After EW‘s Style Hunter received more emails than we could count about the yellow dresses from this week’s episode of Glee, we thought we’d go straight to the source, Glee‘s costume designer, Lou Eyrich, for the answer. Eyrich talked to us about the outfits for the “Halo”/”Walking on Sunshine” mash up, her go-to shops for the show, and who her favorite character is to dress.
(By the way, to answer the many questions we got about Rachel and Quinn’s dresses: Rachel’s is by Shoshanna and Quinn’s is by Calvin Klein, but sadly, neither is available anymore.)
What was the style inspiration for the yellow dresses?
Rachel starts out with a line about wanting to contrast with the boys singing a song about the dark times. She wants sunshine and “Halo,” so that’s why we chose yellow. Our goal was to find ones that were flattering, easy to move in since they had kicks and jumps, and sweet, youthful, and happy. We could’ve just made them and had them all the same, but we liked that they each had their own character in their dress. Quinn’s was sweet and angelic, and Rachel’s was fun and youthful, and a little more prim. We actually added cap sleeves to Rachel’s dress to make it more youthful. Tina’s was Betsey Johnson but it was white, so we dyed it yellow. For Mercedes, we made hers because she looks really good in a halter and we couldn’t find what we wanted in the perfect yellow. Brittany’s was Kimchi Blue and Santana’s was BCBG Max Azria. This is the first time you’ve seen Santana not wearing her cheerleader uniform.
Which stores do you like to shop at for the show?
We shop at Urban Outfitters and Anthropolgie a lot!
Do you have favorite brands for each actor?
It’s more about where each character would shop. Quinn is very proper and sweet. Even though she’s a popular cheerleader, we’re playing it up like she has all the money and wears all the latest trends. We shop at Anthropolgie for her a lot because they have that cute, slightly vintage look.
Rachel has such a unique style. What’s the inspiration behind her look?
Originally, it was Tracy Flick from Election — very buttoned-down, preppy, obnoxious, squeaky clean, nerdy. But she’s got at least 12 costume changes each episode. That same look all the time just gets boring for the screen and for the actress to wear, so we spread it out a lot. We try to have her buttoned-up or wearing a nerdy sweater over a cute dress, like she doesn’t quite get it right. Or she takes that sweater and tucks it into the skirt and pairs it with knee highs and flats. She makes it her way, which is more quirky. The popular girls find a way to make it look cool, but Rachel makes it look nerdy. But it’s not old-school nerdy with thick glasses and pocket protectors. She thinks she’s taking a trend and making it cool, but she wears it wrong.
Do you have a favorite character to dress?
I was going to say Emma is the most fun, but that’s only because I personally love that style of clothing. (Check PopWatch next week for more with Eyrich on Emma’s fashion.) So, not really a favorite. It’s really fun and a challenge to keep each character separate in their own look. Tina is so much fun to dress. I love finding different goth-geek stuff without making her too cool since she is in the glee club.
Is there a character who’s difficult to dress?
It’s a little difficult with the jock look because there’s such little variety. I try to keep it really simple: Abercrombie, Gap, J. Crew, Urban Outfitters. They’re jocks and they’re not driven by fashion the way girls can be. They don’t really care how they look. Half the time they wear whatever they can get off the floor. Typical boys! We try to make it look real and not too catalogue or made for TV.
What’s your favorite episode so far?
“Preggers”! The whole thing just cracks me up.
Photo: Michael Yarish/Fox
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