by Matt Noble, Gold Derby
“It is always something new; that is the constant,” explains Lauren Shapiro about designing costumes for “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” For our recent webchat, she adds, “Every time something pops up, I stop and think if we have something like that and we have to get it because we’ve never done this before. The show is really good at keeping things fresh and interesting. I always read the email and go, ‘what in the world is it this time? What am I going to have to come up with this time?’” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
James Corden took over hosting “The Late Late Show” in 2015 on CBS. The talk show features wide-ranging variety pieces from comedy sketches, to musical numbers and the iconic Carpool Karaoke segment. Shapiro has been nominated the past two years by the Costume Designer Guild Awards in the Variety, Reality or Live Television category. The designer reveals, “Every article of clothing that goes on the talent in a show – our band, James, everybody that’s on camera – goes through me first. I’m responsible for the aesthetic for the entire wardrobe of the show.”
As the program returns from having to shoot in isolation, Shapiro confesses, “Now we are able to do more sketches with talent, everyone’s gearing up. There’s a lot of things being thrown at me in one time. It’s so much more fun for me to be doing these sketches than just dress James and the band in studio every day. We have a big sketch with a notable personality tomorrow morning. Everyone came back this morning and notes started coming in. So this huge sketch is now going to involve a cowboy hat with an umbrella. I have no time to prep for this but it’s, happening so I need to just do it.”
She remembers, “We did a sketch where James is the fifth member of Kiss. If you know anything about Kiss, the boots are like 50% of the costume. I usually don’t have a fitting with James because I know his sizes, and the boots didn’t fit. I was tearing out my hair on the floor trying to shove his foot in, and he was trying to help me. If the boots didn’t fit, the outfit would have looked terrible. There’s bazillion of those instances where it just comes together and works out.”
