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What does it take to be a costume designer in Hollywood?
She and her ilk are sterling multitaskers who juggle the needs of all sorts of personalities on set.
They collaborate closely with stars to double-check the costumes fit, both physicallyandwith an actors idea of the role.
TV rates are starting to rise, and we are working to make this the industry standard.
Some of them are, which is fantastic and so appreciated.
Some of them are not.
Its going to take a while.
Here, some stories about those challenges.
But were making a movie.
Because in this business, one is none.
So when you see her hat, its 3-D printed, its not woven.
She called me out of the blue, and she said, I really need your help.
Can you come with me to Scotland and Italy to fit George Clooney and Tilda Swinton?
I said, Are you kidding me?
We only had one fitting with each actor, and they had multiple changes throughout the film.
We met in the airport, I believe, in Scotland, with more boxes than youve ever seen.
So were laying things all over the place.
Anyway, I got a hernia.
Imagine: somebody with a hernia.
The whole time youre thinking:I wanted to do this.
Anyway, we get to George [in Italy].
Now Im having acid reflux, off-the-chart bad.
All I kept thinking is,Im going to throw up on George Clooney, on this bed.
That is, like, show business to me.
The truth is its just always a lot of hard work, and there is no glam.
We literally had three to four days to prep an episode.
We have two days to prep it.
I was like, Oh my God.
Its not only Betty, right?
Its the rest of the principal cast, its the day players.
Add in 200 extras.
Everybody has to be costumed head to toe.
That episode I will never forget.
I had to remake a vintage dress for Betty.
Her style when she was a model is out of fashion now.
So a 1950s dress was perfect for that scene.
Somehow Bettys dress got put in the annual Western sale.
She actually wore it to a book signing that I had at Playclothes.
Then I actually contacted her later becauseMad Mencostumes, some of them were in different museums.
So we contacted her to say, Could we borrow Bettys dress?
And she refused us.
She said, Absolutely not.
Im not letting this dress out of my hands.
We had his measurements.
It was actually built onto a body form.
So if you cant get people in for a fitting, what are you going to do?
It was incredibly nerve-wracking when he tried it on.
I mean, lucky for me, Idris just walks into clothing and looks amazing.
He just does clothing favors.
Hes the kind of guy who can put anything on and it looks good.
But the question was, is he going to feel like this is what his character is?
Is he going to be down with it?
Because thats really important.
And he was, thankfully.
So they needed multiples that we could destroy.
Every time you need multiples, you should probably think about that in your design.
Is this going to rip?
Its just all hands on deck, getting pants put back together.
Those are incredibly, incredibly challenging moments.
People asked me, Well, where is the illustration for that?
He had to be in disguises as this scat-singing, sleazy detective.
I started with the great jazz singers of the 50s and 60s, but it really wasnt that.
Theres a little bit of that in there for sure, but it really wasnt specifically that.
And then we went Elvis in his Vegas 70s phase.
But nothing was working.
It felt too contrived, and not right, especially compared to all the other disguises.
We made the jacket, the shirts, the pants.
I had 20 minutes to try on his costume before he worked in it that day.
Yeah, it was one of my scariest but most gratifying moments on the series.
We had all this press on the show by then.
A lot of it was about her fashion.
The silk chiffon was gone.
It was just dead.
We had to replace all of that chiffon and remake whole sections of the bodice.
In a four-day timeline.
And also the thing itself was quite expensive to buy.
I dont think Im supposed to say [how much it cost].
I called [the production] and said, Look, were not finding it.
Were just going to do this.
She said, Is it going to be worth it?
And I said, I think it is.
On the day, God bless Betsy Beers, she came down to the set to see it.
She just turned to me and said, [Kerry Washington] looks fantastic.
And I was like, Okay, good.
We had very little money.
There would be some things that Id modify for Detroit.
But I said, okay, well, how does this speak to her character?
Its notjusta flight suit.
Its how I was trained.
But with her clothing specifically, it needed to match her.
The director [Boots Riley] had a friend who was a painter.
So I reached out to him, and he did it.
Sarees, jutes, lehengas.
Luckily, Ive done sarees my whole career and with Mindy for the last eight years.
You know, youre trying to make people look individual but also part of the group and you overbuy.
And they have to be individual.
If youve ever seen somebody wrap a saree, its tricky.
Theres an artistry to how theyre folded.
But if I wrapped every woman, they would look exactly the same.
So we brought in several different people.
It looks like,Oh, they just brought their own clothes.
And its like, no, I dressed every single one of them.
I made the suit.
The pinstripe is making her look fat.
Now, the fabric store is basically closing in an hour.
I have to call the fabric store, hope to God that theres a different pinstriped fabric available.
I have to call my seamstress, alert her that now she has to make a suit overnight.
We hold this store open.
I drive there as fast as I can.
Thanks to God there was some jot down of beautiful wool where the pinstripe was a little less wide.
We buy the fabric, I go to the seamstress.
She stays up pretty much all night.
And, luckily, it was accepted and we were able to shoot.
But it was the most nerve-wracking night of my life, pretty much.
This is not just making a cute little skirt or something.
This is real tailoring.
And we pulled it off.
There was no one that I could go to, producer, director.
They just said: Do it.
If thats what she wants, do it.
Absolutely the costume houses cant keep up with the demand.
Right now Im working on 40s [clothes].
And theres four other shows going 40s, and its really trying.
I mean, I have really good tailors so they never look homemade.
But its finding the fabrics.
Its all about the fabric.
If it doesnt have the right drape, its not going to look right.
40s clothes are falling apart because theyre old, and theyre moth-eaten, shoulder burned.
Also, our bodies are different now than they were in the 40s.
Our body shapes have shifted.
Women are much taller.
There are very few period shoes bigger than an eight.
We paint them and we age them and we make them look different.
There are certain vendors we all shop from, and theyre madly trying to pick more up.
