Monday, August 26, 2024
Cooking with Style: The Secret Ingredients Behind The Bear's Emmy-Nominated Costumes
The Art of Costume: Yes, chef! Today, we step into the world of The Bear for an in-depth conversation with the creatives behind its Emmy-nominated costumes: costume designer Courtney Wheeler and assistant costume designer Lariana Santiago. They share the meticulous research in kitchens and attention to detail that go into crafting the authentic looks of the show’s characters.
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Costume Designers are crucial to the creation of the world of the story. It’s so inspiring to hear how Courtney and Lariana continued to shop local and second hand to gather most of their clothing for their designs. In the theatre and film industry it’s so often wasteful of the materials we use and I can only imagine how much support they were giving back to their communities that they were filming in. I haven’t watched the Bear but now after reading this article, it’s on my list. It seems like one of those shows that you can’t stop watching and where every character is just as intense and immersive in the story as their costume and backstory is. I enjoyed reading about how they turned these costumes into distressed and worn-looking clothing that the characters were likely to wear, it’s clear that every detail was thought of and thought through meticulously. The attention to detail also astounded me because of how they dressed every character from head to toe even if their shoes or socks weren’t shown on screen, but in order to stay true to the character and story they looked at every minute detail.
I love how closely the discussion of the costumes was tied to discussion of the characters, which is exactly right. What a person wears is often perceived as an extension of themself and their values, and is thus a critical part of creating a character. The idea of the character Donna dressing “like she had been rich for one year” was fascinating, and made me think of what I would do if I was rich for one year. My first reaction would not be to buy fancy clothes, and tells something about me. Likewise, Donna choosing to buy nice clothes tells us something about her, and all of that is communicated through fabric and without words. I also loved how they talked about the clothing creating a sense of place even with being set in the modern era. I don’t think about it very often, but people in different cities dress differently and there is a distinct clothing culture that is created in every place. Choosing to recreate that sense of place authentically by using clothes actually bought in Chicago was fascinating to hear about, and I wonder how long it took them to compile all of the costumes.
I found this interview incredibly insightful as an aspiring costume designer. There were so many useful tips and tricks for costuming a shoot in an ever-changing environment like a working kitchen. I especially liked the section about aging/dying garments, and Jessica’s role in that part of the production process. Even without any personal experience designing costumes for this type of production, I know that it is a logistical challenge to keep the visual continuity intact throughout the shoot. It was interesting to read about a professional using actual pasta sauce stains as a reference for a costume that needed to look like it was stained throughout multiple days of filming. It seemed like a great way to make food stains look organic, instead of just painting a costume to look stained without a realistic reference. I’m sure that the garment was more authentic as a result. Overall, I was impressed that tiny details like pasta and butter stains were taken so seriously, and I could tell that the designers truly cared about maintaining the integrity of the environment they were costuming.
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