Caroline B. Marx (‘UnPrisoned’ costume designer) builds ‘subtle clues’ of character development into clothes [Exclusive Video Interview]
“The story itself is just so compelling… it’s all about healing,” shares Caroline B. Marx about what drew her to the new Hulu series “UnPrisoned,” which centers on a daughter attempting to reconcile with her father after his 17-year prison sentence. The costume designer appreciated that the show is “based on reality” — it draws inspiration from the life of creator Tracy McMillan — and that it is “socially relevant.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
Kerry Washington stars as Paige, a relationship therapist who welcomes her father Edwin (Delroy Lindo) into her home despite the effects his incarceration had on her as a child. Marx collaborated closely with the actress to pick the color palate of Paige’s fashion, which McMillan had described to her as “Minneapolis but by way of Brooklyn.” The creator conceived of Paige as a “hipster but she’s adulting now,” but Tracy herself “doesn’t wear color at all, she only likes black, white, and navy.” This proved to be “a hurdle at the beginning,” but as the costume designer shares, “Comedy is color, and that’s something I’ve learned from all of my years.”
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Tracy McMillan, ‘UnPrisoned’ creator
One of the standout aspects of “UnPrisoned” is how Paige’s younger self, played by Jordyn McIntosh, comments on the choices that adult Paige is making, all while wearing exact replicas of Washington’s costumes. Marx describers this recurring part of the show “a lot of fun but also quite challenging” because “everything either had to be cut down from adult size clothing, or we had to actually recreate the whole thing” for McIntosh. The shoes were particularly hard to replicate because “they don’t make children’s heels,” so the costume designer and her team had to “hand paint or recreate, embellish those shoes.”
Paige certainly seems to have inherited some of her fashion sense from her father. In the premiere, for example, audiences see Edwin visiting his old girlfriend Nadine (Brenda Strong) and trying on his old fur coat and jewelry. Marx shares, “Edwin is based on Tracy’s father, and she was generous enough to share many photographs of him, and he was always very dapper and very stylish and always was impeccable in the way he dressed.” Since Edwin has spent 17 years in prison, though, his clothes are all circa 2004, so the costume designer did research on styles from that year. Lindo also had important input into his character’s look: “He really wanted a dangly earring on his left ear,” recalls the costumer.
WATCH our exclusive interview with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, ‘UnPrisoned’ composers
The introduction of Edwin into Paige’s home has a big impact on her son, Finn (Faly Rakotohavana), especially in the way he dresses. As Marx explains, “You’ll see more color in the series in general as time progresses,” and she builds in “subtle clues” in her costumes that “people are becoming happier.” For Finn’s look, the costume designer “wanted to bring little bit of anime and manga into his t-shirt designs, and Faly absolutely loved it because he’s very into that himself.” She says with Edwin around, Finn “embraces more of himself, he becomes more of a whole person.”
Marx’s favorite moment of the season arrives in the third episode, “Are You My Mother Wound?,” in which Paige hosts a family dinner with Edwin, Finn, Nadine, and her foster family and that also includes a fantasy disco sequence. “We definitely played a little homage to ‘Saturday Night Fever’ with Edwin’s costume and the white suit, the black shirt… and also with Little Paige, [a] little ode to ‘Flash Dance’,” explains the designer. The costumer thinks the standout, “spectacular” look from the scene is Paige’s one-sleeve silver disco dress. In the sixth episode, “Nigrescence,” she also performed some period research to depict Edwin’s childhood in rural Alabama in the 1950s, looking up what patches the local sheriffs might have worn at that time. She calls that moving and harrowing installment “stunning.”
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