NEW YORK – In the Brooklyn warehouse where “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” was filmed are towers of pillbox hats, double-stacked racks of dresses and coats in rainbow order, and vision boards full of swatches cloth.
On a set visit in October during the shooting of the comedy’s latest season, Emmy-winning costume designer Donna Zakowska gave her team marching orders to translate the characters’ emotions and aesthetic tone. in every scene. Over five seasons, Zakowska says she has dressed nearly 50,000 principal actors and extras for the hit show on Amazon Prime Video, which launches its final season on Friday.
“Maisel” follows a New York City housewife who takes an unlikely turn in standup comedy on a journey of self-discovery after her husband’s infidelity explodes their normal life.
Before filming, Zakowska gave each player a chance to make sure every shoe, brooch and belt looked just right. When looking for inspiration, Zakowska often points to what she calls the “Maisel map” — images of star Rachel Brosnahan’s signature looks and color palettes from past seasons — across a wall of her latest bag. -or sketches.
“One of the greatest joys and most terrifying parts of doing this show is that I don’t feel like I know who Midge is,” Brosnahan told The Associated Press about her character. “Without geniuses like Donna, who created this character and helped me understand where she is, emotionally, scene by scene through how she expresses herself in her clothes, I don’t think we’d be here .”
He had “a great love of storytelling,” Brosnahan said.
Show creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino said Zakowska had an immediate understanding of how Brosnahan’s character would develop, and how to reflect the characters’ changes. by color. As Midge becomes more empowered to speak her mind on stage, she goes from wearing pastel-colored suits uptown to a black dress when she performs in downtown clubs. “He’s the first person we’ve ever worked with who has done this, and we love it. He likened the color to the mood of the character,” said Palladino.
“You really try to develop the script, the story, and you try to create this world,” Zakowska said.
Palladino learned to coordinate “Maisel’s” elaborate set design and unique locations with Zakowska’s costumes, to create the show’s eyepopping tableaus.
Throughout the five seasons, pink dominates. To create the 1950’s swing coat worn by Brosnahan in the pilot, Zakowska went through more than 200 shades of pink and finally dyed the fabric to achieve the right pastel hue.
“It was a whole philosophy,” Sherman-Palladino said of the trajectory the pinks wore, “that really tied into Midge’s emotional ups and downs.”
As a nod to the full-circle evolution of the character, in the first episode of the new season, a newly confident Midge wears a two-tone version of the original pink coat. “There’s a kind of romanticism or sentimentality about color,” Zakowska says.
Many of the actors saw Zakowska as a collaborator in developing their characters. Alex Borstein, who plays Susie in the show, said she wanted to wear suspenders and a peaked cap, which Zakowska enhanced with a leather jacket and even her own boots. “Every time you put on that uniform or that suit of armor it helped create Susie for me, made it real,” Borstein said.
“When you get out of the car…you do your hair and you’re in 2022,” says Reid Scott, who plays a late-night host in the fifth season. For Scott’s character, Zakowska tailored bespoke suits and sourced many vintage cardigans from the UK. “The second you put that suit on, and the way it felt and the way it smelled and the way the high-waisted pants held you, it just threw me into it and … boom, you’re in 1961.”
Zakowska said she was a little surprised, but pleased with the response of fans to the costumes, with some even dressing up as Midge for Halloween. “I think somehow Midge Maisel gave women a lot of vocabulary,” she says, of the main character’s impact on pop culture. After the pandemic, he noticed a growing interest in costumes. Everyone wants to “celebrate a little bit,” and Midge’s look was “the right thing at the right time,” Zakowska said.
Several cast members said Zakowska’s meticulous attention to detail changed how they felt about their characters. Caroline Aaron, who plays Midge’s mother-in-law Shirley, said she asked Zakowska to remove the belt from under her character’s bright dresses, but Zakowska insisted, saying it affected her. in the way the character walks. Details that are not necessarily visible to the audience – period jewelry, purses, even buttons – all complete a certain look and create a fully imagined world.
“If he’d slapped me with something from the 50’s, I’d probably be a sloppy Shirley,” Aaron said. “But he was very insistent on giving dignity to each character in terms of their clothes.”
Marin Hinkle, who plays Midge’s mother Rose Weissman, said she was inspired by her character’s bold clothing choices, ultra-chic coats and hats.
“In my own life I tend to be like, ‘Let’s just keep calm and not rock a boat and be nice and proper,'” Hinkle explained. He said he likes Rose’s ability to say, “‘Today is a special day and I’m going to wear bright colors and not go into the shadows!'”
“It was very hard to say goodbye to him,” Hinkle said, “as he gave me a little more chutzpah.”
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