Thanks to one simple shirt, Lovecraft Country's dreamy wardrobe was born.
If you have been watched Misha Green's supernatural horror series on HBO, you know the show is no casual watch. The anthology series, which hones in on the supernatural experiences of a Black family in 1950s Jim Crow America, can be exciting, moving, puzzling and downright horrifying with each passing twist and turn. But, there is something about the show that won't make you want to cover your eyes—and that's the clothes.
With Dayna Pink at the helm of the costume design, the show—which just nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series-Drama—visually transports us back to the colorful, glamorous dress of the 1950s in fresh ways, all while against the nightmarish backdrop of the period.
"[I was] lucky enough that I didn't have to keep to the letter of exactly what that period was we had—because this is a fantasy in a way," Pink exclusively told E! News. "There's [a] fantastical element to it, so I got to add that with what I was doing."
Given the otherworldly plot, Pink could break the fashion rules of history. "I got to take the real silhouettes and the real pieces and then add fashion to that, so sometimes I would take a shape of something from that time and then build it out of a modern fabric," she explained. "The colors and the fabrics and the prints of that time maybe were a little different, so I got to mix it up, which was what was so creative and fun about doing the show." As Pink put it, she and her team got to "take this period and sort of stand it on its head."
"We have moments," Pink shared, "where we're like, 'Is that collar really '50s?' and I'd be like, 'I don't care. Is that collar amazing? Guess what—we're doing it'"
One fateful moment in particular unexpectedly set the tone for all the costumes to come. "The first piece that I found for the show was a T-shirt that was at Western Costume, which was Atticus' T-shirt that he wears when you first meet him," Pink recalled. "Everything about that T-shirt reads period. The color was soft and creamy and dreamy and beautiful and it was like, you knew that it wasn't a modern T-shirt by looking at it...I was like this is the show right here and it was a one simple T-shirt that I sprung the entire show off of."
Fans of the show joined Atticus (Jonathan Majors), Leti (Jurnee Smollett), Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku), Montrose (Michael K. Williams) and Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) on a truly terrifying ride—and now that the hit has received recognition from the HFPA, now is a perfect time to binge the show. Thanks to Pink's work, however, there's a fashion dream inside this nightmare.
For all the details on Lovecraft Country's standout costumes, keep scrolling!
This story was originally published on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020 at 12 p.m. PT.