“Euphoria’s” Costume Designer On The Show’s Iconic Style Aesthetic

Over the course of the final eight weeks, the web has been abuzz with one topic: Euphoria.

After taking a pandemic–prompted hiatus, the present lastly returned to our screens on Jan. 9 for its extremely anticipated second season and shortly turned the second-most-watched present on HBO in addition to the most-tweeted-about present of the last decade so far.

Euphoria’s immense success appears like a testomony to the facility of Technology-Z, who, every week with out fail, flooded to Twitter and TikTok to interrupt down each body in actual time, theorizing and meme-making at a mind-boggling price.

And regardless of centering on darkish plot factors just like the devastating results of drug dependancy and home abuse, the present’s sense of nostalgia and teenage fantasy aesthetic gripped viewers from the phrase go — a lot so, in actual fact, that it sparked complete TikTok developments.

One development concerned followers videoing themselves carrying outrageous outfits and pretending they’re on their option to class at “Euphoria Excessive,” hinged on the within joke that the present’s main characters sport some fairly ~daring~ ensembles to high school. We’re speaking miniskirts recent off the Paris runway at 10 a.m. math class. A Louis Vuitton two-piece within the lunch line. You get the gist.

And on the helm of making these distinctive seems to be was two-time Emmy nominee costume designer, Heidi Bivens, who spoke to BuzzFeed Information on the heels of the season finale about how she balances the present’s heavy themes with iconic vogue statements — and described the web response to her work as a “bizarre honor.”

“I really like the humor, and clearly the present is coping with severe topic issues, so there’s that delicate stability of having the ability to giggle at your self and the work, however nonetheless honor the integrity of what the story is attempting to speak,” she mentioned of the present’s reputation on-line.

Heidi additionally attributed the web fanfare to the characters’ zero-fucks-given attitudes as they strut the varsity hallways dressed to the nines. “I feel all of it simply got here collectively in a means that one way or the other reached the zeitgeist,” she mentioned, earlier than giving the TikTok creatives her seal of approval. “I feel as soon as one thing reaches that degree, it is free sport for any type of comedic fodder.”

After all, for those who’re conversant in Heidi’s work, you’ll know she’s no stranger to kickstarting a worldwide development. The colourful seems to be she created for A24’s Spring Breakers again in 2013 shortly established neon bikinis and pink balaclavas as authentic vogue decisions for these hoping to imitate Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens’ wild vitality.

And Heidi’s expertise with the extremely charged recklessness of Spring Breakers’ script ended up serving as the right preparation for Season 2 of Euphoria, which partly centered on the backstabbing conduct of Cassie (Sydney Sweeney).

In January’s season opener — a New Yr’s Eve extravaganza fueled by medicine, intercourse, and a bloody fistfight — viewers watched Cassie have intercourse with Nate (Jacob Elordi), who’s the ex-long-term boyfriend of her diehard bestie, Maddy (Alexa Demie).

After hooking up with Nate, Cassie plummets right into a breakdown that left followers anticipating an eventual blow-up between the women — and her spiraling conduct was solely heightened by Heidi’s intentionally positioned visible cues.

After the social gathering, we watch Cassie dedicate her each waking second to vying for Nate’s consideration, one thing that manifests in her dressing increasingly like Maddy with every passing episode. Heidi describes this course of as including “Maddy codes” into Cassie’s wardrobe.

And Cassie’s outfits turned key to hinting on the rising rigidity between the women in various awkward run-ins, dreamlike sequences, and ~that~ lavatory breakdown, earlier than reaching a crescendo within the finale struggle scene.

However the Maddyfication of Cassie was by no means clearer than in a scene that was equal elements comedic and cringeworthy, the place the 2 arrive at college in virtually the identical actual outfit, prompting Maddy to get suspicious.

“I knew that we would have liked to actually drive it residence,” Heidi mentioned of this second. “It was gonna be a scene at college the place Maddy can be there, and I simply thought, ‘OK, nicely, it could be nice if we actually made it apparent that she’s attempting to decorate like Maddy.’”

Heidi defined that she’d had the concept for this scene herself and determined to pitch it to Sam Levinson, the present’s notoriously unbiased author. After all, Sam was on board and wound up writing it into the script whereas Heidi started working on some matching outfits to convey the awkwardness.

“I feel because the costume designer, there are these alternatives to work with story and to provide you with concepts and pitch concepts to the director/showrunner that affect the tone in a means that isn’t essentially on the web page,” Heidi recalled of her position in serving to orchestrate Cassie and Maddy’s showdown. “So, that’s quite a lot of enjoyable.”

And because the present progressed, it turned more and more clear to viewers that Cassie’s complete id was constructed upon her determined want for approval, significantly from Nate. Searching for adoration, she’d utterly overlooked who she was, prompting an overarching sense that Cassie was by no means actually dressed as herself.

Tasked with the job of discovering a signature model for somebody who lacks any type of core id, Heidi mentioned she was stumped when it got here to attempting to map out Cassie’s wardrobe means again in Season 1.

“From the start I had a tough time wrapping my head round who Cassie is and what her look is,” Heidi informed me, explaining that she and Sam scheduled a gathering to take a seat and brainstorm a imaginative and prescient for Cassie’s sophisticated persona.

“What Sam and I had provide you with is that Cassie’s at all times craving for this love from others, and never specializing in self-love,” Heidi defined. “She is seeking to others for approval, seeking to others for inspiration for her model. … So then Cassie turns into this amalgamation of all these completely different influences and needs in her life that kind of develop into this composite of who she is.”

Together with a beneficiant serving of onscreen drama, followers of the present will even be conversant in the fixed rumors of behind-the-scenes chaos.

Again in 2020, when manufacturing on Season 2 was halted by the pandemic, Sam reportedly used the day off to virtually utterly rewrite the script, which — in line with the present’s lead star, Zendaya — wound up with the vast majority of the unique storylines getting lower.

In truth, Sam was reportedly making modifications to the script even up till the day earlier than they shot the finale, fueling rumors that offscreen disputes had resulted in sure forged members’ scenes being lower from the present.

For Heidi, adapting to Sam’s artistic course of was much like a sport of baseball, along with her at bat attempting to hit each curveball and predict his subsequent transfer. “There was rather a lot to react to, for certain,” she recalled of Season 2’s ever-changing manufacturing. “You needed to keep in your toes.”

Heidi went on to disclose that she’d even created complete outfits for scenes that had been then tossed apart. “There can be modifications that may are available in final minute typically,” she mentioned. “There have been different occasions the place I had been requested to construct sure costumes and create seems to be for a sure sequence, after which we had been very enthusiastic about it and shifting ahead and constructing the costumes, after which it went away.”

Nevertheless, Heidi expressed nice admiration for Sam, who has lately confronted criticism from followers who questioned why he chooses to not collaborate with different writers on the present’s script.

Calling him a “beneficiant” director, Heidi mentioned that Sam gave her full management of her imaginative and prescient for his characters. “I feel from the start within the first scripts, particularly just like the pilot scripts the place we’re launched to a lot of the characters, there have been some wardrobe cues written in for characters like Jules, for instance,” she mentioned. “However for probably the most half, he let me provide you with the concepts of how we needed to start out off with constructing these characters.”

“He hires his division heads after which he actually simply trusts them and lets them do their factor. And that is such a present as a fancy dress designer as a result of it actually permits you and provides you the room to be artistic in a means that is not stifling,” she mentioned.

“I feel he has a lot to do and take into consideration because the director/author/showrunner that he’s simply so relieved to have the ability to give costumes over to me and belief that I’m going to ship,” she added, earlier than revealing a selected event the place her imaginative and prescient didn’t meet the mark.

“I despatched an actress to set in a fancy dress that then didn’t work out. But it surely’s as a result of I misunderstood the context of the scene, however so did hair and make-up, so it wasn’t — fortunately, it wasn’t simply me,” she mentioned with fun. “However yeah, for probably the most half, it’s simply a straightforward collaboration with Sam.”

And it isn’t simply Sam with whom Heidi shares a collaborative relationship, however the forged themselves.

In truth, Heidi recalled an occasion when Hunter Schafer arrived on set able to customise her personal jewellery for Jules’ New Yr’s Eve look. “Typically we had been getting artful!” she quipped.

She additionally mentioned that Jacob — whose costumes for Nate had been comparatively tame in comparison with his costars’ — as soon as returned a pair of thin denims that mysteriously made it into his trailer whereas Heidi was away, reinforcing the strict “no skinny denims” coverage on set.

But it surely sounds as if no different forged member was fairly as concerned within the creation of their character’s look as Alexa Demie, who performs cool woman Maddy.

“Alexa Demie was very concerned along with her seems to be, and would even go material procuring with me,” Heidi mentioned, including that Maddy’s model started to merge with Alexa’s personal.

“I feel Alexa is admittedly so proficient and has an unimaginable scope of vogue and created temper boards for me from the start that basically set the tone and the search for the character of Maddy,” she continued.

Consequently, Alexa has been one of many present’s greatest breakout stars, regardless of being considerably enigmatic.

“She’s in all places and nowhere on the identical time. The final word mysterious it-girl!” one fan tweeted this week — amassing practically 100,000 likes — after the notoriously low-key star was photographed hanging out with the likes of Anna Wintour, Kim Kardashian, and Bella Hadid at a Balenciaga vogue present in Paris final weekend.

In truth, Alexa’s mystique advanced right into a full-blown meme when followers started photoshopping her into historic occasions after realizing they had been unable to find out her precise age.

Talking about Alexa’s rise to It woman stardom, Heidi prompt that her puzzling persona truly drives followers’ obsessions: “I feel it’s actually savvy with the best way she’s marketed herself, or not marketed herself, I ought to say. Her absence from social media truly drives the demand.”

Alexa’s ascent to mainstream fame is only one instance of the present’s growing reputation, with viewership doubling throughout Season 2. The frenzy of viewers attempting to observe the finale was so nice that even the HBO Max web site couldn’t bear the stress, utterly crashing moments earlier than the ultimate episode was set to stream.

Reflecting on Euphoria’s sudden surge in reputation, Heidi mentioned she may’ve by no means predicted that it could develop into the phenomenon it’s at present. “I didn’t know that TikTok and all of the memes had been going to occur this season. I imply, we didn’t have that first season, so there wasn’t any possible way of me figuring out that that was gonna occur, or that the viewership was going to double the best way it did,” she mentioned.

However, after all, rocketing rankings include elevated criticism. Season 2 was accused of normalizing teen drug use and portraying a highschool expertise that, to some, pushed the boundaries of believability.

Equally, the juxtaposition of darkish themes with the sheer coolness of the present’s general aesthetic runs the danger of glamorizing its severe topic issues — one thing Heidi has been delicate to all through.

“I at all times wish to create visible curiosity and for it to be thrilling visually, in order that’s a part of my motivation. After which the opposite half is to serve the story and to not pull individuals out of the story by making issues visually attention-grabbing only for the sake of it,” Heidi mentioned.

“I do know that creating the story there was some apprehension from Sam’s aspect to not go too far with that at occasions … so it does develop into a stability of like: ‘What is true for this scene, on this forged member, for who’s evoking this emotion, presently?’” she added. “It’s quite a lot of shifting elements you must contemplate simply to maintain it feeling plausible.”

And though there will be a protracted look forward to Season 3, which has been greenlit for launch in 2023, Heidi was eager to share her ideas about what the longer term would possibly maintain for the East Highland classmates.

“I predict that we’re not gonna be in highschool anymore for Season 3,” mentioned Heidi, who hasn’t but seen a script. “I feel that we could be in a unique locale, close by East Highland, however I feel we’re gonna see a shift within the story in a means that can be shocking to the viewers, and hopefully giving them a chance to rediscover what they assume Euphoria is.”

All eight episodes of Euphoria Season 2 are available for purchase throughout all main digital platforms.