Hello friends!!! This week I’m trying something new- I spoke to costume designer Katina Danabassis for the ABC and crossposting our longer conversation here. Thanks for opening <33333
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In Australia, Gen Z and milennials comprise over 56% of all cinema goers according to Roy Morgan and further research has found that young people want to see accurate representation of themselves.
What's it like to dress characters for the screen?
Costume Designer Katina Danabassis has worked on films and shows including Lady Bird, Euphoria and Past Lives. Her latest work is for director Celine Song's second film, Materialists, which stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal.
To find the fashion pieces for the movies she works on she scours eBay, thrift stores and is constantly online!!!
Our interview is below (lightly edited for clarity) or you can listen above :) All images are via A24/Atsushi Nishijima.
When you found out you were gonna work on this movie, what was the first thing you did in regards to deciding on the looks?
Katina Danabassis: The first thing that popped into my mind was putting Lucy in that skirt suit. I was like, I think it's a great time for a woman in a power suit because it feels like something from a bygone era. And it was like, what a great opportunity for us to revisit that, and then it happened to be Dakota Johnson and her mom’s Melanie Griffith, so what a great nod to Working Girl. I feel like it's something that I don't see anymore actually.
So that's why I was like this is an interesting opportunity to do something that was classic and powerful and a symbolism of women's like working strong, working women, wearing suits, but with a feminine touch.
I see more women in pantsuits than I see women in, like a skirt suit. I don't know about you, but that's just in my world, it's more of a pants world.
Is that important for you when you’re putting together looks for a movie?
KD: Yes, I love accuracy because I feel like people relate to it very quickly and easily, and they can - it's like being able to see yourself in it. And also sometimes it's like part of a joke or part of what makes the thing like — does the West Village feel like the West Village in New York right now? Unless the girls are, you know, dress a certain way and it adds to the the storytelling and just grounds it in reality.
Was there anything you wanted to bring out, in particular in dressing Lucy in terms of the themes of her story?
KD: In the city and when she's dating Harry, it feels very like corporate - a little bit like it's structured, it's very city working girl, and she's moving through the world like a business woman. She's doing business and talking business and navigating a relationship that's grounded in sort of like this transactional, materialist way.
KD: Not to be reductive, but that's the thing that ended up steering us - is the costumes can stay in this city mode, and then when it's with her true love, it's more grounded in an earthiness and like the flowers come out and, it's blooming, it's blossoming. So her dress is not a floral dress at the wedding it's kind of structured strong practical, chic, almost like an origami back - kind of this city dress versus like a romantic dress.
How do you find the clothes?
KD: On that one, I was definitely shopping myself. I pound the pavement. I scour online, I look on eBay a lot. I'm an eBay queen - that's how I approach it. I like thrifting a lot too, because I find such unique pieces you can find the most special thing. You can’t just be like, “where did you get that?” And you can't just go buy it. It's not for the masses necessarily, it's for this story.
Did the cast have thoughts on how their characters would dress?
KD: Of course, Dakota is just such a stylish person and she wears clothes so well. She's very involved. When we're in a fitting, if the actor is gravitating towards something and like pulls on a certain garment. I'm like, please like, //go ahead.// Unless I'm like, no, that's for this one moment, that's different.
But if they are gravitating towards a certain item of clothing or piece of clothing in our racks, I'm happy to let them just be like do what feels natural, like it wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was right. So just go for it, use this as a closet, this is a collaboration — you're the actor who has to embody a character and the clothing helps you get there. I'm not going to hold you away from that. You know what I mean?
What kind of discussions did you have with Celine (Song) about the characters and the aesthetic overall?
KD: It was really easy for us to identify what John should look and feel like because she was like, “he should have holes in his underwear and he's been wearing the same underwear for so long and his clothes should be really worn in”. He's so handsome that it's going to be hard to, like, make him not look so handsome.
He's going to look great in his like, grubby clothes. But he'll also like, have that quality - once he's in the scene and it's all the apartments, all messy and we see everything's just like lived in and water stained. It's all just going to be in the same conversation and you can see the thread bareness of his shirts and the little tiny paint splatters.
KD: So that is one of the characters that comes to mind specifically, and then you know, with Harry, it was just like luxury, luxury, luxury, you know, every fabric, every garment, every piece of jewellery. It was just about luxury.
Was there a piece on eBay that you found that surprised you that you're really proud of?
KD: In a thrift store we found this T shirt - I can't tell if it was like me or my assistant when we were shopping, but it says “This is my story. This is my song.” We over-dyed it like a grey black because it was turquoise, and we put it on the roommate when he's blending his smoothie and he tosses the phone.
But what was so funny is like I maybe grabbed it, but then my assistant, Celeste, was like, “Oh my God, this is my story. This is my song” — Celine Song, a story by Celine — just like that's fantastic. So we're like, we have to get this in there. And so we found a way to get it in. And it’s so quick he turns around and you blink and you miss it.
You’ve worked on films like Lady Bird, Past Lives, how do you make sure the looks are authentic?
KD: There's an interesting line you have to cross and stay within because they want to see themselves, but then they don't want to be bored. They want, you know, you want to see yourself, but you want to be aspirational. You want to be inspired when you see stuff. So I think that it's about what is sort of inspiring, but also accessible.
Like sometimes for me, if something's too high fashion, it gets a little tough, but it's not about where can I get that, it's about how can I recreate that look or get that feeling that she got from pairing those two things together. With Lucy, you know there was a couple of people where I saw pulling looks where it's like “Oh, that's like a very casual, loose fitting suit.” So it looks super chic and that's inspiring to me, and so I think it'll be inspiring to other people.
Lucy has an $80,000 a year salary, how do you balance that out in terms of clothes and splurges?
KD: It's funny because sometimes there's, you know, a bit of flack that’s coming across like “she could never afford it”. That (Proenza Schouler) dress was on sale all over the place - the blue dress. And I think it was only like a $500 to $600 dress, it's not like a $4000 dress or something or even a $1200 dress. It was max $700, which is still a high price point.
We're making a movie, so it has to stand out and then, you know, as it turns out, doing this job, I've become a very good shopper. So I know where to find really great stuff at a discount, and I'm scouring the RealReal and I'm looking at eBay and I'm finding Prada for $140, it’s possible, it is possible.
KD: If you don't know where to go, that's one thing because you can just go to Bergdorf (Goodman) or whatever, you know, SSENSE or whatever. But even SSENSE has great sales too. So you got to just be able to find the pieces at the right points and price points, and then pounce on them if it's something that you really feel like is going to work for your wardrobe. It's possible to shop pretty cheap and I'd like to say a lot of her (Lucy’s) jeans are Zara. Some of the shirts are like a $50 shirt from Nordstrom, that's not like a crazy reach.
KD: There are things like the the jewellery — is a bit of a high point, just because jewellery is. But Spinelli is a really lovely jewellery line and I think jewellery is kind of worth the splurge, simply just because of it retaining its value. For me, buy gold, buy silver, buy gold.
How did you get your start and would you have any advice for young people who might want to pursue a career in costume design?
KD: I got my start by telling a friend of mine who was designing a movie that I had a car and that I would love to work for her and I can shop and I can do this. She called me one day and I was out there buying grey hoodies and looking for weird sneakers. And so that was the very first on the job, working in a film as like a random shopper.
That was in Vancouver and then then I started working in advertising and commercials with someone in LA and Camille Garmendia, and she showed me the ropes there. My education, which is communications and anthropology, isn't about, you know, design, it's about the theory behind and why you choose things that you do and how to make meaning with storytelling.
Because if you're interested in storytelling, then you might be interested in how to tell a story through clothing or makeup or props, or set design. If you're a visual person and you have an interest in telling a story, you might be interested in looking at film or working in theatre and to keep at it, to work hard and just sometimes you got to pay it forward. I worked for free a lot, a lot, before I was doing anything close to this.
Is it true you're working on the drama with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and is there anything you can talk about in terms of how the aesthetic or clothes will look?
KD: Yeah, we wrapped the drama, I think (director Kristoffer Borgli) wrapped his edit just like last week, so congrats to him, I would say the aesthetic is academic because it's a bit of an academic world that we're going into there and it's very practical as well. Obviously, both of those people wear clothing so well, but it was like you're just like, oh, you just put like anything on them and you're like, ‘Oh, that looks great’.
Do you also talk to a lot of young people or trawl through Instagram just to see how they dress as well?
KD: I am endlessly fascinated with Gen Z, I think for the same reason that a lot of brands and companies and marketing firms are all so curious about them because they are kind of like a weird litmus test of what does it mean to grow up with like the Internet always being there, cause it wasn't always there for me.
So their motivations and desires of like you know of how they purchase things and what they consume is unchartered territories. I'm endlessly fascinated by what they watch and what they do and what they like and how they communicate, and what they think of millennials. When I meet a young, a 20-something I don't just want to be friends with them necessarily, but they can be an endless well of information for me.
What's your favourite outfit you’ve done or are most proud of?
KD: Well, not enough people are talking about the early humans (in Materialists) as far as I'm concerned, we custom made those by hand the a lot of the fabric was hand loomed and woven by a woman who lives in New York. And she did an amazing job, she nerded out - I gave her references, I zoomed with an NYU professor of ancient societies or ancient humans and she was guiding me.
I showed her my (mood) boards and she was like, yes, that's right. Kristen the the weaver, she was identifying like the types of of things that they would have used to weave with. So we did what we thought was the best way to represent, like early humans. And I think it turned out pretty good. It's based on real research and that's that's not my favourite outfit ever. But like, it's pretty damn well up there.
As always, thanks so much for reading and listening, I love you!
Thuy
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