If the drama of HBO’s The Gilded Age doesn’t knock the wind out of you, Kasia Walicka-Maimone’s costumes will. It’s impossible to fathom of the costume designer even gets all of these pieces completed considering the Julian Fellowes drama has one of the biggest casts in the Drama Series conversation, and, it seems, every character has at least five costume changes per episode. As the sophomore season is more assured and familiar with itself, it was able to introduce new characters into this world, and Walicka-Maimone’s stunning additions are driven by the arcs of each person desperate to make a name for themselves in this high society.
You will know that you are obsessed with costumes when you see the opening sequence of the second season. As everyone readies themselves for Easter celebrations, hat boxes aplenty are opened to debut the elaborate headpieces for the occasion. It’s a moment that I told Walicka-Maimone felt as major as a new Avatar film. “There’s strength in that,” she says. “I can use that for season three.”
One of the biggest reveals of this new season is the return of Miss Turner, but she is now married and known as Mrs. Winterton. Her past, as Bertha Russell’s lady’s maid, is kept under wraps from her new husband, but it rattles the Russell household, especially since George never told his wife of Winterton’s failed attempt at seduction. As a servant in the Russell home, she had an eye for clothing but now she has the means to buy any piece of clothing she wants.
“I always respond to what is on the page first, and Julian Fellowes gave me a great character from the beginning,” Walicka-Maimone says. “It’s so potent. What we have to remember is that Miss Turner, before she becomes Mrs. Winterton, was the style advisor for Bertha Russell and she did her job well. She had good taste, so that was a way in. Some people are born with it, so I think she uses it to the max. When she becomes Mrs. Winterton, I think she selects things that are very conservative for the old guard but feminine and sexy in colors similar to Bertha. In all of this, I threw in ideas of Jackie O. I wanted to think about how she would use the luxury of those pale colors to tap into that inner elegance. She is purposely wearing things super high, but at the same time, it’s super sexy. Winterton takes all the traditional elements of Agnes and Ada, but mixes it with the palette of Bertha. That combination is lethal.”
When Laura Benanti’s Susan Blane arrives on the scene, Larry Russell offers his services as an architect after her elderly husband passes. She wants to revitalize her home in Newport, and we cannot help but wonder how bright she views her own outlook. Mrs. Blane quickly falls for the younger man, and she, no doubt, dresses differently in front of her new paramour than she did in front of her former husband. Does she like clothing that hugs her shape? Does she embrace the idea of showing off her figure. When Susan and Larry end their romance, she won’t let him enter her home, and she is wearing a floral dress with shades of purple. Walicka-Maimone reveals the specific name for this garment.
“I loved discovering her visually, and she is starved for love and starved for attention,” she says. “Susan Blane is at the height of her powers, as a woman, and she understands elegance and her femininity. I tried to create pieces for her that exuded that femininity in a classic way. And tasteful. Using those soft, seductive colors with that shape was all about finding the proportion. We spent an obsessive shape of that opening, and I took inspiration from historical piece and laid them onto Laura’s body. We always have names for dresses, and the one she is wearing when Susan and Larry break up is called Love Is Dead. I knew that it had to be a dress that is the most beautiful, and it had a sophisticated shape. It was like a rain of flowers, but, of course, flowers always die. I used purple in the flowers, because, at this time period, purple is the color of mourning. All the colors on The Gilded Age are coded.”
Ada Brooks did not expect to find love when she met Reverend Forte, but they begin a whirlwind romance that comes to a tragic end by the season’s end. On their first outing together, Cynthia Nixon’s Ada wears a stunning deep blue, a color we haven’t seen highlighted on Ada yet. A wide band crosses her stomach and the lapels feature greens and reds with a hat bringing out the shades of red in her hair. When Ada and Forte are wed, she wears a softer blue, but it echoes their first meeting together. The costume designer was eager and excited to embrace new colors that represent an awakening in this beloved character.
“For Ada’s arc, we really developed a lot with Michael Engler and, of course, Cynthia,” Walicka-Maimone says. “She is all about charity and things like the Salvation Army–she is a woman who can spend her life doing functions for the poor and education. In this season, we purposely wanted to use colors of the fall in all its glory. We didn’t want to view Ada as a spinster going towards the winter of her life but just the opposite. We wanted to celebrate her, so we used rusts and greens–very vibrant. Ada in love brings a whole new vocabulary, because we haven’t celebrated her softness or her femininity yet. There is youth that awakens in her, and the blue is almost like an ocean of options. The blue represents beauty and hope. Since something new is happening, I broke away from the blue that we used in season one since this is an entirely new feeling for the character. Combined with the gold [hues], it felt very festive, but we never question that it belongs to Ada. That dress was a reproduction of a historical piece that existed in history, and we got that blue as close as we could. We are not making a documentary but a story that is a reinvention of the period while staying the framework of the period. Season two felt a lot more relaxed–we learned a lot from season one to season two.”
The Gilded Age is streaming on Max.
