CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Inside the LA Lakers Costume Design of HBO's 'Winning Time'

Variety: For the series, which traces the professional and personal lives of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson-led team that won five NBA championships during the 1980s, costume designer Emma Potter started breaking down the squad’s look by studying its practice uniforms.

1 comment:

Iris Chiu said...

Details, details, details. I often find that this crazy intense focus on detail with costume design, both in film and theater, to be one of my very favorite parts of any production. It can reveal so much about both who the characters are and the inner workings of the plot. Funny enough, despite both being from LA and having a basketball career, I was never really a big fan of the Lakers. Of course I am familiar with their legendary impact on basketball history, so reading through this article which details the precarious costume design of this show was very interesting. Things as subtle as the shades of purple on the practice jerseys not matching or the use of the outdated double knit material all help ground the viewers in the past. This more “free form” style that costume designer Emma Potter worked so hard to integrate into the story through the costumes of the characters is something I’m really looking forward to watch in full in “Winning Time”.