In the manic sphere of The Studio, everyone has to make an impression before a pitch meeting even starts. How you dress is everything, so to be taken seriously at Continental Studios, you need to dress with confidence. And a little panache wouldn’t hurt. For the executives at this historic, fictional film playground, everyone has a distinctive personality and point of view in the same way that our backgrounds and taste in movies vary from person to person. For costume designer Kameron Lennox, ambition is everything.
We see several film projects throughout this first season, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the costume designer would want to be attached to if any of the films came to life.
“We do hit a lot of eras and a lot of genres, but it has to be Silver Lake,” Lennox says with a grin. “You can’t say no to the swinging ’60s, but who wouldn’t want to work on a Ron Howard movie?”
Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick has such a passion for filmmaking, but he is such a self-conscious character. Just think about the other executives who are waiting for him to mess up in order to make their case to replace him. He wears a lot of turmeric, oranges and white, and there is a softness to the materials he wears. You would see him lounging in the softest linens if you caught him really on a vacation. Even though his heartrate is speeding up a mile a minute each episode, Remick believes in classic lines and dignified style.
“Seth Rogen has said himself that, as a comedian, he has been perceived as a kind of schlubby guy but he has really found a niche for himself. Not just with our show but also in real life. When I spoke with him about the costumes, it was very important to him that everyone lived in the same universe where their tones and their palettes all aligned. Anybody from outside Continental Studios would look obviously like an outsider. There was to be a distinction between who worked there and who didn’t. It was almost like each character was in their own superhero movie.
He looks great on the outside, but he’s a nervous wreck on the inside. If you take note and study how he dresses, you will notice that it is very precious. It’s not utilitarian or study–there’s a slightness to his clothes. He is always in soft loafers all the time, and the shoulders of his jackets aren’t structured. There is a fragility inside of him that is apparent in his clothes with nice silks and pocket squares, so it is very well-rounded.”
Any time Kathryn Hahn’s Maya entered a scene, her costumes are an event, and every look is different than the last. Lennox reveals that Maya takes a lot of influence from the music she grew up with, and I see a lot of inspiration from TLC and episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Now that she is older, that palette has refined itself in chunky jewelry, unexpected materials, and bold choices. I’m looking at you Burberry bra top.
“Her character is at that age where the type of pop culture that she would’ve absorbed through her life is from music videos from the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s or films that came out at that time,” she says. “Because she is in marketing and in her early forties, maybe she’s divorced and redefining herself? Maybe she thinks she’s connecting with the youth? Since she is in marketing, she has to present herself as someone who knows what’s happening in the world, but it has to be a little distorted by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Beyoncé videos. There’s some Gwen Stefani in there. For her character, there is no such thing as too much jewelry. I know so many women who wear every single diamond at once with their Cartier bracelets. There was a discussion about how much jewelry she should be wearing, but I know women like that. They want to show their worth and their wealth, and it takes such a good actress to pull something like that off. No one can pull this off like Kathryn Hahn can.”
Coming right behind both Remick and Maya is Remick’s assistant turned junior executive, Quinn Hackett, who is proving that she does have the job to make it in this industry. There is a classic layering to a lot of her clothes that shows that she has reverence for the studio’s history, and you will often find her in sweater vests, long-sleeve shirts, and curated blazers. In the episode, “The War,” she sports a rectangular neck tie paired with a plaid jacket and green, round sunglasses. The points of her collars always feel sharp like she’s not to be messed with while retaining a youthful femininity.
“Quinn is very determined to become the next head of the studio,” Lennox says. “When we meet her, she’s an assistant and she’s in a little knit top and a neckerchief, which is very Cybil Shepherd. When she becomes a creative executive, she steps up and starts wearing suits, but she is more buttoned up. She never wants to feel sexualized in any way, and she doesn’t want to seem like a secretary or assistant–she’s never in skirts. There is a bit of a Working Girl feel while I think there’s a bit of a discussion of her being a nepo baby, so she might have some money and can afford Chanel or YSL or Valentino.
She is actually wearing a lot from my personal collection like the ombré tie, and she wears a thin, gold belt that looks like a bracelet that snaps around your body. I relate to Quinn a lot actually, and I used to wear a lot of ties. Quinn is someone who really wants to be taken seriously.”
Whenever the Golden Globes episode premiered, it took everything in my power to not pause on every frame to look at the clothes. This is the only awards show that we see in this first season, and Lennox does not disappoint when it comes to costuming our main cast and the massive amount of people attending. Catherine O’Hara’s gold dress makes her look like a statuette all her own, and Zoë Kravitz floats in a dreamy, girly pink dress. I’ve never seen an episode of television where I was looking through the costumes for days afterwards in the same way that I scroll Instagram or flip through a magazine to see if I missed anything.
“We started very, very early, because we had so many background actors that we had to prefit,” she says. “We wanted to recreate the Golden Globes to look like a modern ceremony. We had to be in contact with Zoë Kravitz to see if she was going to be bringing something or were we dressing her. Then it was the slew of cameos, so we had to figure out if the men were going to be bringing in a tuxedo. These are people who gave us two hours out of their day to come in, do their scene, and then leave. Seth’s suit was Brunello Cucinelli and Catherine O’Hara wore a Jenny Packham dress, and she’s a designer who has done a lot for Kate Middleton. Zoe’s dress is a vintage Galliano for Dior, and it’s just so beautiful and epic. We were really hyper focused on putting her in pink for some reason–baby pink–and then her take on it was that this character she is playing is kind of bratty. It was a huge blur, honestly.”
Lennox could steal anything that she wanted and probably go back for more. I expressed a need for Matt Remick’s eyewear and Quinn’s ties–I don’t think I have the guts to pull off anything that Maya has in her closet.
“Oh, there are so many things,” Lennox says. “Catherine O’Hara wears a lot of Max Mara, which I think is just so elegant and sophisticated in the colors. Maybe at one point in my life I would want Maya’s clothes. Of course Seth’s suits. I would wear every single one of them.”
The Studio is streaming now on Apple TV+.
