SARTORIAL TRICKS AND TREATS

Theater alum offers a peek at her costume designs for Live with Kelly & Mark's Halloween Special

By Emily Soper

In her work on LIVE with Kelly & Mark’s Halloween special, costume design alum Tori Sterling’s costume work is all about impressive tricks and visual treats, from a full-body Velcro suit to a candy-colored re-creation of roller-skating Barbie. Sterling’s designs for LIVE over the last two years have also included iconic characters like Marvel’s Wanda Maximoff, House of the Dragon’s Targaryen clan, and the cast of Stranger Things.

“The producers work with [host] Kelly [Ripa]…and then let me know what themes we are going with, and then my assistant, Clare, and I spring into action,” Sterling told People magazine last year, referring to fellow alum Clare Lippincott. Lippincott served as a costume assistant on the 2023 show; alums Lauren McLoughlin and Jenna Swatt served as drapers.

As resident costume designer for The Walt Disney Company/ ABC Television’s LIVE since 2022 (she has also worked as an exhibition consultant for shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Brooklyn Museum), Sterling oversees a variety of special episodes, including LIVE’s After Oscar Show, and LIVE’s Guinness World Record Week. Also working on the 2023 special: Theater Department chair and head of costume technology Ellen Bredehoft and faculty/alum Brian Mulligan, both serving as crafts artisans.

“Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos choose between sketch concepts and costumes,” Sterling says of the process. “I’m grateful both of them are good sports and [are] willing to put up with wearing some ridiculous stuff.”

View more of Sterling’s LIVE costume creations at go.rutgers.edu/mgsamag.