CDG - The Costume Designer

SE In college I was interested in history. My thesis was on Aztec cloth- ingthe weaving and traditional textiles, and how clothing could be more valuable than gold. After that I got into textile conservation. Then realized I wanted to make more than I wanted to preserve, so I started with some upholstery in New ork City. I slowly wound my way to costume design and just started doing it. I interned to cut my teeth in indie film, which is an amazing education because you have to learn how to do everything. rom there I got into commercials then television. Trayce Gigi ield brought me on to do Two Broke Girls. GF Does having a history background give you research chops SE I am a huge research person. It's the place you can dig your hooks in. Research is where your design gets grounded. It's the pressure that makes the diamonds. ou need constraints to focus the creative process. ou get a seed of an idea that snowballs and you understand where your design is coming from. Hopefully, you can sell that to your directors and actors. Otherwise, you start over. GF This is your third project with director David Leitch. What's it like work- ing with him SE It's fantastic and transformative. If I were to look back, my break would've been Hobbs Shaw because that's when I first met Kelly McCormick and David Leitch. That led to this collaboration. David as director and Kelly producer are really amazing at handling cre- atives. They're able to pivot, and asking you to pivot. Their team has been with them for several projects, so there is a bottom line trust and understanding. It's a very safe place to double down on creativity, be- cause the best idea wins. GF Why don't we look at some of the characters Let's start with Lady- bug. He's got that peacoat and we have to talk about the hat. SE I have to say the bucket hat was Brad Pitt's idea and it's brilliant. I mean, what do you do when someone comes up with an idea like that, other than say, "Let's go for it." It's a take on Colombo. This downtrodden, very talented, good guy assassin PI. Once the bucket hat was in play, we started layering pieces. This is a guy who had given up. He was sitting on his dock fishing and got a phone call, so what else would he be wearing We chose traditional garments that felt a bit maritime. Things that felt classic but might be a uniform. GF Let's go over a couple of the other characters. Tell me about Maria Beetle played by Sandra Bullock oto on ictures rad itt as adug Aaron aoronson as angerine rian ree enr as emon uet rain "I s bue t t w Brad Pi t ts ia i ts bl lit. I , wt do • do w•n •• cos -€ ia like ƒt, „… ƒn s, "Le ts ‡ ˆ i t. " ' ' ' "I s bue t t w Brad Pi t ts ia i ts bl lit. I , wt do • do w•n •• cos -€ ia like ƒt, „… ƒn s, "Le ts ‡ ˆ i t. " 28 THE COSTUME DESIGNER | FALL 2022

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