CD Magazine, Winter 2026 (Costume Designers Guild)
Kate Hawley
Alix Friedberg
PALM ROYALE S2 FRANKENSTEIN
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING
EXCELLENCE IN COSTUME DESIGN (PERIOD
FILM) KATE HAWLEY
“A jaw-dropping visual feast.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Kate Hawley ’s costume design is impeccable.” Independent
A film by Guillermo del Toro
This holiday season, we want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude. We are sincerely thankful that you continue to choose Western Costume to help bring your stories to life. Wishing you a joyful holiday and a prosperous New Year.
SUTTIRAT “ ANNE
” LARLARB
COSTUME DESIGNER SCI-FI/FANTASY TELEVISION
FOR YOUR CDG AWARD CONSIDERATION
UNION
President Executive Director 16 19
FEATURED
Horizon: An American Saga –Chapter 2: Lisa Lovaas
Palm Royale S2: Alix Friedberg
Frankenstein: Kate Hawley
Black Cowboys: An American Story, Featuring The Harder They Fall
Clueless 30th Anniversary: Mona May
Bending the Rules: Fashion Beyond the Binary
IN FOCUS
Last Looks: Ivan Marquez 62
Photo: Jorge Meza
Palm Royale
: Kristen Wiig as Maxine Simmons.
Photos: Apple Studios
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2: Kevin Costner as Hayes Ellison. Photos: Netflix
Illustration: Oksana Nedavniaya
Illustration: Kate Hawley
COMMUNICATIONS & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Anna Wyckoff awyckoff@cdgia.com
CREATIVE DIRECTORS
Allana Johnson allana@yokcreative.com
Turner Johnson turner@yokcreative.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Gary Victor Foss garyvictorfoss@gmail.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Bonnie Nipar bnipar@cdgia.com
PRESIDENT
Terry Gordon tgordon@cdgia.com
VICE PRESIDENT
Ivy Thaide Ithaide@cdgia.com
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Brigitta Romanov bromanov@cdgia.com
ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Doug Boney dboney@cdgia.com
MEMBER SERVICES DIRECTOR
Suzanne Huntington shuntington@cdgia.com
SECRETARY
Michelle Liu mliu@cdgia.com
TREASURER
Nanrose Buchman nbuchman@cdgia.com
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Catherine Adair cadair@cdgia.com
Daniel Selon
Salvador Pérez sperez@cdgia.com
Ariyela Wald-Cohain
ACD REPRESENTATIVE
Christine Cover Ferro
COSTUME ILLUSTRATOR REPRESENTATIVE
Barbra Araujo
LABOR REPRESENTATIVE
Dana Woods dwoods@cdgia.com
BOARD ALTERNATES
Johnetta Boone
Jackie Martinez
Samantha Kuester
Lyn Paolo
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Jacqueline SaintAnne jsaintanne@cdgia.com
Jennifer May Nickel
Barbara Inglehart binglehart@cdgia.com
Mikael Sharafyan msharafyan@cdgia.com
CDGA PRODUCING EXECUTIVE
Kristin Ingram kingram@cdgia.com
BOOKKEEPER
Aja Davis accounting@cdgia.com
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Sydney Breithaupt cdg@cdgia.com
PUBLISHER
Moontide www.moontide.agency
ADVERTISING
Ken Rose 818.312.6880 kenrose@mac.com
Rita Rose ritarose@afmla.com
COVER
Kevin Costner and Lisa Lovaas Photographer: Robert Reiff
Communications & Creative Director
Anna Wyckoff Associate Editor
Bonnie Nipar Turner Johnson Creative Director
Camille Benda Contributor
Gwyn Conaway Contributor Contributor
Grant Rindner Contributor
Eduardo Castro
Gary Victor Foss Managing Editor
Allana Johnson Creative Director
And it’s winter! Change seems to be the only constant. Every day brings a new wrinkle to the fabric of our industry. Normal is now an archaic term. We’ve had our election, the IATSE mixer, labor alerts, marches, campaigning, and more.
The Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus Studio Service Department announced they’ve closed their studio service department, giving Anthony and Jason only five days’ notice after decades of service to the store and our industry. This resource for our industry will be sadly missed, and we wish our friends and colleagues future success worthy of their talents.
The opportunity to pull and get approvals prior to purchasing is an irreplaceable prepping asset that has sustained our costume departments for decades. Always crucial partners on our frenzied jobs, studio services help us find multiples, sizes, etc., quickly, from anywhere in the country. We also saw the closing of one of our venerated costume rental houses, CRC, and the pending closure of MPCC. Several other premier rental houses have been forced to work shorter weeks, and our custom houses are forced to look for alternative jobs and venues to keep employees working. Use, don’t lose, our signatory vendors!
Despite the times, our members are resilient, bringing their A games to create magic, whimsy, and beauty through their talent, tenacity, skill, and experience! The CDG is a hub of activity and compassion, with education programs, marketing events, and more.
Film night honored the magic of Bob Mackie with his documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion and Deborah Scott shared Back to the Future with us at the Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal lot. Huge thanks to the Laemmle NOHO and Universal’s Beverly Hadley! The Autry Museum generously hosted Antoinette Messam’s Q&A for her beautiful The Harder They Fall costumes during their brilliant “The Black Cowboy” exhibit.
Holidays are speeding our way, and the Guild will host a gathering on December 6. Watch for announcements and invitations. There is more to come! Stay in the know.
In solidarity,
Terry Ann Gordon
Terry Ann Gordon
tgordon@cdgia.com
Photo: Kelly Serfoss
Hollywood has always been about motion pictures, about the dream of storytelling through movement, light, and imagination. But today, that motion too often means productions moving away from Hollywood. Runaway production has become the norm, chasing cheaper labor and tax incentives around the globe. Cities from Sydney to Budapest now thrive on the very work that once made Los Angeles the heart of the industry.
Yet there are signs that the tide is turning. Thanks to the newly expanded and modernized California Film and Television Jobs Program, productions are beginning to return home. Since July, 74 projects have been announced under the program, bringing an estimated 15,400 cast and crew jobs and 92,100 background roles back to the state. The most recent round of 52 projects, both major studio and independent, represents over $1 billion in instate spending, including $629 million in wages. Even more encouraging, these productions include a record 511 filming days outside the Los Angeles zone, helping to spread the economic impact across California.
This renewed investment is proof that California remains competitive when we protect our creative workforce and invest in our people. Our contract is not a suggestion; it is a collective promise. When we stand united, we remind the industry that our labor has worth and our Guild has power. Hollywood may keep moving, but we can make sure it does not move on without us. As our slogan reminds us: Keep California Rolling.
As nominations open for the Costume Designers Guild Awards (CDGA), it is the perfect time to reflect that Hollywood’s motion is our motion. We evolve, innovate, and adapt because the story cannot move forward without us. Costume design does not just dress characters; it defines eras, cultures, and human experience. And as long as there are stories to tell, we will be there, stitching together the fabric of cinema, one frame at a time.
In solidarity,
Brigitta Romanov
Brigitta Romanov bromanov@cdgia.com
Photo: Stephanie Romanov
Kevin Costner picked up the mantle of Western screen icons more than 30 years ago with the colossal success of Dances with Wolves, and entrenched himself as the heir apparent to John Ford and Clint Eastwood with myriad similar projects. So when he announced Horizon, a quartet of period Westerns set against the backdrop of the Civil War—and put $38 million of his own money into the budget—it created a high level of excitement and stakes.
It also meant that Costner, who stars, directs, and cowrites, had to fill out the posse with accomplished creatives who could rise to the occasion. Enter Lisa Lovaas, a costume designer whose 40-year-long career includes credits on the Transformers franchise, Jack Reacher with Tom Cruise,
and Renfield. After being introduced to Costner, it quickly became apparent that her experience on blockbusters, as well as her singular attention to detail, made her the right person to join the cinematic series. “I’ve had many years of working on the Michael Bay shows,” Lovaas says, “and once you work with Michael, you come out able to do anything.”
Immediately after reading the script and being introduced to the Horizon universe, which focuses on both Western homesteaders and the White Mountain Apache tribe whose land they encroach upon, Lovaas began work.
She started with a book of costume ideas for each of the movie’s 120-plus speaking roles, one that included concepts for not only Horizon, but the subsequent entries in the series. She even pulled from her own family history. Lovaas’ grandfather was a doctor on a Navajo reservation in the 1920s, and when she showed Costner a photo of him dressed in crisp white contrasting with the Indigenous people, it was instantly evocative. The combination of immersive research and personal kismet put Lovaas in the position to succeed in this incredibly challenging project. “If I didn’t have that deep research, I wouldn’t have been able to follow all of these characters through the 15 years that we are going to see them,” she explains.
One of the most confounding challenges in designing for a period film is accounting for how people have physically changed over the last 150-plus years. That included key things like height and fitness, as well as the fact that many of the Native actors in the movie are heavily tattooed. Lovaas had to stray from her initial conception of the characters, covering their body art because the rigorous shoot and massive cast didn’t allow for hours in the makeup chair.
Though production wasn’t quite the 100day marathon of Dances with Wolves, two multi-month shoots meant ensuring that every costume on both films had duplicates.
In a nod to the Western homesteaders and the nomadic ancestors of the White Mountain Apaches, Lovaas and her team needed to bring to location in Moab, Utah, every material, accessory, and tool for production with them from Los Angeles in anticipation of new ideas, alterations, or damage. “There was one quilting shop,” she explains of the 5,200-person town. “When we got to Moab, it was fun because we had stacks and stacks of vintage ribbon and lace and lots of fabric. I had the fabric and the lace dyed to take the white off, and then we would be able to make key pieces like the chemises and the corsets.”
Moab’s desert presented its own challenges, particularly with the major battle sequence in the first film. Both Horizon and Horizon Chapter 2 are intensely physical films where actors go through the wringer. “We shot in September when it was 100 degrees. It was so warm, and everyone was in as little fabric as possible. Then in November, we shot the battle and it was ice on the ground in the mornings,” Lovaas says. “We had to make those costumes comfortable enough to be able to work in the freezing cold for three nights.”
Those extreme conditions posed similar problems for dressing Horizon’s homesteader women. Lovaas says that the harsh temperatures “would’ve disintegrated” true vintage pieces over the course of the shoot. From her meticulous research, she pulled popular 1860s patterns and had them printed onto fabrics she sourced from India via England and Thailand. Lovaas and her team largely handled the Apache garments themselves through block printing, but she also used a trusted printer in Los Angeles for certain jobs. “I love fabric. I love trim. I love vintage trims. So even at the expense of using the real vintage trims and having them deteriorate, I love the quality of
the way they looked on camera,” she says. “It might have been a little bit of extra work and having to mend things at night, but there’s just a difference in having that vintage quality, and that’s something that I’m partial to, and it’s seen in a lot of the women’s outfits that we made.”
All of this dedication amplifies the livedin tangibility that became Horizon’s most consistent source of critical praise, and helped set it apart in the 2020s film universe. Horizon is instantly in the conversation with the great Westerns of the last century because it looks like one of them.
Horizon:
An American SagaChapter 2 : Kevin Costner as Hayes Ellison. Photos: Netflix.
The genre’s saddlebag is full of iconic garments, from Clint Eastwood’s poncho in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to Warren Beatty’s fur coat in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Hayes Ellison’s (Kevin Costner) bluish gray cowboy hat fits the character’s stoic, reluctanthero archetype, while Juliette Chesney (Ella Hunt) wears a dress colored like a wheat field at sunrise, which perfectly embodies the duality of rustic homesteader life and traditional femininity.
When asked about the key pieces, Lovaas mentions the earrings worn by Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) as she soldiers through the unimaginable grief of losing her husband and son in the first film’s climactic raid. They’re not just striking for their brilliance against the dust-caked backdrop, but were partially inspired by the adversity Lovaas and thousands of others faced losing precious belongings, homes, and even loved ones in California’s deadly 2025 wildfires. “People would look at me and not know what I’ve just gone through. You had to have a certain image to just get you through the day. I didn’t want to collapse,” Lovaas says. She wanted to convey that same resolve for Frances. “Those little things that you love or have lived with become symbols that help you continue on.”
ALYSSA BLAIR-CAWTHON COSTUME DESIGNER, CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION
Illustration:OksanaNedavniaya
Palm Royale is an invigorating explosion to the senses. The colors, aesthetics, and vibe are sheer luxury. Costume designer Alix Friedberg has made eye-candy ensembles for her star-laden cast, and the accolades she is garnering are well deserved. She even has the coveted honor of a single-card front credit, something only achieved if a showrunner fights for it. “Abe Sylvia is such a champion of costumes, joyfully celebrates costume designers, and understands their importance to storytelling,” expounds Friedberg. “He demanded my card and gave me complete autonomy and freedom to create.”
There is great expectation for Season 2, and it does not disappoint. Still embracing big musical extravaganzas and society functions galore, new storylines stretch beyond just the ladies at the Palm Royale. Production decided to block-shoot the entire 10 episodes, necessitating all costumes be ready the first day of shooting. “It was quite a feat, like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” admits Friedberg. “They did work with us to schedule the heavy background scenes when we were ready, but it was very challenging.” Given 10 weeks’
prep, Friedberg and codesigner Leigh Bell immediately set up a workroom with cutter-fitter Valerie Keiser and made-to-order coordinator Kit Scarbo. “It was an endless machine of churning out costumes. We produced beyond-counting hundreds of custom-made.” The team also scoured the internet for designer vintage resources for their retro-chic look. Color is so paramount that each time a scene was established, they had to map out the entire episode to coordinate color palettes. Shooting four and five episodes a day, their talented background crew were changing the actors into different characters and dropping them into a different episode, often with an entirely different palette. “It speaks volumes to Leigh Bell and my ACD Samantha Schwartz. They were unbelievable in keeping it all organized and together.”
The new season ignites with the indomitable Maxine Dellacorte (Kristen Wiig), whom Friedberg claims is a master class to watch, walking into the Royale as if she’s going to lunch. The scene flips into a dream dance sequence where she tears away her top, revealing a sequin-fringed bra top.
Friedberg knew she wanted to put Maxine in yellow to have her stand out among the dancers in black and white. She actually had two different versions of the pants made. One is lace with floral appliqués and a nude lining. For the dance number, the other has a sequin lining that catches the light when Maxine moves, and the removed halter top becomes a cape with a sequin lining.
Socioeconomics is important to this story. The characters’ wealth, communicated through their costumes, creates a hierarchy, and at the top of the ladder is Norma Dellacorte, played by the great Carol Burnett. “Designing for her is a career highlight,” confesses Friedberg. “Watching her variety show at my grandmother’s feet
for my whole upbringing, and admiring her collaboration with Bob Mackie, inspired me to do this job. Being able to tell Carol that, and watch her react with giddy excitement over her costumes, was very emotional for me.”
The full cast is back with three new additions. Rusty Magic (John Stamos) has a three-episode arc where he plays a very funny lawyer. Vicki Lawrence takes on a few different characters speckled throughout, including some scenes with Carol. “Just seeing them in the same room together was unbelievably surreal.” And how can you invite Patti LuPone embodying Marjorie Merriweather onboard without having her perform?
Illustration:
Gloria Kim
The workroom made square dance costumes using original patterns from the ‘50s and ‘60s for a hootenanny, and Jamie Castenada, a protégé at legendary Nudie’s Custom Western Wear, did the chain stitching and stoning on a custom, museum-quality gown for Marjorie.
“It is an absolute gift to go to work every day on a show that’s visually joyful,” says Friedberg. Except for two weeks in snowy Oregon, they shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles. “On a show like ours where you
are building at lightning speed, if we didn’t have the support of Western Costume, CADFab, all our fabric and vintage vendors, there is no way we could have pulled it off. There are no better crews and support resources in the world. We are so lucky to have incredible artists in Hollywood that have hundreds of skills that you can’t find if you’re shooting anywhere else. Other places are hubs, but there is no bigger hub than Hollywood.”
Illustration: Oksana Nedavniaya
Palm Royale
: Laura Dern as Linda Shaw
Photos: Apple Studios
ADAM SOMNER
BEST PICTURE BEST COSTUME DESIGN
COLLEEN ATWOOD
“An extraordinary richness of sensory and dramatic texture”
– THE NEW YORKER
Frankenstein: Christoph Waltz as Harlander, Mia Goth as Elizabeth & Claire Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Christian Convery as young Victor Frankenstein. Photos: Netflix.
COSTUME DESIGNER KATE HAWLEY
WRITTEN BY GARY VICTOR FOSS
During a legendary night of storytelling, Mary Shelley-Wollstonecraft told the tale of obsession, hubris, and revenge that would become, arguably, the world’s first science fiction novel. Like any foundational story, it has been adapted, reimagined, and elaborated upon many times.
Costume designer Kate Hawley has collaborated with Guillermo del Toro on an adaptation of the book that both maintains fidelity to the original material and reenvisions the characters via the director’s distinctive style, finding humanity in the most unlikely places. The film begins and ends on a ship frozen in the ice—the end of Frankenstein’s long chase after his creation.
We are introduced to the title character as a boy. Family mixes aspiration with trauma for young Victor Frankenstein. Leopold (Charles Dance) and Claire (Mia Goth) are simultaneously remote yet overwhelming parental archetypes. Claire wears startling blood reds that are thematic throughout the film. “There was a lot of discussion of the sort of reds we’d use to make them rich and vibrant but still have depth to them,” Hawley explains. “Guillermo establishes his language early, and when an audience sees Victor’s mother on the steps, they understand this
is a story that has that theatricality, and can accept the rules of the world.” Leopold is a study in dignity, reserve, and control. “We’re always working with the actors and utilizing their physicality and presence. Charles is such an imposing figure. Honestly, you could put a sack on him and he’d be magnificent. He’s an overwhelming shadow over Victor, and that’s where his big entrance with the cloak and hat came in.”
First clothed in decaying bandages that form a macabre shroud, upon escaping from Frankenstein, the Creature (Jacob Elordi) takes a trenchcoat from the body of a fallen soldier. As the story and character develop, he adds to his costume until it becomes a sort of patchwork of cast-off, scavenged, and coiled together material—not unlike the Creature himself. “In the novel, the melancholy of the Creature
Illustration: Kate Hawley
and his sadness is as potent as the violence,” Hawley notes. “Guillermo spoke a lot about this.
I looked at a lot of pictures of mummification to see how the clothes mold to the skeleton as the flesh disappears. Though it’s based on a Crimean coat, we developed its own language in the details—the memory of flayed skin and skeleton in the cloth going up through the neck.”
Working with the director and the actor on the costumes for Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) was a dream collaboration. Del Toro envisioned the character as more of an artist than a scientist, which jived with the creative spirit of all involved, and gave them a lot of freedom.
“Oscar loved that his hat came from a more French bohemian world, so we played with those elements. I looked at pictures from William Blake, but also Nureyev in his Parisian apartment.
I looked at photos of Damien Hirst, Picasso, and Francis Bacon painting in their work clothes.”
The results are costumes that show a steady progression into obsession that balances, and falters, on a tightrope of madness. “There’s one moment where we had a leather apron that suggests skin, but as an artist during the creation scenes, he’s fully into the muse and nothing else matters.”
Frankenstein: Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, Photos: Netflix.
Illustration: Kate Hawley
EMM Y ® AWARD NOMINEE
MELISSA TOTH
COSTUME DESIGNER
CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION
EP 4 “TOPPING IS A SACRED SKILL”
Robert Ruggio, Radhika Seth,
Simultaneously love interest, sympathizer, and advocate, Elizabeth Lavenza (also played by Mia Goth) goes from his brother’s fiancée to a remote ideal for Victor to the Creature’s ill-fated paramour. Elizabeth’s costumes match her progression through the film as she sympathizes and aligns with the Creature. “Both Elizabeth and Claire are color-coded in different ways, and they have a kind of luminosity, almost like they’re illusions,” Hawley explains. “The language of her blue dress is about X-rays, and the bride’s corset echoes the skeleton of the Creature.”
At a climactic confrontation during her wedding to William Frankenstein (Felix Kammerer), she wears a wedding dress of startling beauty and significance with sleeves and corsetry that rhyme with the Creature’s bandages and evoke the 1935 classic, BrideofFrankenstein. Several pieces of Elizabeth’s jewelry were created in collaboration with Tiffany & Co., including replicas from their archives and some bespoke items. “Guillermo drops wonderful notes about the theology of nature and religion, so that became the basis for the cross with the beetle inside.”
Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) is an original character for the film. A man of science and an arms dealer, he finances Frankenstein but with a dark, personal agenda. “The way the story developed in rehearsals with Christoph, he ended up becoming much more restrained, to emphasize what is revealed later.”
Illustration: Kate Hawley
Being flexible with the costumes to reflect the creation of the character is vital to the process. “That’s my first job. Once you’re working with your director and actors, things develop. You could feel Christoph building the character, and it’s all about supporting that. He loved his overly tight tan gloves and was almost rolling on the floor in his fox fur. So sometimes we’d come away from fittings saying, ‘right, let’s go and make it now.’”
Hawley attributes the success of the project to a combination of crew and croissants. “Deadlines are always a big deal, but the challenge is to maintain a couture level of tailoring. My lead assistant costume designer, Renée Fontana, is very patient,” she laughs. “My other assistants, Alexandra Guillot and David Craig, were so clever about how we sampled things. I always make sure my main team sees what they contribute, it’s lovely to have that little moment of celebration, have a croissant and get on to the next one. When you can see the elements link to the creature with his beautiful porcelain face so many things that find their language distilled through the work every department is doing.”
Illustration: Kate Hawley
“Beautifully crafted
The Harder They Fall: Jonathan Majors as Nat Love, Idris Elba as Rufus Buck, Regina King as Trudy Smith. Photos: Netflix
Illustration: James Casey Holland
EXHIBITION AT THE AUTRY MUSEUM FEATURING THE COSTUMES OF THE HARDER THEY FALL
On September 25, 2025, the Autry Museum hosted the panel discussion “Autry After Hours: The Costumes of The Harder They Fall” in collaboration with the CDG EDU. Costume designer Antoinette Messam and assistant costume designer Whitney Galitz Berger explored research, filming, and insights. They shared anecdotes about the process through questions posed by moderator Ivy Thaide, CDG vice president and education director.
Event
Photo: Nicola Goode
The conversation celebrated the museum’s “Black Cowboys: An American Story” exhibit, which included a beautiful display of the film’s costumes. It was thrilling for CDG members and colleagues to view the pieces spotlighted. The exhibit aims to blend “true Western history with Hollywood mythmaking … authentic gear, rare photographs, historic artifacts, and costumes from classic Western films that shaped the cowboy image we know today.”
The Harder They Fall : Regina King as Trudy Smith. Photos: Netflix
Event
Photos: Nicola Goode
FOR YOUR COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD AWARDS CONSIDERATION
EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION
Paula Bradley • Shannon Campbell
Messam says, “The film’s clothing was not meant to be period accurate but was designed with the music and with the location in mind to create the stylized vision of director Jeymes Samuel. That our version of the West resonated with the Autry, a well-established institution, was the ultimate compliment. To have the costumes exhibited was an honor.”
The costumes remain on exhibition through January 4, 2026.
The Harder
They Fall: Jonathan Majors as Nat Love, Zazie Beetz as Mary Fields.
Photo: Netflix
Event
Photo: Nicola Goode
Illustration: James Casey Holland
Photo: YOK Creative; Turner Johnson
To understand the lasting impact of the movie Clueless , we first need consider the landscape in 1995. It was a time before computers, cell phones, Amazon, style.com, and fast fashion were commonplace. It was also four years after Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Grunge was ubiquitous. Every high school in the United States shared the same drab uniform—antifashion was fashion. No one wanted to risk making a feminine movie about girls and friendship. But director Amy Heckerling persisted, going from studio to studio until finally the film landed at Paramount.
Heckerling connected creatively with costume designer Mona May on a previous pilot and she recognized her as the perfect collaborator. Born in India and educated in Europe, May was inspired by the fearless color of her childhood and her eye for couture. Starting at European runways, May took her background in fashion to transform sultry catwalk styles into authentic looks that could be worn by 16-year-old girls.
Clueless : Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz, Paul Rudd as Josh, Stacey Dash as Dionne Davenport, Elisa Donovan as Amber, Brittany Murphy as Tai, Breckin Meyer as Travis, Donald Faison as Murray, Nicole Bilderback as Summer.
Photos: Paramount Studios.
“She’s a full-on Monet.”
“I’m like, totally buggin’ ”
May took sophisticated silhouettes and made them playful by injecting color, toying with proportion, and adding whimsical accessories. “I really do paint with color,” she explains. “To me it represents energy. Yellow was like the queen bee. It was the color of sunshine, of California.” The resulting scene of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Dionne (Stacey Dash) crossing the quad is indelibly imprinted into popular culture, so much so that the yellow plaid has become synonymous with the film. Throughout the movie, the fashion is delectable and stylized, yet completely captures the personality of the characters. Over time, many of the looks became known on a first-name basis: the Alaïa dress (borrowed from the fashion house through a phone call), the green dress (conjuring the innocence of Jane Austen through its empire silhouette and cap sleeves), the driver’s test ensemble (long sheer shirt over harlequin mini with cropped vest), and more.
The lasting impact of the costumes is indisputable, and the 30-year celebration of Clueless is a party that has not stopped. Kickstarted by a screening at the Academy Museum featuring Amy Heckerling, Mona May, and Alicia Sliverstone in conversation, there was also a Clueless Anniversary Suite at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills created by Bloomingdale’s, a curated
event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and July 19 was officially declared Clueless Day by Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian. All of the buzz is topped off by the publication of the fabulous new book The Fashion of Clueless , which features never-before-seen photos, costume sketches, and interviews for fans and fashionistas alike. May says, “It’s really about recognizing the legacy of the film, the legacy of the costumes, and the creative process that went into them.
Photos:
Photo: Phillip Faraone
Order the book!
There is the joy of creation, creativity, and collaboration, the commitment of the actors, and an incredible director.” The costumes of Clueless have come to exemplify something beyond the moment. They capture innocence, a sense of chic, and an unshakable belief in the power of women and girls, which was well before its time. It is a story told in film that has now become part of the audience’s story. It is also a global phenomenon that crosses generations and counts 16-yearolds as the new fans. While Mona May is dazzling, she shines not only for herself, but for the art of costume design and costume designers.
Photo: Jorge Meza
Illustration: Joshua McKenney
BY CAMILLE BENDA & GWYN CONAWAY
The inspiration for our book Bending the Rules: Fashion BeyondtheBinarycame from a deep passion for research— both Gwyn and I are costume designers as well as authors, so our creative process always starts with a costume designer’s curiosity. We soaked up research about how fashion, costume, clothing, and accessories reveal the full spectrum of gender identities. But as we began work on the book idea, everywhere we looked, the gender binary
was there! So Gwyn and I looked at thousands of images, visited museums in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and interviewed artists, activists, performers, and designers. We intentionally allowed the research to lead us as we compiled photographs, paintings, runway snapshots, fashion editorial images, embroidery, weaving, and wearable art that show fashion and gender expression across cultures, places, and time.
BendingtheRulesalso features Gwyn’s full-color illustrations of historical and modern figures, an experience that Gwyn says was especially profound. She wrestled with questions of how to represent the underrepresented. What if the only primary account about someone has extreme bias? Or if the translation doesn’t decipher clothing terms correctly? How do you draw a pharaoh as a real person? How do you choose a color palette if no textiles survived? Gwyn researched
for six months just to decide how to wrap the tunic in the illustration of the Jinbandaa shaman shown here. Woven among the illustrations are stories of clothes and people that reveal a wider picture: Urbody’s gender-confirming underwear, Buddhist monk style, Brad Pitt’s red-carpet skirts, 1970s gay rodeo riders, codpieces, bustiers, Playboy bunnies (and boys!) and Native American Two-Spirit individuals that celebrate all of us and celebrate the power of dress.
Order the book!
WRITTEN BY EDUARDO CASTRO
We recently lost a dear friend, a very sweet and kind man, Ivan Marquez. Ivan a was very talented costume designer and costumer. He had a great gift of creating characters and pulling great pieces with style and was always aware of character and referencing the authenticity of a period.
Having had the opportunity to collaborate with Ivan many times, whether on a Western such as the Pancho Villa project shot in Mexico, where he gathered the most beautifully aged leather pants, textural suedes, and the perfect variety of shirts, hats, and boots. Or for the fantasy OnceUponaTimein Vancouver, where Ivan pulled
stunning doublets, medieval gowns, and headdresses from John Truscott’s extraordinarily designed Camelot. And there were the eclectic sci-fi fantasy pieces from Bob Ringwood’s A.I.Ivan knew every piece in the Warner Bros. stock and always pulled with great panache and style.
I could always count on Ivan to help me curate the best looks for each project. His knowledge of period costumes was unparalleled. His eye for creative costuming was also one of his great assets. Having been educated at UCLA and having worked in theater in his native Puerto Rico added to the richness of his catalog of knowledge.
Ivan Marquez and Michael Quinn
A few years ago, when I was helping out on The Call of the Wild with the amazingly talented Kate Hawley, I once again called on Ivan. He did an amazing job of dressing many of the extras. He created great characters, and each extra whom he dressed was perfect. Kate loved his taste and his attention to detail.
Ivan was truly talented, and he was a great asset to any costume department. Always with a smile and wanting to please. His passion and dedication were appreciated not only by me, but by many other designers as well.
The Call of the Wild : Costume designer Kate Hawley
Ivan Marquez
Upon a Time : Costume designer Eduardo Castro
Once Upon A Time: Costume designer Eduardo Castro
Pancho Villa: Costume designer Eduardo Castro
Lucifer: Costume designer Agata Maszkiewicz Costumer Ivan Marquez
