins to fade into a darker color at the edges. Finally, after saving the people of Sokovia at the cost of her brother, she is redeemed. She joins the Avengers, and is represented fully as a hero:
…which, almost everything about the way this look is designed doesn’t work for the character at all, but I could spend way too much time talking about that. Suffice it to say, this costume symbolizes that she is the Scarlet Witch, even working in the “M” shape from her tiara into the paneling and buckle, with scarlet being the bright, unmistakably, undiminished color of her whole costume.
There’s still a bit left to say about her Civil War costumery, but for the sake of length, I’ll end this one here.
Those Celestial Bodies 