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22 SUMMER 2025 also watch it as a fan." MaXXXine was filmed in Los Angeles within seven weeks on an indie budget. Yanda tells us… "We had the challenge of really trying to sell a time, place, and culture (the seedy underbelly of 1985 Hollywood) with rentals, DIYs, and limited background fiings. Luckily, our designer has a great firsthand account of what the multitude of counterculture characters were like at the time, so we were able to create a realistic world with a small budget. Supervisor Javier Arrieta had denim pieces sun bleached, just like he did himself in the '80s, for pieces that we needed multiples of. We also experimented with Sharpie-ing poems and phrases onto T-shirts, just like they did in the punk scene at the time. The rest was a keen eye for character building and aention to detail from the designer, ACD [Laurel Rose], and all the Costumers tasked with dressing dozens or hundreds of background characters every day." One of the more difficult set days of the production that Dennis tells us about was the scene where Maxine confronts her estranged evangelical father at the Hollywood Sign. "It was a night shoot in the hills of Santa Clarita." The Hollywood Sign was rebuilt for this film as there are many difficulties shooting at the actual location. "It was incredibly cold and dark outside. To make things even more demanding, Maxine had to appear as though she had just come out of a pool, which meant being wet and then also bloody from all the fighting scenes while running in leather high-heel boots on uneven terrain. The combination of harsh elements, her physical discomfort, and ensuring continuity throughout the scene required a lot of aention, tools, and constant adjustments. Those scenes required a great deal of teamwork, preparation, and endurance. Again, I think my ability to anticipate people's needs beyond just costuming makes me a successful Set Costumer and it doesn't hurt that I can make people laugh aer a long day of filming." In horror films, identical multiples of costume pieces are a necessary evil when it comes to blood work and stunts. Yanda says, "The good thing is that we went mostly in chronological order to the script. Even so, it is important to keep track of how many multiples you have, and what stage of blood, dirt, or action they are in. As anyone who has worked on a period show knows, you usually only have one of every vintage item you use. Combining that with a horror script means that you will have to use MTO (made-to-order) copies or shopped dupes of varying degrees of similarity. For example, we had a great pair of vintage leather pants for our lead actress, Mia Goth, and she wore them with many of her changes throughout the movie. Our challenge was to figure out what scenes she needed to be wearing the hero pair for, and what scenes we could get away with having her in a contemporary dupe, which we had to do some alterations on, such as removing pockets and taking in the width of the legs to somewhat match the original. The challenge was reading the scripts and figuring out the shots and lighting beforehand, while also trying to make the right decision before the actress dressed. There were stunts like running through the forest at night, and having SPFX goo slopped over her head, that if we had mistakenly put her in the hero pants for, it would have ruined them and created a lot of problems for us down the line." oth Costumers have worked in this industry for more than a decade and aribute their years of experience to working as a team on this low-budget indie horror. Yanda explains, "Having limited experience in motion pictures rather than TV, I always heard that movies were great because you had so much more time to prep and shoot but this was the opposite. Being understaffed as we were, we really had to rely on our expertise from other projects to make this one happen at the standard we are used to performing. It is hard for us in the business to be content with producing a substandard product, whether we have the money to do it or not." Dennis adds that unlike larger productions that have more resources and time, "we oen had to rely on quick thinking and creative problem solving in the moment. In this case, acting fast was oen more valuable than extensive preparation." The MaXXXine filming experience was brief but enriching for those who worked on the team. Dennis says, "My passion for the clothes of this era really got to shine through which made for a very rewarding experience. Not to mention my incredible costume department team and Costume Designer Mari-An Ceo. She is a genius at what she does and really encourages people in their strengths. I couldn't ask for more talented people to work with. It was truly such a one-of-a-kind project to get to work on." Yanda states her praise for her team as well. "Thankfully, most of our department had been working together for years by that time, and the new people we brought in were great and knowledgeable, so we were able to do a lot with the lile we had." MaXXXine can be rented and purchased on several streaming services. B