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IN CONVERSATION WITH: MEREDITH MARKWORTH-POLLACK, COSTUME DESIGNER ON THE CW'S REIGN
Why did you decide to take a contemporary approach to the costumes in Reign?
My first phone call with the creators, director, and producers of Reign was two days before I jumped on a plane to Ireland to begin shooting the pilot.
Pretty much the first note they gave me was "Think of Gossip Girl meets Game of Thrones".
The network and producers wanted a contemporised look right from the beginning and it was up to me to come up with what that meant. It made sense because of the demographic of The CW - young women who are watching these shows for high fashion. They wanted the look of the show to feel attainable to the viewers. The girls watching should be able to create a Reign look on their own if they wanted to. I thought that was a smart move because TV has taken such a fashion forward approach lately and audiences are really paying attention to wardrobe. It was a very daunting task to achieve in the short two-week prep I had for the pilot. I pulled tears and created mood boards for each character and discussed the subtle and not so subtle contemporary nuances I would explore.
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What do you have to say to naysayers who cannot seem to see past the historical inaccuracy of the costumes?The thing that gets me is when critics have said we're undermining our viewers, that we think they wouldn't understand or comprehend the authentic costumes of the time. But that's not it at all. Our viewers are actually very smart and they understand what we are doing with the costumes. Some have dedicated blogs and Instagrams just to the subtle details of the costumes and compare them to paintings of Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine de Medici. It's really lovely.
Although sometimes I'll get a good laugh at how seriously people take the inaccuracies... as if I'm not doing this intentionally and instead am just throwing together pieces hoping they'll pass as 16th Century Elizabethan. What are your top three looks from the show so far?I loved Mary's (played by Adelaide Kane) coronation gown from this season. I was in LA at the time and found this beautiful red and gold floral tapestry fabric. I sent it to Toronto overnight to have the shop begin on the gown. It had a six-feet train and was really just stunning. There was also a gown I made for Mary in Season One that still really stands out to me. It was made for a scene where she was dancing with Thomas, the Prince of Portugal. It was a gold and black beaded Indian fabric that we made into a high necked bodice with detached sleeves. We made her a black tulle skirt so she could dance in it and brought in some of the tulle around her neck to create a ruff. It was such a nice nod to a similar bodice of the times, I love that. I also love Catherine's (played by Megan Follows) custom gowns we make with high detailed collars and cuffs. We find great metallics for her and I find Megan just wears them so well.
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Any interesting wardrobe malfunctions or behind-the-scene stories?I use quite a bit of vintage on Reign and I often dye old wedding gowns and alter them to work on the girls.
Many of these gowns are on their last leg of life. I think I've caused quite a few nervous breakdowns on set because the dresses basically fall apart while we're shooting. But they're so beautiful! We also make custom leather pants for all of our men and I think pretty much every man has split them open at some point. Between all of the horse riding and sword fighting, there have been some serious bums exposed.
Read the entire interview and look at more pictures at the
SOURCE || Other pics come from
Adelaide's instagram
