Netflix's Hollywood's costume designer on the power of 1940s dressing

 

It's Friday, which means Netflix has dropped a shed load of new stuff for you to indulge in while you embrace lockdown. And the top hitter this week, which we're going to binge this weekend, is Ryan Murphy's Hollywood. 

With a stellar cast consisting of big names including Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, Holland Taylor, David Corenswet and Laura Harrier, it's escapism at its best and focuses on the golden age of Hollywood. Set in Tinseltown, the seven-episode series focuses largely on a hopeful young war veteran who has aspirations to become a movie star. 

While it seems like glitz and glamour on the surface, the series highlights the underworld of the star-making machinery: where sex, prostitution, drugs, racism and disappointment are rife. But Hollywood also highlights the fashion of the 1940s. The women are in tiny cardigans and power suits, and the likes of Criss and Corenswet don oversized, single-breasted suits and serve high-waisted trousers, larger-than-life overcoats, knitted sweater vests and camp collar shirts aplenty. Hollywood is an education in how to channel the 1940s properly, even in the 2020s.

Hollywood costume designer Sarah Evelyn dressed the actors alongside Lou Eyrich. GQ sat down with her to talk inspiration, what goes into a big budget production and the biggest challenges she faced.

How did sourcing costumes for Hollywood begin?

Sarah Evelyn: Screenwriter Ryan Murphy comes to every project with a clear idea and distinct vision. So Lou Eyrich and Ryan will meet and talk about that vision and refine it and then she and I will come together as codesigners to make a moodboard. Ryan saw Hollywood as an ode to the old glamour of Hollywood, to the golden age of cinema and so gold and the idea of golden was a starting point – we wanted the show to have a golden sheen.

What were the big inspirations for you both?

Lou and I began our research and we started with some of the amazing films of the 1940s. These included The Maltese Falcon, Gentleman's Agreement, Double Indemnity, The Killers and Laura. So we’d then branch out from there and look at street style images and there’s this one great book called Jean Howard's Hollywood and it’s one of the very few books out there that gives a behind-the-scenes look at that era through natural imagery, as opposed to these posed photographs you're used to seeing. 

Read full article here