Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1010567
Summer 2018 The Costume Designer 37 In this series, Alicia Silverstone stars as Bonnie, a Beverly Hills housewife who throws out her cheating husband and proceeds to try to put a life together for herself … in 1975, when Women's Lib was nascent and women relied on their husbands for almost everything. For Gellman, it is a dream job, recreating the period while showing the process of a woman becoming strong and self-confident, "having fears and crashing through them to get to the other side, as we all do." Bonnie and her friends all experi- ence this, says Gellman, finding ways, sometimes success- fully, sometimes not. "And really, it's kind of sad that in 1975, all of that was going on and it's still going on now, but it's important to make these things visual and have people see them to realize how important it is for women when they do get to accomplish these things." In the pilot episode, there's a defining, liberating moment when Bonnie makes a party entrance in a stun- ning dress. Gellman says, "I was really fortunate to find it—15 pounds of bugle beads, and form-fitting and very different from what she was wearing earlier. It's kind of her diving board, if you want to call it that. It was enor- mously powerful." Gellman's biggest challenges were tracking down vintage pieces and/or creating them, for both cast and a stagger- ing amount of extras, on a tight TV schedule. She reached out to vendors, private collectors, and costume houses to track down the pieces she needed, often in 48 hours or less. She also had to educate her cast about vin- tage sizing, fabrics, and fit, as well as important accessories. She made all the female leads wear pantyhose, which horri- fied them, prompting cries of, "Nobody's going to see it, it's TV!" To which Gellman respond- ed, "Building a period character is from the inside out, not the outside in." She adds, "I just want to create that character for them. Because when they walk out there and believe that they are that character, then the clothes just support them." Judy Gellman American Woman/Paramount Network Photos: American Woman, Paramount Network.