The Marvelous Mrs. Maiselcostume designer takes us inside the marvelous looks

“Everything with Midge starts with an accessory,” says her mother Rose (Marin Hinkle).

“These sort of elements really assert the character’s personality.

It’s always about putting your best foot forward and an optimism that runs in the character.”

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Midge Maisel is a walking late 1950s fashion plate in the new series fromGilmore Girlscreator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Let’s start with sketches

For Zakowska, the process began with an intense period of research.

“It usually came from periodicals or photographs.

Courtesy of Donna Zakowska

It’s an essential outfit to our introduction to the character.

“I see it as a journey,” she says of Midge’s wardrobe.

“The clothes help her through a journey and that was really the beginning moment for Midge.

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It’s sort of before everything slightly falls apart and it just made sense there.”

“There had to be a sort of toughness about that character without necessarily making any judgments on it.

Clothing has to create the drama for the characters and set up the relationships,” she says.

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I often would look at Audrey Hepburn.

“There was a tremendous amount of European influence in New York at that time,” Zakowska says.

There was a very strong intellectual, artistic, cultural movement… For Zakowska, this bedroom look was key to understanding Midge’s evolution.

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People didn’t sleep in t-shirts then.”

This is a huge moment for Midge’s character and how she defines herself through what she wears.

A cavalcade of outfits charts Midge’s relationship to the apartment.

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“The blue, actually, that’s one dress that I did find in a rental house.

“I always felt like this was Marie Antoinetteshe’s coming in like the queen and asserting herself.

It was a green wool versus a silk.

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It has colors that harken back to some of her other outfits…

When could I again say that Midge was in that state of mind?'”

I’d sort of be tracking her emotional strength or assertiveness or lack of in the colors.”

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Though she says the outfits still have a hint of Midge, such as pink buttons or bows.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maiselis currently streaming on Amazon.

Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios

Courtesy of Donna Zakowska