Creating looks for one of the most popular shows on television can come with a lot of pressure. And while not everyone has the guts, Euphoria costume designer Heidi Bivens has learned to trust hers fully.
"Going into a film or a television show in the very beginning, I often don't know what my approach is going to be," she exclusively told E! News. "It's something that I feel out intuitively."
That intuition—which she developed working as a stylist for fashion magazines and on movies like Mid90s and Spring Breakers—has steered her in the right direction, including towards her third Emmy nomination (one of 16 the HBO series received this year).
Nailing down the costumes viewers have grown to love has been a journey. Bivens explained that because each of the characters has their "own story aesthetically," for season one, she focused on the specifics of the characters' story arcs, like who they are, what they're going through, what they'd wear and why.
But after establishing these parameters (and seeing fans' excitement around the fashion), Bivens wondered if she could go bigger in season two. And that's exactly what she did.
"In season two, I definitely gave myself the license to just have more fun with it and be less academic about my approach," she shared, "and that was really fun and freeing in a way."
Bivens noted that for season one she primarily pulled from Los Angeles' costume houses, relying mainly on vintage. And while there's still plenty of vintage in season two (did you see the closet Alexa Demie's Maddy played dress up in?), Bivens explored more options, including working with well-known brands like Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu and discovering new ones too.
"Second season, Angelina Vitto was my ACD [assistant costume designer] and she has such a passion for youth culture, and street culture, and brands and knowing what all the Instagram brands are," she said. "So she was really able to delve into that and find brands that I had never heard of before whereas in season one I was doing a lot of that rabbit hole searching."
Don't ask about Bivens' vision for season three. She said she hasn't seen the script yet, which is her guidebook for the costuming. Collaboration with the cast also plays a major role—with Bivens sharing that "the success of the look of Maddy," for instance, "has just as much to do with Alexa as it does my costume department."
But if Euphoria's writer and director Sam Levinson ever wants to make a last-minute costume change, Bivens must be ready to pivot. She recalled switching gears for the season two episode where Zendaya's Rue runs off through the streets after her family has an intervention to address her drug use.
Bivens explained that she originally picked a jacket and long-sleeve T-shirt so Zendaya would be comfortable performing stunts, but on the day they filmed the scene Levinson decided he wanted Rue to wear short sleeves with no jacket.
"It really worked out in such a great way, and Sam as the director understood that by her wearing short sleeves—even though there were stunts to be done—that she would look more vulnerable," Bivens said. "And it's these little details that we're always trying to communicate so that it props up the narrative. And we were able to achieve that thankfully very quickly. But yeah, you never know what's going to happen."
Costume changes aren't the only thing that can strike at any moment—inspiration can too. Bivens revealed that she gets ideas from many aspects of her life—like walks down the street, fashion editorials, friends' looks and runway shows. She remembered browsing a Stella McCartney collection online when she spotted the pink dress Hunter Schafer's Jules wears to a carnival in season one.
"In that moment I saw it I said, 'That's Jules," she recalled. "And I printed it out and put it on my wall."
Bivens said Jules' costumes are her favorites because of the layering of different textures, colors and brands.
"I was taking vintage, mixing it with new pieces, mixing it with fashion but also with very functional clothes—whether it was a top that was a hiking top from [an] REI store to an actual tennis skirt," she said. "So I think that the way that young people who are excited about fashion who don't have a ton of money tend to dress is this sort of mishmash, like mashup of ideas. And I think that I was able to accomplish that with Jules."
And while fans can't steal any clothes from the characters' closets, Bivens —who is releasing a book called Euphoria Fashion later this year—is more than willing to lend her expertise.
"My advice would be to follow whatever brings you joy, even if that means trying something different or trying something new that's sort of outside of your normal way of dressing," she said. "I think there's no better time than the present to go for that, to try."