How do you make the most fashionable show on television even more fabulous? You take it to Broadway, of course! Only Murders in the Building has always featured costumes with bold color, texture, and character to spare. Think about Steve Martin’s hats or Martin Short’s dramatic scarves–everything Selena Gomez wears. For the third season, costume designer Dana Covarrubias embraced her theater roots for the most over-the-top costuming yet.
This third season is a treat for theatergoers and lovers of Broadway, but it was also an opportunity for Covarrubias to expand on the closets outside of The Arconia. A self-proclaimed theater nerd, Covarrubias was eager to dive in.
“I’m a theater kid through and through,” Covarrubias says. “And it’s funny, because when I got out of school, I just very quickly started working in film and television. I never got the chance to practice any of the theater skills that I really learned. When I say theater nerd, I mean one of my most cherished possessions was the Shakespearean lexicons. Being a theater nerd is why I love costuming so much.”
Meryl Streep’s Loretta is the kind of actor who studies every page and every line. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that she is also someone who cares about what she puts on her body. Loretta would think about how her characters button their tops or think about footwear. Streep’s character appears in a lot of red, but Covarrubias reveals that that was simply a happy accident.
“Loretta was inspired by some of my past theater professors, and I was thinking about how they would drape themselves in theater classrooms or blackboxes,” she says. “It’s always cold in there. It’s very character to have a a shawl like that–it’s like a babushka or a Russian-looking cardigan. I thought the scarf could be a nod to dressing up and how we use a scarf as, say, a dress, because a scarf can be anything. So I thought she might loves scarves since they can help her transform into anything she wanted to be. It’s a very actor-y mentality, I think.
We focused on that she knew she was playing this 1940s nanny, and we researched silhouettes of the time even though everything she wore was modern. Loretta would always research before she walked into the audition. The red wasn’t a conscious choice, but it felt very autumnal.”
Linda Emond’s Donna DeMeo fills a role that Covarrubias didn’t even know that Only Murders features every season. In the opening night scene, Donna’s black-and-white coat would make Cruella de Vil swoon, and her silhouettes are always just a bit extreme. The collars are wide and the waist is cinched tightly. There is always just a bit extra with Donna, and she’s stunning.
“When I talked to Linda before the fitting, we talked about where we were going,” Covarrubias says. “She wanted to make sure that Donna was a theater person. She didn’t want her to be too prissy or too Upper East Side. She has money and she dresses well, but she’s not taking shit from anyone–she means business. That’s where we started. Through our talks, we realized this season that we weren’t going to have a “Bunny” character anymore–every other season had a fabulous Upper West Side woman who wears furs and her expensive glasses with big jewelry and silk suits. After we read a few of the scripts, we realized that woman was Donna.
One of my favorite things about her costumes is that she couldn’t wear heels. Linda wanted to be in flats, but we wanted to be taller. We decided to put her in platforms which, if you remember, are like a loafer but has a really chunky size to it. Paired with everything else she was wearing, it almost gave her a modern Japanese feel. It felt very chic. I thought it looked so cool, and we found some cool Prada platforms.”
As with every season, there is a lot that I want to swipe, and now there are more costumes hanging backstage for me to rifle through. Oliver wears a black scarf with a gold skyline detail and Loretta’s yellow glasses would look good in my collection. Most of all, I want Oliver’s mustard, button-up in a scene backstage between him and Paul Rudd’s Ben Glenroy. Covarrubias knows exactly what she wants, and it’s not what you might expect.
“It’s like a yellow, suede-y moleskin,” she says, about the shirr that I am coveting. “For myself, I would have to say the Crab Men costumes. Those were the most fun to make. Talk about a labor of love. They’re so weird–I love them.”
Only Murders in the Building is streaming now on Hulu. Photos below are courtesy of Patrick Harbron/Hulu.
