written by Fawnia Soo Hoo, The Hollywood Reporter
When it comes to dressing for self-expression, teens do it best — especially as displayed through costume design in today’s exceptionally smart, poignant and often humorous stories. Portrayals of those angsty formative years feel forever relatable, no matter the age.
Euphoria (HBO)
Diverging paths of self-discovery and experimentation are universal hallmarks of the adolescent experience. But, over at East Highland High, costume designer Heidi Bivens depicts the journeys — often heightened thanks to creator Sam Levinson’s vision — through an Instagrammable fashion fever dream.
On New Year’s Eve, kicking off season two, Maddy (Alexa Demie) finds empowerment in a cut-out black minidress designed by the two-time Emmy nominee and built by Silvia’s Costumes using fabric sourced by Bivens and Demie. Accented with fingerless opera gloves, the revealing ensemble feels particularly foreboding as Maddy pounds on the door of the bathroom, where her best friend, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), secretly hooks up with her ex, Nate (Jacob Elordi). Maddy’s vampy dress also deviates from the pastel palette she previously shared with Cassie, as she becomes “her own femme fatale,” says Bivens. “Maddy has this idea of who she is, which is a powerful, very strong female and not really to be messed with.”
Cassie’s own continued soft pinks and blues represent her adherence to the “traditionally feminine” societal archetypes, as well as her betrayal of and reverence for her bond with Maddy. As her deception is revealed, Cassie mimics her best friend’s bold crop-top coordinated sets. “She’s trying to emulate this ‘ideal girl’ in Nate’s eyes,” explains Bivens. “She is trying to navigate how she wants to engage in the world and with the opposite sex. So there’s a lot of discovery happening.”
Rue (Zendaya) dangerously spirals further into addiction, depicted by somber tones deviating from the bright colors and trendy shapes from season one’s exhilarating first love with Jules (Hunter Schafer). Bivens also felt a responsibility to not glamorize Rue’s struggle through stylized costumes with “meme fodder” potential. The goal was “to reflect what they were experiencing internally and emotionally,” says Bivens. “So it’s not just about a fashion show on television.”
Diverging paths of self-discovery and experimentation are universal hallmarks of the adolescent experience. But, over at East Highland High, costume designer Heidi Bivens depicts the journeys — often heightened thanks to creator Sam Levinson’s vision — through an Instagrammable fashion fever dream.
On New Year’s Eve, kicking off season two, Maddy (Alexa Demie) finds empowerment in a cut-out black minidress designed by the two-time Emmy nominee and built by Silvia’s Costumes using fabric sourced by Bivens and Demie. Accented with fingerless opera gloves, the revealing ensemble feels particularly foreboding as Maddy pounds on the door of the bathroom, where her best friend, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), secretly hooks up with her ex, Nate (Jacob Elordi). Maddy’s vampy dress also deviates from the pastel palette she previously shared with Cassie, as she becomes “her own femme fatale,” says Bivens. “Maddy has this idea of who she is, which is a powerful, very strong female and not really to be messed with.”
Cassie’s own continued soft pinks and blues represent her adherence to the “traditionally feminine” societal archetypes, as well as her betrayal of and reverence for her bond with Maddy. As her deception is revealed, Cassie mimics her best friend’s bold crop-top coordinated sets. “She’s trying to emulate this ‘ideal girl’ in Nate’s eyes,” explains Bivens. “She is trying to navigate how she wants to engage in the world and with the opposite sex. So there’s a lot of discovery happening.”
Rue (Zendaya) dangerously spirals further into addiction, depicted by somber tones deviating from the bright colors and trendy shapes from season one’s exhilarating first love with Jules (Hunter Schafer). Bivens also felt a responsibility to not glamorize Rue’s struggle through stylized costumes with “meme fodder” potential. The goal was “to reflect what they were experiencing internally and emotionally,” says Bivens. “So it’s not just about a fashion show on television.”
PEN15 (Hulu)
Creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle revisit their own emotionally harrowing and awkward adolescent years by playing versions of their 13-year-old selves — while wearing sartorially harrowing and also awkward early-2000s fashion. For the final season, costume designer Melissa Walker illustrated the heartache of best friends growing apart, while highlighting how socioeconomic differences can feel so shamefully glaring at that age.
“The popular girls were more Abercrombie, Anna was a little more American Eagle, and Maya was Old Navy,” says Walker. To further contrast Maya with affluent Anna, the costume designer looked to pieces representing hand-me-downs from skater brother Shuji (Dallas Liu) and her Japanese immigrant mom, Yuki (Erskine’s real mother, Mutsuko). Per the style of the times, Walker accented Maya’s low-budget jeans with “a bunch of rickrack and curtain baubles,” imagining that the frugal Yuki would resourcefully DIY her horrified daughter’s denim.
For the bat mitzvah of queen bee Becca (Sami Rappoport), Maya wears a nature-motif cardigan and dress set that Walker redesigned from a late-’60s/early-’70s ensemble. She envisioned Maya rooting through Yuki’s closet and coming to an epiphany reached by many a self-involved teen: “Mom, you used to have cool stuff.” (Yuki is cool, as characterized in a later heartfelt episode revealing her past career, just like Mutsuko Erskine’s, as a translator for touring musicians in Japan.)
Anna’s bat mitzvah outfit, a discordant mix of early-aughts trends, reflects increasing anxiety over her parents’ acrimonious divorce. The leg-revealing, color-blocked and multi-textured maxi skirt enhances Anna’s gawky physicality, as she nervously banters with high schooler Steve (Chau Long). “It was a nod toward her parents forgetting about her,” says Walker, imagining Anna hitting the mall, armed with credit cards but no guidance. “She has this freedom to be buying more daring things, but doesn’t have this personal taste to completely fit in with the popular girls.”
Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu)
For the groundbreaking comedy from co-creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, Jillian Bundrick focused on authenticity to chronicle teenage hijinks, anguish and ennui on an east Oklahoma Native American reservation. She took direct inspiration from teens on Instagram and daily life on the Muscogee Nation reservation in Okmulgee, where the show films. “It was really important to have the realistic representation onscreen, finally, and to not make it overidealized or aspirational,” says the Oklahoma City-based costume designer, who worked on the series after Heidi Bivens designed the pilot.
Still reeling from the death of a close friend, Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs) leads the charge to escape to Los Angeles while dressed in her “black uniform” of skinny jeans and dark hoodies. “She really presents this tough exterior,” says Bundrick, who hints at Elora’s vulnerability through delicate chains, stud earrings and a gold-plate crescent necklace. “It’s those intimate details that help show how multifaceted these characters are.”
Scrappy dreamer Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) wears oversized button-downs over band T-shirts. “He really is that intersection of pop culture with Native culture,” says Bundrick of the music-loving teen, who longs to connect with his absentee rapper dad. Bear’s David Bowie tee also speaks to Native youth yearning to see themselves reflected in popular culture. “They’ve always identified with these outsider characters, or these angsty things, because they haven’t had contemporary onscreen representation,” says Bundrick.
Eternally chill Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) expresses her close relationship with both parents through vibrant jewelry and logo snapback caps. “She’s proud of her heritage,” says Bundrick, who supported Indigenous-owned brands, including Aurianna Oricchio of Sown Seed Bead, Supernaw’s Oklahoma Indian Supply and Urban Native Era. Bundrick also incorporated Western boots and a beaded belt buckle that the Canadian actress, a Stoney tribe member of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, brought from home. “Willie Jack is just unapologetically herself,” says Bundrick.
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
In Showtime’s dual-timeline thriller, Marie Schley used mid-’90s and contemporary costume to distill how peer pressure hierarchy and horrific trauma — involving a plane crash, survival in the Canadian wilderness and cannibalism — during the formative years affects personal growth into adulthood. “It really does emphasize arrested development,” says Schley, who bookended the show with the pilot and episodes eight through 10. (Caroline B. Marx designed episodes two through seven.)
Senior care nurse Misty (Christina Ricci) continues her metaphorical predatory cat motif from her days of being a high school soccer team manager (Samantha Hanratty). “She has an immaturity about her and wears a disguise of being very cheerful, perky and friendly, but she has a dark side, obviously,” says Schley, about the adult Misty’s deceivingly cute feline-covered scrubs, unassuming floral sweatshirts and her bright yellow “Morton Salt Girl” raincoat.
Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) axed her ambitious plans to attend Brown University and married her high school infatuation, so “she hasn’t grown that much emotionally. She’s pretty stunted, so I tried to keep her more into the ‘mom’ version of what she used to wear,” says Schley, pointing to adult Shauna’s (Melanie Lynsky) ’90s plaids. Whereas, senatorial candidate Taissa (Tawny Cypress) — repressing her tormented past in polished pieces by Chanel and Tom Ford — has “completely obliterated” her look and persona from her teen soccer champ years (Jasmin Savoy Brown).
Escaping her abusive home life, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) expresses her nonconformist nature through a vintage leather jacket, ’70s punk plaid skirts and baby doll dresses. The “grungey, punk rock, alt-music” aesthetic threads through to adult Natalie (Juliette Lewis), now an enigmatic con artist. “[Lewis actually] had a picture of Debbie Harry in a one-shoulder dress lighting something on fire in her apartment in New York in the ’70s,” says Schley, who co-designed Natalie’s high school reunion gold-and-black chiffon stunner with the actress.
