"Going into Studio 54, it's a subject that is near and dear to [director and executive producer] Daniel Minahan's heart and he knows it backwards and forwards," San Juan said. So she did her homework, reading up on the club's history and what it was really like, as opposed to the mythical version in so many people's minds. Including some of the people who were there!
"In what light did we want to tell that?" she recalled their thought process. "Are we looking at it through a misty Vaseline lens, rose-colored glasses, or are we looking at it gritty and raw, the cigarette-burned, and you know, cocaine-dusted version?"
Ultimately, Halston has it all. "So we found that note, I think, that was right for our show and kind of went full on," San Juan said. "Definitely a big part of Studio 54 is the characters and the regulars, that's a big backdrop." They cast people for the background as nods to some of the more identifiable personalities in the days of Andy Warhol, Diane Von Fürstenberg and Bianca Jagger in off-the-shoulder Halston atop a horse.
That being said, "a lot of people get it a little wrong because they think that everyone was in a beaded Liza jumpsuit," San Juan noted. "It was also people in T-shirts and jeans who just wore it well."
So, hundreds of extras were fitted to party like it was 1979, with an image of Diana Ross in jeans and a ripped tank top dancing at Studio 54 serving as a touchstone.
As San Juan reminded her team, "Don't forget the value of a tank top with no bra and a good pair of Z. Cavaricci jeans and a great pair of disco heels."