52 The Costume Designer Spring 2021
For the new biographical film The United States vs. Billie Holiday, costume
designer Paolo Nieddu faced a daunting task for his first period project:
designing hundreds of costumes for his main cast and an army of back-
ground artists, while multiple other projects set in the same historical time
period were also in the works. Holiday (Andra Day) alone had 55 costume
changes, while love interest Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes) had nearly
40 different looks.
Paolo Nieddu
Reimagines
an Icon
by Alexandra Welker
Andra Day in The U.S. vs. Billie Holiday
