- 7 hours ago
Designers from 'Transparent,' 'Feud,' 'Westworld,' and 'Big Little Lies' joined the THR panel.
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Short filmTranscript
00:06all right thanks everybody and thanks to all the M&A nominated costume designers
00:11for being here you guys are like my dream team I think it's really an
00:15extraordinary time for television and for shows that are representing diversity
00:20in America whether it's a transparent or an older age Hollywood diva TV is
00:27really driving the cultural conversation in a vital way whether it's Handmaid's
00:32Tale the dystopian gender divided world in that show or the intelligent machines
00:38of Westworld the stories on screen are really striking a chord with viewers in
00:43these tumultuous times and it's also a great time for costume design and
00:49television I think because it's particularly impactful because viewers
00:53get to see these characters over and over again week after week or hour after
00:58hour if you're binging on a show and really connect with them and I think in a
01:02way that makes you sort of identify all the more with a character and want to
01:07dress like them or be like them so it's an exciting time for costume design as
01:13well so before I get started I want to introduce all of you first of all we have
01:18Anne who's nominated for Handmaid's Tale which is a show that really couldn't have
01:26come along at a better time and she created the signature red Handmaid's Tale
01:33outfits that this is kind of the red this is my assistant's idea but I like it that
01:40have really become a political uniform of protest for so many women around the
01:46country and you also work on Westworld and did Masters of Sex and Pan Am which
01:53was a favorite of mine just mentioned Pan Am oh my god Marie Schley you're
01:59nominated for Amazon's Transparent which is really which is really the classic
02:08American TV family TV show for today and I think you created a look for that show
02:14that's so recognizable for those of us who live in Southern California whether
02:17it's the Eastside vintage digs or the marina retiree look I think we recognize
02:25it Trish Somerville you're nominated for creating the look for for the pilot for
02:32HBO's Westworld and you've done a lot of work on film and TV and styling and you've
02:39also crossed over into fashion and Hunger Games catching fire girl with a dragon
02:45tattoo you did a collaboration with H&M that was based on your work in that film
02:50which probably sold at this mall actually in H&M and then I want to
02:57introduce Zaldi who I first met when you were designing Gwen Stefani's line lamb a
03:06fashion collection and you're nominated with Perry for your work on RuPaul's
03:11Drag Race on VH1 and Zaldi has really worked with a who's who of pop music he's
03:19designed costumes and wardrobe for Lady Gaga and Madonna Madonna and Michael
03:23Jackson and you've had your own fashion label so and Perry next to you Perry Meek
03:31I was fascinated to learn as a former ice skating champion in Australia which is
03:38amazing I want to hear about that transition and and you've worked and
03:44you've worked with Lady Gaga too and thank you for being here and Alex you're
03:50nominated for HBO's Big Little Lies and for that show you created a range of
03:58costumes from upscale athleisure to Audrey Hepburn glam for some fabulous ladies
04:04like Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon and Zoe Kravitz you've also worked on
04:09Modern Family and Hung and last but not least we have Lou
04:18who's nominated for Feud on FX which is an amazing series about Betty Davis and Joan
04:26Crawford and Lou is a costume design legend and you've known known for your
04:32work you are known for your work on Glee and American Horror Story and and so
04:38many others honestly I feel like we could do an hour with each of you but we're
04:43gonna try to move along and have everyone have a chance to speak and so I
04:48want to ask you guys first to talk a little bit about the projects that you're
04:51nominated for and specifically what the visual references were for the show so
04:57why don't we start with you okay so those were all over the place how much time do
05:04you have I you know sincerely it was all over the place I tend to oddly or
05:11maybe not oddly maybe you guys do the same thing but I go toward nature first in terms of
05:17finding color and and I think the biggest thing I tried to do was find current
05:25religious groups that are all over the world and some more specific to oddly New
05:32Zealand it wasn't that I was looking toward New Zealand but I was looking for
05:38religious groups that looked and felt like the story at hand and then I went into
05:44the military and any sort of group that was very uniform you know it's kind of
05:51very logical thinking but our show is really about everything being in mass
05:59many all together and different tribal looks so it was the gamut from you know
06:05religious groups to different periods in time that are quite classic to you know
06:12even ants a nts I mean I I go toward insects even so it was everywhere and my
06:20mother even what about you Marie um well I'm on season three of transparent so and
06:32it's a story about personal authenticity so each season the creator of the show kind of
06:39throws us a curveball and says we need to reinvent these characters as they progress
06:44on their journey to self-discovery so in this season you know Maura decides to she's
06:53depressed and she even though she has everything she's in a relationship and she
06:58decides to you know pursue um surgery for her transition and become more feminine but you know we've been on
07:06I've been on this journey about what it means to be a
07:08feminine and what it means to be masculine and so in season three instead of just
07:12doing the you know for season one I did the research like what is a trans transgender
07:17woman in her 70s look like for season three I really had to start thinking about what gender
07:22is and if gender is a spectrum and it's a construct then really clothing are it's one
07:29of the building blocks of gender and so what makes something feminine and what makes something masculine and we kind
07:35of started there in a much more intellectual place than we had to do it.
07:38and trying to you know create a new silhouette for Maura meant you know giving her a waistline which we
07:45hadn't throwing away the bohemian looks and really tailoring her getting rid of the
07:52prints and doing like a monochromatic more urbane look for her and you know the
07:57other characters also are all transitioning through things too so but it became just a
08:03more intellectualized process about what is gender it sounds like a psychology class
08:09yeah you can get you can really go down the wormhole of that yeah what about you Lou
08:14I learned a big lesson this time around for feud in that um
08:19I came right off of American Horror Story Roanoke Roanoke which was a reality
08:25based on reality TV actors playing actors and then the flashbacks to 15th century which I'd never done
08:31before so I was learning a lot it was a bloody mess and then go right into feud and I've
08:36got a little cocky
08:37thinking it's 60s I'll just do my research but it was it was it really threw me off and it
08:45took me a while to get into it and then Jessica and Susan all our actors either came from New
08:52York London Australia
08:54and as everybody here knows they only want to fly the day before they work and Susan
08:59and Jessica had 62 changes each the first two weeks of shooting because we cross
09:03board in several episodes so I wasn't prepared so I didn't really catch my speed
09:10until like episode two but I did rely of course on the research which is there and
09:16but then Ryan Murphy throws that curveball and doesn't want to follow the
09:20research and so it was really about color and texture and tone and then you have two
09:26women who are close to 70 who certainly don't look like it but are playing their
09:30early 50s and flashbacks to 30s 40s 50s 60s into the 70s so it was just learning a lot and
09:39really having a good team who helped me with my research because I couldn't do it
09:43fast enough and shout out to all the costumers who make us look good by the way
09:48I couldn't
09:53Taylor's seamstresses everybody they're my inspiration my costumers are my
09:56inspiration my assistant is my inspiration and they feed me things that then I get
10:01the credit for and I just want to make sure that they know that I know how I'm up
10:06here because of my team but that's my inspiration for this show mostly it was
10:11the just the research the great YouTube resources and the at USC they have a
10:21library that they bought from Warner Brothers and they had the entire
10:24behind-the-scenes photos of whatever happened to baby Jane so we were able to
10:30go in and look at the slides and they the the dress that we weren't allowed to take
10:36anything out so we've hired an artist to go in and look at the slides of the
10:41watercolor dress that Betty wears and she matched the Pantone and painted a swatch
10:46so then I could have that fabric made and make the dress so that was a long
10:51answer sorry it's amazing I remember you telling me too that I thought was
10:58interesting that you didn't want to look at any of the film performances of Joan or
11:03Betty because you didn't want to be influenced by their costumes you really
11:06wanted to be influenced by them personally which you know is the costume
11:09for this film right for for this series yeah you get a lot of with with Jessica
11:15and Susan it they have a lot of input yeah okay Trish what about you inspiration
11:24well I guess inspiration for me starting on Westworld was one of kind of the
11:29things that was really cool was when I went in to interview for the job which I
11:34just found cleaning out my office this weekend
11:37was they gave you these kind of two pieces of paper and one of them because
11:43it was really very secretive as to what the show was so there were these two
11:47pieces of paper that they gave me and one was kind of a handwritten note which
11:51later when I got on the series the the pilot I realized it was from Dolores but it
11:56was this handwritten note that she wrote to Warren Teddy about they're after us like
12:03you know and then the other thing was from all the people in Delos who were
12:10talking about the robots so they give they gave me those two things and said
12:14okay now read these and then come in and give us tears and I'm like okay so then you
12:20know I did all this research and I come in and you know luckily like I really kind of hit
12:25it
12:25off with Lisa and Jonah and then we start doing research so the research it's
12:30like you know we all kind of experience things of if you're working on a show
12:34that is something that exists if you have research you can go on you have
12:39something you can show people the directors the producers the studios and
12:43say this is what this looked like in 1906 this is what this looked like in 1950 but
12:49then there's that level that we had the future there was slightly future not too much in
12:54the future there's no timeline on it so you have nothing to go on for that and
12:59so that's what makes it a little bit more challenging because everybody has a
13:03different perception of what you think that should be and luckily I got to work
13:07very closely with the production designer Nathan Crawley who's quite talented and
13:11very giving of information so he and I started coming up about when we thought it
13:16should be and so it was doing all this research of the Wild West gunslingers Negro
13:22cowboys female cowboys like everything because we want it to be all-encompassing
13:27we figured if this is a world of Disneyland meets Fantasy Island you have to
13:32provide everything for anyone who wants to come then we had to design everyone
13:37who lives below the which I call the butchers the people that chop the bodies
13:41remake the bodies and and I wanted them to be like you know they just get hosed
13:45down and they're in latex and PVC and you remake them then then we had
13:50savages that come in and still try to steal Maeve's children so it's like it
13:55was all these levels of things that existed and didn't exist so it was rooms
14:00and rooms and rooms of research and at one point HBO came in and you we call it I
14:05mean I call it a dog-and-pony show where the studios come in and you're like
14:09that's not like here's what we have this is what we think you know before you get
14:14the go-ahead and I had all this one section kind of covered with paper and
14:19they one of the guys said like oh is this what you're trying to sneak past us is it
14:24what you guys are trying to hide I said no I'm just trying to be respectful you
14:27can take the the paper down if you'd like because it was all autopsies and
14:31butcher scenes because it was for the lower levels of what happens and then it
14:36got to be this thing of like then they never questioned me again it was like just do it's
14:40fine you scared the hell out of them yeah you just it's okay do whatever you want
14:45you know so but it was I mean it's it's definitely a lot a lot of research and
14:49it's a lot of like trying to find authentic fabrics you know from all the
14:54period stuff and then just figuring out where we want to shift what's the
14:58unknown you know and I think for me when I don't have something to go on I
15:03think that's the trickiest thing to do like it's like in catching fire it's like
15:06the future thing that nobody quite knows what that is it's a little bit more
15:09tricky okay Alex tell us about Big Little Lies and and all those women I
15:18think that I was really it was an absolute gift to work with Jean-Marc Vallée
15:25because he starts with music for every character and he made a playlist for every
15:32woman in the show and so I would listen to these playlists and you get a sense of
15:38who they are what they're feeling where they're going how they're spinning and
15:44that was a beautiful place to to start visually is just with music and then his
15:51the women each have this level of proximity to the ocean and socio-economically
15:58their hierarchy is is directly related to where they are situated in relation to
16:04to the ocean and so it is tricky on contemporary shows to do a job where no
16:11one really notices the clothes I think that's actually the most important thing
16:15is to do something where it's not distracting and it feels so organic to the
16:19character that you're not distracted by the clothes but these women obviously
16:24were in a one percent category so the clothes did play a bigger role certainly for
16:29the Renata character the very wealthy the queen in her castle and the highest on
16:35the hill to the ocean so in terms of of inspiration music and their environments
16:44were paramount the the houses where they lived what they were going through how
16:49heavily that they needed to mask how messed up they were inside I think that was
16:55viewers obsessed over those clothes though I mean was there one piece that you got
17:01like more inquiries about than anything else I mean I don't know like a there was a
17:06jacket or there's a jumpsuit that was I couldn't believe the amount of attention it
17:13was sort of a comedic moment I thought of a mom who was trying so hard to make it up
17:18to her kid that all these girls weren't going to come to her party so she dressed up in
17:23this ridiculous although some might not think it's ridiculous panther jumpsuit
17:29actually and big huge cork earrings and just went on a full 70s I want to be the
17:35cool mom look and people dug it I just pretend like I did it on purpose it was
17:44sort of a I thought Perry and Zaldi tell me a little bit about your inspiration how
17:49you two work together and think about we actually haven't worked together per se
17:55we've just worked obviously on the show okay and you know obviously known Zaldi
18:01and his work for many years and you know the other wonderful work he's done with
18:05RuPaul but with my episode with the Lady Gaga I got the call on Sunday night
18:12actually was about a year ago and it was I got the call on Sunday night and they
18:17were filmed we filmed on Wednesday morning no yeah and Gaga called and she
18:21said well you know I want you to do this outfit and I said well what is it and
18:25they said for those that haven't seen that particular episode they wanted her to
18:29be the 14th queen like they wanted to sneak her in as a drag queen and pretend
18:33like she was the 14th contestant because the other drag queens in the workroom
18:38don't see who their competition is and so I said okay so you know so I said well what
18:43about something kind of very royal and regal and you know like really over the
18:47top and she's like oh of course I love it and having worked with her for the
18:51past six and a half years I designed her last the art pop tour I know that you
18:56never do one option with her because it's always oh well what else is there so I did
19:02three options in two days and actually the option that we ended up going with
19:16and I was like oh yeah it's always a time constraint but you know the inspiration
19:25was the show and and you know seeing all of his oldies over-the-top stuff that he
19:29does for Rue you know I said when you know I told her I said we can't go out
19:33there looking like you're going shopping at HSN she definitely made an entrance as she
19:40always does and tell me it's all day about your inspiration I mean it's the
19:47it's only inspiration on the show is really RuPaul yeah I mean you know because
19:51you're creating a body already and it's like the body changes a little bit you
19:56know like in these Kardashian years the hips have gotten a little bit bigger but
20:02it's always Ru and it's it's very unlike any of the other projects that I do which
20:08are you know I go crazy for research and everything you know like same thing I
20:13listen to music I watch TV read books but this one it's just very like a very
20:19like freeing kind of feeling like we never have fittings we just ship and send we
20:27just like ship it we we make them and ship them so it's a surprise it's a
20:30surprise it's like Christmas for Ru every time we just send these gigantic
20:35boxes and then they open them the day of filming and then she's like oh my god and
20:40that's it so it's um it's like it's I found that it's my my studio's favorite
20:46project to do because we just get to do whatever we want and Ru is always like I
20:51love it it's always love at first sight it's almost love it's like Christmas
20:54wow yeah that's pretty nice and Lou you talked a little bit about collaboration
20:58and sort of what role your team plays um the rest of you will you tell me a little
21:04bit about uh what your what your team is like and um how you work together so on the
21:11Handmaid's Tale I'm doing the show in Toronto and uh Toronto is I think on par with Atlanta at the
21:19moment for being either just as busy or less or a bit more and I couldn't find a
21:26good assistant designer so I hired Stacy Caballero who's awesome here in LA I
21:33could only have her for a short time everything on the Handmaid's Tale had to
21:38be ready for shooting on the second day and so um you know my way of
21:45collaborating is to say please don't complain and keep going uh we honestly
21:51didn't sleep we had a little less than a month to get it all together and this is
21:55uh Toronto's really interesting and and really trying because their fashion center
22:02kind of went kaput the week oddly karmically the week I got there um and I
22:10don't really recall why but uh they moved the center someplace else and there's no
22:15fabric mills anymore there's just a few in Montreal but even that has to be
22:20ordered so I actually um spent a lot of time just trying to call fabrics from all
22:25over the world and the crew was really I just I did everything creatively myself
22:32because there was such a large amount of stuff to do in a short period of time
22:37that um yeah it's terrible to say I just didn't trust anybody because I was so
22:43worried about the time that I relied on my crew very heavily to find out the how
22:49to you know all of the seamstresses and it was really a factory we had to die so
22:54much and age so much and um I'm kind of a control freak I'm embarrassed to say I'm
23:00not answering the question well but I do all the research myself and um yeah I just
23:06kind of pray that they'll all fall into line and help me find the working pieces so
23:11what about you Marie do you sort of how do you divide labor and all that well I
23:16have an amazing team of people um Hannah Schneider was my ACD and she has worked
23:22with me for many years and Leslie Herman was my supervisor and I have great um crew which
23:31actually I could not do the show without it because so many things change at the last minute
23:34on our show and um one of the great things about having worked with Hannah for so long is that
23:40she's kind of hard I don't have to explain to her so it's it's it's wonderful the team that you
23:46have worked with and you have a unspoken language so I know that if I need something
23:51to be done in an hour she's going to go ahead and find it right um but you know
23:59um we also do a lot of situations on the show where the the cast the families put into different
24:06worlds so whether it be a record release company in season three we went we did um
24:14we went to Sloss and Supermart where um Maura's a fish out of the water and so each of those
24:20worlds
24:20are kind of tackled by um Leslie and other customers and then Hannah works on principles
24:27and stuff with me and we did work on but um and then everything could change on the last minute
24:33on
24:33the set and so I have Katie who does my trailer who will call me and be like we have
24:37to change this
24:38you know Jeffrey won't wear it and uh I'm I've chosen this and I'm like great
24:44because we don't have time to worry about that
24:48now I wanted to bring up uh sort of the differences between costume design and fashion
24:52design again because we're we're sitting here in the Beverly Center and you know costume design
24:57as I've been told me obviously you guys are the experts but it's very much about sort of servicing
25:01the story and building character and um all of that now a few of you have also worked in fashion
25:09design
25:09and I'm curious if you think I don't know that you can do both if you think and if you
25:14think that
25:15there could be more crossover somehow
25:20I think absolutely because you know so much we see you know you see something on the runway
25:27especially all the parish shows and something and you know if it's a period piece for you know what
25:32you guys do like what Lou does or what Trish does you know they'll say oh you know let's take
25:37that and
25:37tweak it or or you know let's face it every nothing nothing's um every you can't reinvent the wheel so
25:44you know we've probably seen all of the fashion stuff back you know back all the time from back in
25:50the day so it's kind of like a never-ending circle but there's definitely a crossover
25:55I come from fashion right and um my approach has always been from a fashion point of view and um
26:03in whatever project it is if it's like a Cirque du Soleil project or a music tour
26:08I always wanted to create like even if someone didn't know how they would wear this like a
26:14desirability in the outfits like I always want people to say like I want that like I want to wear
26:19that but where I don't know but that's the kind of response that I wanted to give to the audience
26:25so it's kind of creating a story either way it is and it's like you know it's like you know
26:30I just
26:30came off of Gaga's new tour and it's it's everyone's like I want that you know the opening leather jacket
26:36and it's like you know it's complete it's I don't know who there's not many people could wear it but
26:42it's it has that feeling of its fashion but I have to say it's it's what you're saying it's like
26:49like we all realize there's things on like you know like whether it's couture or ready to wear
26:54there's things that are on the runway and then there's the trickle down theory of what's sold
26:58in stores and so like from my experience you know I did for Dragon Tattoo I did a um a
27:04capsule
27:05collection with H&M and then for Catching Fire I did a capsule collection with Net-A-Porter
27:11so for me what was very beneficial for that was you know as costume designers we all know
27:17you create a lot of things for a show you don't own any of them and it all goes to
27:24the studio and
27:25it also goes you know it's like you it's it's a very hard thing because we all want to give
27:30everything that we can give every show I mean it's it is the I my wife always has this kind
27:39of
27:39conversation with me because I don't know how not to care all the way I don't know how not to
27:44work
27:44every last minute I don't know how not to give everything that I can even when things are not
27:50going so great you just want to put everything you can into it because you care so much about the
27:55project and so when I was approached about doing clothing lines it was really exciting and I brokered
28:02my own deals and I said this is what I would like to get this is how I'd like it
28:06to go down and I was
28:07very very fortunate that I had a very good support group and what was interesting was doing the two
28:13different lines you know it's like you do H&M which is a certain price point and a very high
28:18volume of
28:18clothing and so you know I went to them and and brought in sketches and fabric swatches and everything
28:25and H&M was fantastic to work with because they have they manufacture their fabric they do all the
28:31patterns they do everything in-house so it was me going back and forth to like Shanghai and Sweden for
28:36months to do the fabric and and do the clothing and do the fittings and then even going back and
28:42doing all the the press release and everything and that was fantastic then I do did a line with
28:47net-a-porter for catching fire which is completely the opposite and it was a smaller quantity that we did
28:55but
28:55it was a very a bigger price range and in that situation they're basically like a store they're a buyer
29:03they buy things so I was going to the greater at 2 a.m because I was also working on
29:09gone girl so I
29:09would go to the greater at 2 a.m and grade all the patterns and then it was me sourcing
29:13all the fabrics
29:14and I give a big shout out to ISW who helped me endlessly and were so kind to me and
29:21we need to keep
29:22them in business because they're one of our few fabric stores left here in Los Angeles and Safwat and all
29:28those guys did everything they could when I would go in and I pick a fabric and I'm like I
29:33need you
29:34know 1500 yards of this and I need I need 4000 yards of that and they're like what you know
29:39and so and
29:40they were great and so for me it was a fantastic experience and really fulfilling to be able to see
29:45stuff I'd done on the screen then be able to trickle down to a fan base and you know in
29:50a big like
29:51kind of I mean just a great thing to see is people sending me images or like people posting pictures
29:58of themselves wearing the clothing and you get to see every walk of life you know in the clothes
30:03and that's a great thing to see you know that like how it trickles down from film into being in
30:09a store
30:09and then how people working into their clothing is there anyone who wouldn't do it tell us why tell us
30:17why just don't have the desire that just makes me break out of sweat like no I already work 16
30:24hours
30:25a day I'm like I can't I there's no I've never had I love fashion but I don't crave to
30:31design it for
30:33anybody anywhere ever but I think you have to think about us being here tonight in the Beverly Center and
30:42you know that is fashion and I started in fashion as a stylist even here in LA and in New
30:48York
30:48and then went into film later and I think it's you know I'm 53 and I'm at a different place
30:55with
30:55social media I only know certain things but I know that um with the whole of it of social media
31:03for me
31:04it's Instagram but there's so much uh content out there that people are seeing and so fashion is akin to
31:11film which is akin to to fashion it's it's all one thing and you know designers did it back in
31:18the day and it was no big deal I mean it's just bigger now right but I think that where
31:24I'm from in
31:25Kentucky people are seeing stuff from Westworld and from Ruse and it's it's awesome because we would
31:31have never seen that when I was growing up I think it's all one thing and I think art and
31:36music are involved
31:36with that as well it's more um it's more of a mash-up now right so part of like the
31:43visual culture I
31:44guess yeah and it's been interesting to see with handmaids um how people have been inspired to sort
31:49of make their own clothes and things that have been yeah that that has been actually the coolest
31:57thing ever in 28 years of me doing this um it's been a really emotional thing and I've just started
32:04season two and it's um I never was a I don't know if you guys have done this but it's
32:10it was my first
32:11time in all those years having exhibitions in many different kinds of places um like the Paley Center
32:18but then I went to Vogue and that was a whole different arena of kind of more fashion strictly folks
32:25or fashion students you know you maybe have dealt with that a lot but it was so poignant to hear
32:31the
32:31stories even politically of certain people from different countries that resonated with the
32:37material and even hello women and men in in our country for god's sakes you know it's really been
32:45quite large and it's hard to even talk about and put it into you know words that make sense but
32:53it's
32:53very emotional and very empowering and very fulfilling yeah it's been interesting to watch um okay so you
33:00mentioned the fabric store and I'm and I'm curious from all of you you know I know you have a
33:06million
33:06resources all around the world but is there a place in LA that you would call out that's just like
33:12your
33:12hidden gem of where we can't call it out if it's our hidden gem come on it was like don't
33:22like a jewelry
33:23source Louis shared some her vintage jewelry sources before well I would like to say because we're at the
33:29Beverly Center and they're celebrating us and we're celebrating them I moved here in 1991 and I was an
33:35assistant to a stylist and I shopped for the very first time at traffic which is here in the Beverly
33:40Center Sarah and Michael they're like family and every delicious person that works with them through the
33:48years uh that's my secret gem and and also goes back to the question about inspiration where we get
33:56inspiration I will walk in there so tired and overwhelmed and they'll give me a bottle of water
34:00and we'll they will show me things that are hidden under a rack or in some sale item in the
34:07back and it
34:08is that piece that then I get to go back and be the hero to an actor and so that
34:13is my secret gem right here
34:19those ladies are sitting in the very back row
34:25anyone else have like a vintage store or uh I don't know I have one but I have to ask
34:31my girl Amy Paris
34:32who remembers everything she's a designer out there there's a there's the trim shop downtown that we
34:39always go to and get millions of Target trim which is like a beautiful dusty magic store with millions
34:48of little things and uh they've really helped us on so many shows that's my little secret Marie
34:55I don't know if this is a hidden gem um but I I love Gali Esther on La Brea and
35:01she's been here for
35:01years and um I found some amazing pieces there um either that have been things that are inspiration
35:08or um pieces I've used on the show the rainbow caftan that Maura oh yeah which became the symbol of
35:15the
35:15show is from Gali Esther and I found it actually months before we started shooting and I bought it
35:21with my own money because I was like this is amazing piece um but she's an amazing curator with a
35:28wonderful eye
35:28and um you know you always I saw a Bessie Johnson coming out of there which is a great star
35:35sighting
35:35so you know everybody kind of goes there for inspiration anyone else Alex or Perry I think
35:42anywhere downtown I mean you know the resources downtown now are absolutely astounding and every
35:47time I go down there my work room's down there and I'll walk down the street and go wait that
35:51wasn't
35:52here yesterday you know there's a pop-up store with you know trim and and jewelry and you know
35:57I love every church gown to this arm for two dollars
36:03do you Zaldi do you do all of your you know shopping for for things for your designs here in
36:09LA or
36:09no I mean I'm because I'm I'm from New York so it's everything is normally from New York but in
36:15New York
36:16what I try to do is I mean there's so many like the fashion district is kind of dying there
36:22so you have
36:23all these like old school factories like people that like a factory that only makes spaghetti like
36:30spaghetti straps yeah and so I'm just like I'm gonna make a spaghetti strap a full spaghetti strap dress
36:35because you want to keep them in business you know and it's like those are the gems that are really
36:40disappearing yeah it's also the quilting here like quilting that was the thing like you know trying to
36:47people that did pleading yeah you know we all know who's going out of business with pleading that I'm
36:52like can I buy the machines for you will you stay in business we buy the machines it's like I
36:56mean
36:56there's so many old-fashioned trades I mean millenaries cobblers it's like for us it's all so important and
37:04we desperately want these people to stay in business you know but it's a it's there's a lot of dying
37:09art
37:09art that's happening a dying art that was gone now you know for us like people that just simply dye
37:15fabrics you know which are all really important to us I just want to say one thing about that too
37:20is that we rely so much now on um internet shopping for our business but many times as costume designers
37:28we can't get even that's not fast enough so we do we need you know the craftsmen and um that's
37:35what's
37:35about having the beverly center here or places where we can do things you know in less than 24 hours
37:41um yes that as that progresses more towards the internet I think it will be more and more of a
37:47challenge for us as costume designers um Marie you talked about the rainbow caftan as kind of a hero
37:53piece of of your show um Lou will you talk about the oscar gown that you um made for uh
38:01for joan
38:01crawford's character that was very involved right yeah it kind of goes back to where I said I got
38:06cocky like that's just the 60s we're just gonna replicate but and it just wasn't because it to get
38:13a dress fully beaded that dress was designed by edith head um but it was completely hand beaded and so
38:19we
38:19sourced it around town and it would have been about 20 to 40 grand and taken two weeks and I
38:24had like two
38:25days so we finally so we sourced the fabric from new york but it was a white beaded and ryan
38:31wanted
38:31silver silver silver silver hair silver dress silver everything so we carefully took a collective
38:37breath and we dipped it and dyed it and then found a silver lining literally and then uh made a
38:46but but the gen the dress was really heavy and so jessica had to wear it one day for an
38:51exterior scene
38:52and um at the end of the night she's like lulubel i can't wear that you're gonna break my back
38:57you gotta
38:57find a way to make this dress fit me or not be so heavy so we had to and it
39:01worked the next morning
39:02so we were all up all night building corsets into it and figuring how to lift the weight up and
39:08so she
39:08wouldn't have to be collapsing into it and uh so and then oh and then we we found beading that
39:16we also
39:16had to dip and then our tailor and we only have one tailor and she has one seamstress and uh
39:22and they
39:23work in a small room and uh i feed them and then um they they sat and hand beaded the
39:30whole front so
39:32so it looks a little bit like been dyed and hand beaded up close so don't look too close
39:40does anyone else have a favorite piece from um or a piece that was really sort of key to the
39:45the storytelling aspect of what they were doing i have a it's probably not a piece that most people
39:51recognize because it's not a principal character but on westworld um i was really hell-bent on having
39:58this leather tooled hat made um and it's for the the male gunslinger who's the bank robber in the film
40:07and the in the in the show and um and it was it was linda foot i don't know if
40:14she's here but linda
40:15foot was my supervisor on the show and and her and joe kissick who was the assistant designer um
40:21painstakingly sat with me and we're like are you sure you want this are you sure you want this
40:24because it was the whole thing of like i wanted the whole top of the hat tooled and i wanted
40:29the
40:30whole underneath of the hat tool then it was you know everyone we kind of went to was like well
40:34no
40:34because we'll we'll make the hat and then we'll press it and i was like no no i need you
40:38to hand tool
40:39the underneath of the leather and then i need your hand tool the top and then i need you to
40:43sew it together
40:43so for me that was one of the pieces that like i really i really love and it's quite beautiful
40:49and
40:50it made everybody really happy on set but i think it's a thing that like you know it's only like
40:55dear
40:55in my heart because of it was something i really wanted to have i knew it was possible and then
41:00in
41:01and we got to have it alex do you want to talk about one of the gowns from the from
41:06the episode
41:06that you're nominated for um yeah i think that um laura dern's audrey hepburn ascot interpretation
41:15dress was one of my very favorites i have to say um only laura dern could have ever rocked this
41:22dress
41:23like the waist is about 12 inches um and it was just this this real peacock moment this this
41:32louise green who uh is extraordinary who's also uh who's a milliner who a lot of us use made this
41:39hat
41:39that was my dream come true it just came out of the hat box and it was just like rainbows
41:45were flying
41:46everywhere it was extraordinary um yeah it was a real i think wow moment for her character and for
41:54the scene and i it was really fun to watch her walk in that dress i was very proud of
42:00it
42:03anyone else i mean this this season i mean when we start thinking about like um what we're going to
42:11make for the show i meet with my team and you know i'm like oh well you know what kind
42:17of technique do
42:17you want to do or you know what are you feeling and um one of my main pattern maker is
42:24japanese and
42:25she's like i want to paint something and i was like why don't you paint you know do calligraphy and
42:31do painting kanji like all of rupaul's sayings and so she did she got very into it and uh just
42:39painted all the all of like rue's you know like sashay shantae in kanji which there's no there's no
42:45real translation but she like made it so that it's kind of legible but that became like a real
42:51special special moment for her that was an amazing piece what was the hardest thing for you for
42:58or kind of i mean i think i've read a lot about creating those bonnets was pretty the the bonnets
43:05were something that none of us usually are allowed to use right no hats in tv and film and uh
43:12no
43:13sunglasses and so we fought against it and um i was insistent that we try we all tried to be
43:20as true
43:21as we could to margaret atwood's book which in the end had the wings and uh in the film they
43:27had scarves which
43:28i also adore and um yeah i ended up making sort of five and taking them to new york to
43:34try on lizzie
43:36and she just you know magically on camera turned on my iphone and everybody gasped when i showed them
43:43in toronto and they said there has to be a way to let light through and so we ended up
43:47making a million
43:48with different levels of linen and buckram and all of that and in the end uh i didn't know this
43:56until after the show the first season was done and i saw the dp in new york and he was
44:01he's very quiet
44:03and doesn't say too much on set and i wish he had said it during the season but he said
44:08for god's sakes
44:09and you made it the most beautiful light box you know on these women's faces and you know it's shot
44:14in such a way that it's quite dark but something about it uh even though it's raw and there's very
44:21little makeup it's quite illuminating and beautiful to show a woman's real beauty right without all the
44:27extra so that was kind of incredible yeah that's incredible and perry tell us about some crazy gaga
44:36well it's always the ones that you don't think you know you think are going to be a throwaway that
44:40end
44:40up being like the iconic pieces when we did when she did the um grammys which came out of the
44:46egg
44:48again yeah the latex you know again it was a change of mind on thursday night you know she said
44:54i don't
44:54like any of the stuff i'm wearing she goes i need it all remade here you know i want it
44:58out of this
44:58latex and i said well again trying to find resources you know and so again i ended up kind of
45:06doing a
45:06lot of most of that pulling a note to all nighters on my kitchen table because by the time it
45:11kind of
45:11like i do a ring around and say do you know how to do latex you know no i don't
45:15know how to do it
45:16i'll be like i'm just wasting time just do it yourself and so there was two versions of it and
45:22again the second version the backup version i thought i better do a backup version just in case
45:26the latex tears and so i didn't kind of finish the backup version fully and so you know again
45:34as we all know with actors and actresses and everything they don't want to try anything on
45:38and they'll just you know so like five minutes before the live show you know they're like okay it's
45:43time to get dressed and she put the first one on and was like it's too tight at the neck
45:48i can't
45:48it's too tight i can't breathe it get the backup and i was like okay well okay just sure so
45:56i put the
45:57backup on and because it wasn't finished properly i could see the zipper start to separate a little bit
46:03and of course it was live tv and i thought oh dear god and so i just i didn't even
46:08say anything i just
46:08kind of got some gaff tape and like put it on there and i was literally counting down the number
46:13i was like okay 30 seconds to go okay there's no 40 seconds oh my god she made it and
46:19it didn't it
46:20didn't make you know oh my god but it's just it's stuff like that so it could have cracked right
46:25off
46:25oh it could have just split right open and you know it would have been a whole other granny's opening
46:29amazing another coming out all right i have one final fun question um someone on on the way in here
46:37was
46:37like i love costume designers because they always dress the best they have the best style and so i
46:43want i want you all to tell me what you're wearing and why because i'm sure there's a reason because
46:48you're costume designers nobody's going for well okay well i'm actually i'm wearing my own clothes i'm
47:00i have a menswear line so i'm wearing you know so it's easy to kind of go well i like
47:05that so i'm
47:05wearing yeah i'm wearing my own stuff um aussie gear okay yeah amazing i've been staring at your
47:14shoes i know are they those rick owens yeah okay good guess what about you you're in handmaid's red i
47:25always wear overalls and coveralls it's very boring and uh and it's it's a boring answer i rented
47:34a dress and had it sent to a hotel and put i put two on and i did a little
47:39face time in toronto and
47:41asked which one and the assistant said we're red so yeah boring and that's probably grown right it is
47:49i'm glad you said it i can't see it marie tell us about your suit well i just wanted to
47:55kind of play
47:55with the gender bending such you know idea of fashion and this suit's made by a company in
48:02brooklyn called bindle and keep and there's a documentary about them called suited um they make
48:08a lot of suit for suits and pants and shirts for trans people and they do a beautiful and also
48:15for
48:15the tv show billions and um they just do beautiful work
48:24i'm i wear a lot of gem suits so it's my go-to this is a ysl that i got
48:29at a current affair which
48:31is a vintage pop-up that comes every three months and uh and my road art earrings i never
48:37buy would never wear jewelry but i uh fell in love with these earrings so i wore them tonight
48:42l.a designers
48:45what about you salvi um i normally like you know i packed like half an hour before i had to
48:52go to the
48:53airport and because i always just like to feel what i'm going to feel like before i go i don't
48:58i don't
48:59know um but i just i don't know these pants are really comfortable and i love them and then at
49:05the
49:05last minute i thought well maybe it's gonna it's cocktail it's like i should bring a little fancy
49:10jacket or something so it's a drees van noten jacket and pants and uh rick owens top nice nice
49:19all right alex well i literally got off a plane about an hour before i got here
49:26was on vacation in a little cabin where i wear birkenstocks and a moo moo and i was probably scaling
49:33a fish this morning so this is rachel comey and it's got elastic because i've been doing a lot of
49:40drinking and eating all right miss tresh what are you wearing and why um i'm wearing mcqueen this is
49:52one of my favorite classic white suits and when i can wear a white suit i will my closet kind
49:58of
49:58consist of white gray black and red it's all i have and my anybody who works with me kind of
50:06knows the go-to joke is what's my favorite color gray so yeah in costume design again in life i
50:15love
50:15gray so yeah mcqueen just because i'll always be a fan it's always classic to me and your aclu ribbon
50:20because yes because it's very important we all need to rise up rise up stand together well i want
50:32to thank you guys so much for being here and um this is wonderful it's it's great to have you
50:38all
50:38and uh best of luck at the emmys
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