The Surprising Stories Behind Carrie Bradshaw and Ron Burgundy's Looks
Behind-the-scenes tales about iconic outfits from "You've Got Mail,'" "My So-Called Life," "Girls5Eva," "Sex and the City," and "Anchorman."
Imagine Carrie Bradshaw wearing khakis on a date or Ron Burgundy anchoring the news in grey suit. You can’t, right? One of the reasons these characters are so memorable is their choice of outfits. Just by seeing what they wear, we learn so much about who they are, and how they view themselves.
We’ve collected stories1 about iconic outfits from Sex and the City, Anchorman, You’ve Got Mail, My So-Called Life and Girls5Eva to spotlight the work of one of the unsung heroes in film and TV: the costume designer.
Sarah Jessica Parker on Carrie Bradshaw’s Thousand-Layer Versace Dress in Paris
“Mille Feuille, I think that’s what Misha [Mikhail Baryshnikov, who portrayed Carrie’s Season 6 love interest Aleksandr Petrovsky] calls it. It’s a thousand layers and it references that French pastry. That dress is a Versace dress, which doesn’t really look like a Versace dress.
We had it in a fitting and my guess is that I was like, ‘Just let me put it on.’ Pat [Fields] and I and Molly [Rogers, Fields’ second-in-command], who played a huge role in the fittings, we were like [imitating Pat Fields’ voice], ‘You’re moving to a new place, what are you going to do?’ and I was like, ‘I know but it’s nuts.’
At that point we were shooting the fittings to show [showrunner] Michael [Patrick King] … He was like, ‘No, you’re not going to show up on the set in that.’ It was always like a thing. We really had to have really good arguments. It was like going in front of the Supreme Court. You’ve really got to have an excellent argument. We were like, ‘We don’t have any argument for this. It’s just the dream.’ It’s just everything she thinks she’s running from and everything she thinks she’s running towards, it’s ridiculous and too much. And it’s not even a person who she is; that is what she becomes in Aleksander’s presence. She loses her most true self, which she’s willing to sacrifice … she leaves the most fundamental parts of her nature. So, that dress was like, ‘I can be this thing.’ And [King] bought it. He was like, ‘Do it.’ We had to have four people help. I can carry anything, and I don’t need help with anything, but it was so heavy.” —as told to Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Debra McGuire on Fighting for Ron Burgundy’s Trademark Burgundy Suit
When Debra McGuire received the script for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, the veteran costume designer (Friends, Freaks and Geeks) knew one thing above all: obviously, Ron Burgundy, the obnoxious blowhard newscaster played by Will Ferrell, would have to be dressed in a burgundy suit.
She called Ferrell in for a fitting (the actor already had begun growing his trademark mustache), took photos of him in the suit, and sent them off to director Adam McKay. This was a slam dunk. So McGuire was shocked to discover that McKay wanted to nix the burgundy suit. “His name is Ron Burgundy!” McGuire told McKay. “He has to be in a burgundy suit!” But McKay could not be moved, believing that it was too obvious a joke.
All McKay would agree to was to film an initial sequence, in which Ron and the News Channel 4 team shoot a station promo, with both the burgundy suit and a brown suit that he preferred for the character. Ron would burst through a billboard clad in both brown and burgundy, and they would assess the results.
After the day’s shoot, McKay studied the dailies and came around. “You’re right,” McKay told McGuire and her colleague Joseph Mastrolia. “I’m really feeling it. It’s Ron Burgundy. He struts with confidence in that burgundy suit.”
Anchorman is a silly movie with lasting power, and part of its ongoing resonance stems from the careful attention McGuire gave to every bit of the movie’s fashion. Studying Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs and old episodes of shows like Barney Miller, McGuire was looking to channel an eternal 1970s look while also giving each character a hidden meaning trapped in the folds of their clothing.
We may or may not actively realize the message of Anchorman’s clothing as we laugh, but McGuire is telling us a story with each costume change. Thank God Adam McKay finally approved the burgundy suit. —Saul Austerlitz
Albert Wolsky on Channeling Audrey Hepburn for Kathleen Kelly’s Urban Uniform
Decades before Meg Ryan Fall went viral, Albert Wolsky was sifting through New York City clothing boutiques and fabric stores for inspiration. Nora Ephron had hired Wolsky, a two-time Oscar winner, to dress Meg as a twee bookseller in her 1998 rom-com You've Got Mail. He wanted Meg to channel Audrey Hepburn circa Funny Face, where Audrey donned a plain black turtleneck underneath a sleeveless, shapeless tweed jumper. (It had pockets!)
“She was as close as you could get to someone who was interesting and quirky and smart,” Nora once said of Audrey in that film. “You saw her in that bookstore, in Funny Face, in that little black turtleneck sweater, and it was the most compelling article of clothing anyone wore in a movie when I was growing up.”
With Audrey in mind, Wolsky created Kathleen Kelly's urban uniform: a minimalist jumper-and-turtleneck combination.
“I didn't want it to be prim,” he told me back in 2015. “That was not the intent. But I wanted it to be fresh and to look like she works in New York, in a bookstore.”
He noted, “I prefer to go to the market. I ignore brands. People say, ‘Who's this?’ ‘Who's that?’ Which is, you know, the favorite question. And I don't even know because I haven't paid attention. ... Particularly in [Kathleen’s] line, she had no money. She wasn't that rich. She was struggling with her bookstore. Why would she be in Armani?” — Erin Carlson
Matthew Hemesath on Creating Girls5Eva’s Glittery Western Ensemble
At the start of Season 3, Girls5Eva are performing at a bar in Fort Worth, Texas as part of their comeback tour.
“It’s one of my favorite scenes we did. It was the season kickoff, so it had to be splashy. One of the important things to the showrunner Meredith Scardino is that she didn’t want the women to look too polished because they are still pulling themselves together and they don’t really have money. She wanted everything to be kind of scrappy and thrown together. I thought with that scene we had to take a little license away even more from reality than usual, than their reality. We just needed something really fabulous to start the season. So, we decided they raided Gloria’s 401k in order to make this splashy entrance into Fort Worth. A lot of those clothes were store bought that we augmented or added to, which is what the characters would have done.
I do love how they each have such a strong personal character. To me, it was ‘What would each of these women think people in Texas wear?’ Rhinestone fringe on everything! For Gloria, that was kind of an Elvis moment. We made that suit for her, and during [Paula Pell’s] first fitting, she said. “Wow, I kind of feel like Elvis.” And I said, “You figured it out. That was my style inspiration for that outfit for her.”
On designing Wickie’s (Renee Elise Goldberry) outrageous, scene-stealing looks:
If I were a drag queen, I would be her. That would be a part of me living out on stage through her. If I don’t have a little anxiety when I look at her outfits, then I haven’t gone far enough. Every day when she walks on set she gets an audible laugh or applause from the crew. Even before the cameras roll, I know I have done a good job. —as told to Kirthana Ramisetti
Patrick Norris on the Real-Life Inspirations for the My So-Called Life ‘90s Grunge Aesthetic
Patrick Norris, who would go on to become a prolific director of teen television shows like Dawson’s Creek, The O.C., and Gossip Girl, signed on as the My So-Called Life costume designer and pulled inspiration from the grunge era. He had always been fascinated by album covers from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s and he kept those images in the back of his mind as he shopped on Melrose Avenue, a mecca at the time for Doc Martens and up-and-coming designers.
Along the way, he met a young fashion designer named Tommy Hilfiger who had recently opened his first store on Rodeo Drive. Hilfiger was just starting to dress stars like Snoop Dogg and was making a name for himself with his rugby polo shirts.
“God, give me some of that stuff, man,” Norris remembers saying to Hilfiger, loading up on the pieces and bringing them all back to his warehouse for the character of Brian Krakow.
Norris decided he was going to dress both Jordan and Angela in soft, muted plaids and plenty of layers. One day, when he spotted Jared Leto wearing a black ribbon-like necklace off set, he exclaimed: “Dude, you’ve got to wear that!” The small, signature piece of jewelry would make it into every episode of the show.
When it came to Rickie, Norris took inspiration from Prince and Jimi Hendrix. He dressed the young actor in bold colors that popped — a pink linen button-down shirt with a bright checkered vest, a maroon plaid button-down paired with a sunshine yellow tee. “I wanted you to look at him and go, ‘Wow this kid is really cool.’”
The network’s Office of Standards and Practices had a different take. They worried that Rickie was too “effeminate.” He shouldn’t be wearing eyeliner, someone told the show's creator Winnie Holzman on the phone, and he definitely shouldn't be hanging out in the girls’ bathroom.
Holzman was being backed into a tight corner, and she scrambled to get out. “Look, Michael Jackson was just on Oprah, it was probably her highest-rated show and he was wearing eyeliner, looking feminine, looking beautiful,” she said.
Then, she referenced The Crying Game, a film that had recently nabbed a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award and an Academy Award, in which a man falls in love with a trans woman. If there could be a trans character “starring in a movie [with] people falling at her feet,” Holzman argued, “this is not going to shock anybody.” Standards and Practices backed off. — Thea Glassman
The Ministry Recommends…
Jennifer recommends romcoms: I'm going meta and recommending our excellent list of great American romantic comedies by Saul Austerlitz and Erin Carlson. My partner and I have been working our way through the ones we haven't seen and have been having a great time ignoring modern life while living in a world of screwball dialogue and mid-Atlantic accents, Greta Garbo and Barbara Stanwyck, jewel thefts in Paris and card swindles on cruise ships. The Lady Eve, in particular, is one of my new favorite movies of all time, with many genuine laugh-out-loud moments and Stanwyck as the smartest, prettiest, most charming sociopath you can imagine.
Kirthana recommends Taskmaster: My tactic for ignoring modern life is the long-running British game show Taskmaster, in which comedians compete in a series of inventive but very weird challenges. Not only is laugh-out-loud funny but is also the rare game show that rewards creative problem solving.
The entire series is available on YouTube, and a good entry point for newcomers is Season 16, since one of the comedians is former Great British Baking Show host Sue Perkins. And now is an excellent time to start watching, as the upcoming Season 19 will include the first-ever American contestant: Jason Mantzoukas. (If you’re familiar with him and the show, you understand that this is a truly sublime match.)
Saul recommends I’m Still Here: Walter Salles’ searching, poignant I’m Still Here was a surprise Best Picture nominee this week, and deserves a wider audience. The film stars Fernanda Torres as a woman struggling to keep her family together after her husband is kidnapped by the military during Brazil’s dictatorship. Most poignantly, the film’s coda features Torres’ own mother, acclaimed actress Fernanda Montenegro, playing an older version of Torres’ character, reuniting Montenegro with the director of her most famous film, Central Station.
Erin recommends Black Doves: I just started watching Black Doves, the newish Netflix series starring Keira Knightley as a spy-for-hire in seediest London. Her character, Helen Webb, also happens to be married to Britain's secretary of defense! I have always loved Keira in a corset, and now I love her in her grittiest role yet. (I would not want to meet Helen in a dark alley however.) (Editor’s note: If you’ve already completed the series, it also has a charming blooper reel.)
Thea recommends A Real Pain: I didn’t quite know what to expect when I clicked play on A Real Pain, a dramedy written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. What I got was a beautiful portrait of family, Judaism, Poland and the complicated journey of finding your roots. Both Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin deliver exceptional performances and you’ll laugh as much as feeling a deep, aching pain.
With the exception of Girls5Eva, these interviews are excerpted from or were conducted as part of the writer’s book about the film or television series. To see these books, visit our store at Bookshop.org.
This Anchorman tidbit is so good. How could he *not* wear burgundy???
What a fantastic article, thank you!💕 I love the tidbits of information about the wardrobes. Girls 5Evah is a hilarious show, and I’m a big fan of Anchorman.