Tiffany White Stanton ('Barry' costume designer): Contemporary costumes require 'more collaboration'

foreign [Music] Ruiz contributing editor at Gold Derby here with Tiffany white Stanton the costume designer on Berry and I wanted to ask you Tiffany because there is this I think unfortunate misconception that costume design really only comes into play you know when you're you know doing these big period pieces but it's just as crucial for uh a contemporary series if and sometimes even more so would you agree with that I definitely I know what it is looking like that um as if it isn't an entire team of people making it happen um but yes I mean I think um in some ways contemporary can be even more difficult um to to collaborate with because people have opinions on which jeans they wear and which tennis shoes they wear or which high heels they wear whereas in Period stuff they often will get in what they're told to do because of what the research is and what what uh historically makes sense so in some ways there's a lot more collaboration between the costume designer and the actors for contemporary uh contemporary clothing and so especially with this final season of Barry um you have all of the characters going through these different kind of iterations of themselves um on so many different levels and I just want to you know zero in on on some of what I think of the highlights necessary starting off with with Barry himself I mean how did you see his his look uh with the evolution of this last season well you know it's interesting because I mean we with with Bill or with Barry we had to um put him in a prison uniform um and so the first few episodes there wasn't a lot that I could do with that except for um we ended up making all of those prison costumes because they had to be to certain specifications because of where we were shooting and what the prison would allow um and so and nobody makes that well they do make them but it takes months and months to get which we didn't have that timeline so we ended up custom making all those prison uniforms um which is kind of a funny uh little side note about our season um but as far as the time Jump was concerned that's when we really start to see Barry um in in real close again and um you know it was important for us to think about even though it's an eight-year time Jump we didn't want to get into sort of like predicting what the trends of Silhouettes would be in the future because we didn't want to distract the audience too much so I really thought it should be very classic and um Bill really liked that idea so we kept with very classic Silhouettes that you know we see now but it's also you know very possible we would see it in in eight years and so then with him I really tried to imagine well what would Barry's mind go to which he grew up in the midwest so we really wanted to make him look like them the very typical conservative Midwest father who was a you know a good dad and part of the community so um that's why we went with the plaids and the jeans to really make him look um not like he would stand out too much but that he would fit right into a Midwestern landscape and it's I I find that hilarious especially considering that what Sally ends up wearing in the time Jump is in many ways completely far removed from who she has been through the whole series right I mean for her I really thought about um and and I really spoke with Sarah a lot about this she's such a great collaborator collaborator and she really liked the idea that like while she's at the restaurant she's playing a role you know she um she's playing a part and so she gets to kind of pick what that part is and then and you know a pill popping you know desperate um midwesterner who has like no you know no real goals in life that that seemed to to fit the role that she wanted to play and so we could do that at the restaurant and I loved the idea of black for her like she and she has the dark wig and it just all felt really um like felt sexy in a way that like uh you know Sally in La never really leaned into at all um and then when we see her at home she's you know in sweatpants and not really trying at all and just really not playing a role at all she really has kind of given up um as far as um you know her home life so I like to see her in those like disgusting gray sweatpants and ratty Ugg boots and things like that that um really showed that she wasn't even trying at all and and and yet that still com contrasts even even more nicely with with the final kind of Sally that we see the the the school Drama teacher right and that I really um wanted her to look like she finally fit in her own skin like she finally really was feeling herself she you know in some ways her dreams did come true that I mean she's not a well-known actress but she is a successful director and she is still in the theater which is where her heart always was the whole time so I we really wanted to dress her in things that made her look comfortable and confident um and functional and um so she really is putting her work on display and and not um you know the costumes wouldn't be on display it was really about what she was bringing to the table at the theater and at the school um I have to imagine that one of the Delights of this show is for for you from a costume standpoint is anything revolving around Hank of course um and and and I want to actually start with Gilmore Del Toro because okay that outfit just go with Guillermo or with yeah with with guillera with Guillermo okay so with Guillermo del Toro I really want I kind of liked this idea that of like cool gangster like pachico like 1930 sort of um Mexican gangster style so we went with like the long um the long duster coat and the chain and the hat and everything to just make him look like um um you know kind of like Zoot Suit old style gangster um and Guillermo was so game for it he loved it he thought it was such a fun uh fun idea and um you know he he always says that he has trouble finding hats that fit him so I was like I'm gonna make you a hat so we custom made that hat um and it it looked so brilliant and I just I thought it was so fun to kind of do a throwback gangster feel for him so unexpected for him and but that's I think one of the one of the joys of of the series is that you get to go into all of these different worlds um that still exist in kind of the same universe like you know Hank and the CH and the and the gangsters and all that kind of stuff have very distinctive looks and I'm curious as to how those looks have evolved over the course of the series you know it's funny this year we had so many gangs we kept every every script we were like there's another gang in here we had like um of course we had the chechens but we have the the Korean gang the Guatemalan gang um the um and then at the end we have fuchs's Raven gang we have the Gucci gang that's the NoHo the NoHo guy so there were so many different gangs in there which was so fun from a costume perspective to really try to you know pull them apart and see you know with what all of them would be wearing and so yeah I mean over the years it was really interesting because the Chechen gang you know started especially off in season one and season two remember like Barry was training those guys you know so they were all wearing you know they were all wearing jeans and old polo shirts and things like that and old um you know shirts that looked like they came from east Europe um and then by the end you know they're holding AK-47s and you know in suits and designer suits so it was really fun to take them from the beginning to to the end and of course I didn't do the first season um that was Audrey Fisher but she established the Chechen look and I thought it was so brilliant but it was really fun to play off of that and and take it forward to make them look like legit you know and what in their minds as gangsters is legit and they have to look fly like that is they have to drip so they're uh their version of of what a gangster is is really what is so fun about Barry is like obviously it's grounded in reality but there are these heightened moments that help with the humor and the help with that tell a story that is so you know Fantastical so I it was fun to get to do that in the costumes and and with with with Anthony Kerrigan as Hank uh what is I I assume that you work really closely with him in terms of Hank's look this Hank's look is always so different no matter what the environment is he he is [Music] you know he has ideas but he's also very open to ideas so it was really fun to work with him um we started you know I wanted to keep with him doing the polos um you know that he's known for of course um except for when he was in New Mexico we had to have a great uh the the rap and the and the Train the chain uh hats and sunglasses um that we thought would be really fun if he found that uh out shopping and was like look it's Incognito you know and put that on um but yeah so I wanted to keep him in the polos at first and then really make the transition into the suits um to really show that his business had gone legitimate and that's his version of a legitimate um what a businessman looks like is a suit but of course we couldn't just put him in like a Navy pinstripe it had to be you know a green and a purple and we would mix that with these shirts that we got from this brand called Mondo that kind of have like an Eastern European feel to it they don't feel quite like an American brand um and so we used a lot of that and they looked fantastic on him and then at the very end um I did want to put them back in the polo so with the white suit we put them back in the in a tight-fitting polo that had kind of like a Hawaiian print feel to it so it was still very bold um and still very Hank but it was kind of mixing those two worlds together that Stephen when Stephen Root and I spoke uh last week uh we talked a lot about what went into the look of the Raven um which is still to my mind one of the great reveals of of of the season um what was what was kind of your your role in in helping craft that look well you know the interesting thing is about I mean we we were a little bit pigeonholed in that um you know people leave prison with what they came in right so I was looking at the costume that he came in and he had that plaid shirt and he had like a it was like a corduroy jacket with like a a faux fur collar or whatever and I was like what are we gonna do with this how is he gonna look like the Raven and then I met with the makeup artist Corey who did all of his tattoos which he is just a phenomenal artist and uh incredible at what he does and he custom made all those tattoos so when he was showing me what his plan was for the tattoos I was like we have to just put them in a tank top so that you can see all of that you have to be able to see everything and so lucky enough that um one of the pieces that he had gone into prison with is that white tank top it was underneath his plaid shirt so we just stuck with that so we could really see all of those tattoos and that's how he came out and that's how he stayed and then we added the leather jacket at the end um you know just to kind of beef him up a little bit and make sure he looked really tough and strong um in those last frames and we we obviously have to talk about kusano because especially after again after the time Jump he comes back with like this kind of new age sort of like you know he spent time at a kibbetts in Israel um uh what went into some of those last looks for him well you know the thing is I was thinking about it and you know men of a certain age they stopped they stopped changing their style for the most part right so I I was thinking okay uh at kusano's age would he really like completely change his style and I was like no I think he would find the version over there that's like a little bit more relaxed and a little bit um you know little uh less stiff and you know like he could work with his hands and he could work in it so even though um he still has a four pocketed jacket it's like a very soft linen that's very flowy in Bohemian but it's still the same silhouette that he was wearing and then the same thing with the button-down shirts and um even the Plaid sort of at the ends when he dresses up to go meet Matt eiserson um that that was all sort of based off of what he would have worn before but just they're more beaten they're more used and they're they're softer materials and they're just a little bit more Bohemian feeling but then you know you mix it with the long hair and the beard and it really just became this whole different person but yeah his style I was trying to keep in line with what he used to wear but just a different version of what he used to wear so you know it's always interesting to look back on a show once it's it's over and your experience working on it and I'm curious you know it working with with Bill and Alec um and and Bill who directed all of these episodes what was your working relationship like with him and and and what do you remember most about it with Bill I mean I know everybody says it but truly the man is a genius he really he really is um he thinks like no other person I've ever met and um I do think that he he also thinks about all of the departments in a way that I've never met any other director where he he comes very prepared with his ideas he comes very prepared to set and so he he runs such an efficient set that um it is just the climate of that alone is so wonderful to be involved with but then he also is he you know he started off at improving so he is open to ideas he is open to chatting he likes the conversation so you know he he would tell me a few things that he really did want but a lot of times he let me bring stuff to the table and he would you know he'd be okay with it or he would say you know work with the actor on it and let me see it um you know that kind of thing so he was really open to a lot of things I mean he has a vision for sure and so so um the important key parts of the costume Vision he would let me know but for the most part he would he was very um collaborative and very uh he he allowed us to do so much and to bring so much to the table too which I I'm so grateful for I feel so lucky to have worked with him and I hope I can again sometime he he was really he was really amazing to work with well Tiffany congratulations on on a great uh final season of Barry um it's one of my favorite shows so um everybody go to goderby.com predictions for the Emmys and stay tuned for interviews with more contenders uh throughout mec's and Tiffany white Stanton thank you so much thank you thank you so much foreign