Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1256324
THE ARTISAN SPRING 2020 • 25 Opposite page: Mia (Kerry Washington); Pearl (Lexi Underwood). Top from left: Izzy (Megan Stott) and Elena (Reese Witherspoon); Pearl, Brian (Stevonte Hart) and Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn). Left: Trip (Jordan Elsass). Photos by Erin Simkin/Hulu B Y J O S E Z A M O R A D E P A R T M E N T H E A D H A I R It was April 2019, my sister, niece and I were at Hudson Books in LAX picking up some snacks and reading material for our fl ight to NY. That's where I came across the book Little Fires Everywhere—Reese's Book Club sticker on the cover caught my eye. Out of curiosity, I picked up the book and skimmed a few pages and I realized that the story takes place in Ohio in the '90s, and think to myself, sounds cool. I then download the book on Kindle. The next day, I'm in New York and I receive a text from Reese Witherspoon's personal hair stylist, Lona Vigi, asking me to call her, so I do. She then begins to tell me about a project that Reese is starting soon called Little Fires Everywhere, that they were looking for a department head hair and were wondering my availability and interest. I was like, what's happening here? costume designer, did such an amazing job. All costumes were on point and brought back a lot of memories! Liz Tigelaar, the showrunner, always had great ideas as she vividly remembered her own growing-up years during this time period. She remembered pouring food coloring in white nail polish to come up with colored nail polish, so we actually did this in our show! Pearl's mom, Mia, made blue nail polish which became Pearl's staple look on the show. We wanted the kids to look real, as if they weren't wearing make-up or as if they did it themselves. Pearl had a no-make-up look, so we just focused on beautiful skin. As the character developed, she started wearing lip gloss, blush, a little more make-up to fi t into the Shaker Heights lifestyle. Lexie started out looking perfect, like her mother. She started to wear down as stress starts playing a part in her life. Izzy has an edge to her and wants to go against her mother's ideas of what a young girl should be. The one time she tried to please her mother was at the school dance, but as things fell apart at the dance, so did her look that pleased her mom. Linda was a well-put-together woman, and as time went on, she also started to get more worn down. Jamie and young Elena were really fun to develop. They had fl ashbacks in the '70s (more mustaches and sideburns). The '80s took place in New York, and we had the look appear a little more edgy, raw New York. Things were different then, from tattoos to the shape of the nails. Jamie was the only character that played all three decades. He grew out his own mustache for the '70s scenes. The other favorite part of my job is working in the make-up trailer with such talented co-workers and friends: Tracey Levy, Molly Stern, Sheri Knight, Liz Villamarin, Keiko Wedding in make-up and hair—Lona Vigi, Linda Villalobos, Jose Zamora. We all made a great team collaborating, working hard, listening to great music and of course, laughing a lot in out trailer.