On this episode of Behind The Seams, Emmy-nominated costume designer Meagan McLaughlin-Luster tours her designs and walks through the process of creating the costumes for the film Lisa Frankenstein. The Emmy-nominated costume designer felt an instant connection to the script for Diablo Cody’s latest project. Between the campy, teenage horror-flick source material and late 1980s setting, McLaughlin-Luster saw so much of herself in the script, in some cases even using actual clothes that she wore during the ‘80s & ‘90s as part of the film.
Special thanks to The Southern Costume Company New Orleans: https://sccnola.com/
Special thanks to The Southern Costume Company New Orleans: https://sccnola.com/
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00:00It'll probably go in their archives.
00:01Someone on set said, well, what are you going to do with the dress, Megan?
00:05And the studio quickly piped in and said, it will stay, it will go to the studio.
00:10When it comes to TV and movies, no decision is left to chance.
00:14Behind every iconic character's wardrobe lies the deliberate work of a thoughtful costume designer.
00:19That much is clear in Diablo Cody's Lisa Frankenstein, a campy teen romance,
00:23where costume designer Megan McLaughlin Luster adds a dark touch to the nostalgic fashions of the late 80s.
00:30Hi, my name is Megan McLaughlin Luster, and I was the costume designer on Lisa Frankenstein.
00:39Before this, I think the most well-known thing that I designed was Cloverfield Lane.
00:44When we first met, Happy Death Day.
00:47It's hard to remember your resume as you're, like, being interviewed.
00:52The role of a costume designer has often been likened to that of a psychologist.
00:56The first thing that a costume designer does is just kind of dive deep into the person.
01:03What the characters are, where they came from, who they are.
01:06I'm an IP, intuitive person.
01:10And then you do research.
01:12Now we have the convenience of pulling from Google,
01:16but I'll still order, like, books from that period, Sears catalogs, magazines, teen bop,
01:23anything that will show the actual clothing instead of, like, what people think it is in their head.
01:30Director Zelda Williams stated that she was going for a sort of warped John Waters meets Nightmare on Elm Street version of the time period.
01:37Not your classic setting for a teen romance.
01:39Zelda was awesome.
01:40I love the ladies on this show.
01:42There were so many signs that this script was for me.
01:45And that has a lot to do with Diablo.
01:47I think that we're about the same age, if not the same age.
01:50Even the little things in that script, I was like, yes, yes, yes.
01:54Some of Lisa's costumes are straight out of my closet.
01:57Specifically, when she's sitting at the grave in that autumn button-down with the shorts.
02:03That was me, like, 100%.
02:05It brings you back to that time, because you grew up in that time.
02:08Oh, that's so cute.
02:11No matter how good a costume may look on a mannequin, costume designers have to ensure the people on screen fit in with their surroundings.
02:17Or, in some cases, make sure they stand out.
02:20It's important for me, as a costume designer, to coordinate with all of the departments.
02:26Zelda shows the color palette from this movie called Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.
02:31The red tones associated with Lisa's character can be seen throughout the whole movie.
02:35From the cinematography, to the production design, to McLaughlin Lester's wardrobe creations.
02:39I often went into the production designer's office to make sure that everything was going to work within the palette that was chosen.
02:49I highlight, I tag, I put little sticky notes, questions that I need to ask that I'm not clear on the direction of the writing, so that I get the vision.
03:02Are guys so simple that you just have to put on a pirate skeezer dress and suddenly they want to talk to you?
03:06There are definitely a lot of wardrobe pieces that were written into the script.
03:11The slutty pirate, the blossom hat, Taffy's jellies that she wears.
03:16100% written into the script, but the Nietzsche shirt was not. That was Zelda's idea.
03:21She wanted Michael to have the aura of an intellectual or being seen as an intellectual.
03:29I think it was a specific shirt and then we couldn't use it because we couldn't get cleared.
03:33So McLaughlin Lester designed and fabricated the shirt herself.
03:37A lot of the 80's stuff has graphics on it. Like the authentic vintage definitely has graphics on it.
03:43The clearance department had their work cut out for them.
03:47There were definitely different cliques. The jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, goths.
03:52For the party scene, I think we dressed 75 background actors.
03:56And the people that we had helping were amazing.
03:58They'll dress them and then they'll do a lineup.
04:00And then Jen and I'll have to walk through each person.
04:03We would pick our favorites that we wanted to be in the front.
04:07Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams drew inspiration from all sorts of 80's classics.
04:11Like John Hughes's Weird Science, Beetlejuice, and early 90's cult classic Death Becomes Her.
04:16I googled 1989 movies. Heathers, She's Driving Me Crazy, Bill and Ted.
04:21I'll even rewind scenes to just look at the background.
04:25They're not going to be exaggerated as much as the main characters.
04:30I will just pay attention to the background to make sure that we're not exaggerating what truly it is.
04:40Cole is definitely inspired by Johnny Depp and Benny and June, who ultimately is inspired by Buster Keaton.
04:49Famous for his physical comedy and deadpan expressions, Keaton was perfect for Creature,
04:53who, without the ability of speech, expresses himself through his body alone.
05:00He is definitely of a certain class. Definitely a gentleman. Still wants to be all properly put together.
05:06And he talked about that in our fittings. Once I put an outfit on, he would walk around the way he was going to walk around on set.
05:14Cole Sprouse even trained with a mime. That's right, mime. Lauren Eric Saum, to perfect his performance.
05:20His colors were a lot of moss, mud, earth tones, and black. I will use any excuse to put some money in green.
05:27This is what it looks like pristine in a costume shop. And then when it goes to set, this is what happens to it.
05:33This is what happens to it. We pick these lovely, luscious fabrics and it all goes haywire.
05:41The Violent Femmes t-shirt was written into the script. I was going to try an undershirt.
05:46It didn't really work out well. So we decided to do the sports coat. The sport coat was a better choice.
05:53He still needs something to make him feel appropriate to the time that his brain was in.
06:00So there are a lot of pajamas in this film. And originally I had Cole put on these pajamas.
06:06But there was a request to have this particular pajama because it was fashionable in the 80s for little girls.
06:12We thought it would be funny if Cole was wearing the nightgown and Lisa wore these.
06:18These have been my pajamas for 20 years. I don't sleep in them anymore. They just stay in my kit.
06:23It looks worn. Even if you buy something new, it can't look new.
06:27That's another thing that costume robes and costume departments have to do.
06:31Rubbing it down so it gets all pilly or, you know, dyeing it, teching it, so it's not that bright white.
06:37You have to know how to do all elements of your department.
06:41Do you like any other music?
06:44I have the cure.
06:47No, it's not that kind of cure.
06:50When we meet Lisa, Williams states, she's an extremely traumatized person whose grief
06:55has been treated like an inconvenience by the people around her.
06:58I don't think she's an outsider per se. Like, she might have felt like that,
07:02but she got along with people. I just thought she marched her own drum.
07:05I dressed her with my favorites.
07:08Esprit, Banana Republic, Benetton, and then Blossom. I mean, who didn't want to be Blossom?
07:13McLaughlin Lester dressed earlier scenes of Lisa with more conservative,
07:17lightly feminine clothes. Collars, button downs, and the like.
07:20I kept it kind of innocent. Once Creature comes, she goes on a catapult of self-discovery.
07:28Even though Creature is the one who literally gets remodeled throughout the movie,
07:32Lisa's own internal transformation is reflected through the evolution of her wardrobe.
07:37The thing that she wished for, which was for Creature to be alive, happened, and so it gave
07:42her this magic to become the person who she's always wanted to be.
07:46Falling in love with the Creature allows Lisa to literally embrace death, says Cody.
07:50He empowers her to express herself and go after what she wants, including revenge.
07:55Supposed to sort of look like a wedding dress. Creature's jacket, his original jacket,
08:00his Victorian jacket, had embossed roses on it. This has vines and flowers.
08:06So it was emulating Madonna. Every little girl in 1984, like, loved Madonna. And you didn't stop
08:13loving Madonna just because it was 1989. The second outfit that she wears as the new Lisa
08:19is a red and black buffalo check. That particular outfit was directly influenced from Winona Ryder
08:26and Heather's. McLaughlin Lester's most rewarding creation from the film is featured in the middle of
08:30a drug-fueled fever dream inspired by classic black and white cinema in which Lisa winds up in a
08:36two-dimensional beer themed Victorian ball gown. Usually you get a specialty costumer or artist
08:41and you get your seamstress to sew, which I did, and then I personally painted everything on this
08:47dress. I had this picture posted next to this big piece of canvas and I would just eye it. If I would
08:54have had more money I would have just like forgotten about it and like let somebody else do it, but because
08:58I did it, I did it myself and I'm very proud of that.
09:01Does he lunch on or off campus? Off. BK or White Castle? Neither. Does he have more of a basketball
09:07bod or a football bod? He doesn't play sports. He's cerebral. He's in a wheelchair. Lisa's ever perky
09:13stepsister Taffy is actually Diablo Cody's favorite character. Taffy is not the typical evil stepsister.
09:20She actually roots for Lisa and really tries to help her. Taffy is easy because she's popular. We
09:28would pick the cutest stuff for her. Again, my key brands, Esprit, Benetton, Banana Republic. We had to
09:34take all the pep and happy out of Taffy. You know, she's not that peppy cheerleader after events happen.
09:44And the easiest way to do that was a gray sweatshirt. She's in a state of shock, disbelief. She gets
09:50into the moody 90s girl. Oh, Lisa. The character of Janet, I had a very different avenue. Originally,
10:00I'd found this like material that had kittens on it. I was going to make scrubs out of that.
10:06Then I had a conversation with Carla. She had the whole nurse ratchet idea and then we just flipped.
10:11The plan was for Janet's wardrobe to reflect the tropical pastel-y production design of the house.
10:16The script calls for a ghoulish 80s living room straight out of the JCPenney Big Book.
10:21In the end, each piece of wardrobe selected was actually designed to make Janet stand out.
10:26And keeping it in the color palette, we also had to have the element of red
10:30in each one of the costumes. She has this outfit except the belt is red. The little stripe across
10:36her nurse's hat is red. And she's wearing red high top Reeboks, which were a must.
10:42I got these two images from Zelda and where she wanted to go with Janet. Once I had the conversation
10:49with Carla, we went in a completely different direction. Liza in real life is Filipino and she
10:56wanted to reference the fact I pulled up these reference photos of Filipino women. We amazingly
11:05found a dress from the 80s that had these big poofy sleeves. When she walked on set, she told me,
11:12Liza actually said, you know, we have dresses back in the Philippines like this. So that was like kind
11:18of like a secret like backstory of a character and she looked amazing.
11:25The main reason why I became a costume designer, I love history. I love digging in. It's almost like a
11:32treasure hunt. How would you know what somebody wears in 1847? You wouldn't. So you had to dig
11:37to find that knowledge. And once you found it, then you can create your own vision of that year.
11:43It combined fashion with history. And so it was ultimately perfect for me.
11:49You can talk to my lawyer. We really hope this goth phase ends soon.