Grey gardens: there may be nothing more sartorially sacred in cinema than the fashion in the Maysles brothers' 1975 documentary gray gardens. For the upcoming HBO feature film, costume designer Catherine Thomas channeled big and little Edie—without copying them

Interview, March, 2009 by Tara Subkoff

CT: Yes! I'm sure you remember those black-andwhite graphic pants from the '50s. We also had a teal color that repeats for Little Edie from the early '50s on. And by the 1970s, the time of the Maysles's footage, the colors and patterns were really out there.

TS: So things really fell apart for them in the 1960s?

CT: I would say in the '50s, when Little Edie is forced to go back to Grey Gardens to live.

TS: There's a scene between Little Edie and Daniel Baldwin, who plays Julius Krug, her only true love, that is absolutely heartbreaking. Everything fell apart for both of them when their hearts were broken-which makes sense to me because I've been broken hearted ... I'm sure you have, too. It's almost like you decide to withdraw from life and stop caring and give up. It felt like both women just gave up at the same time, and so much of their psychology is revealed in the film by what they choose to put on. I think that's true in real life too. You can tell whether you're happy or not by what you put on your body.

CT: It's interesting that you brought up the scene with Daniel Baldwin, because Little Edie was wearing those black graphic-print capri pants. It was a struggle to get Drew to let her guard down enough to be minerable and it was a very specific choice to have her look so out of place in that hotel, compared to everyone else. Every actress has insecurities and sometimes you have to play off of them to get the appropriate effect. Of course, Drew hated me when we shot that! It would have been too easy to make her look fabulous ...

TS: In my mind that's the point that changed Little Edie. And then her hair starts falling out ... How did you construct the turbans?

CT: It involved playing with fabric and seeing how it draped. I truly think that's what Edie did, you know? She would wear something as a sweater vest and then the next day she would put it on her head. I have to tell you, the woman was a genius. After playing with those head wraps and realizing how many safety pins we needed to make them stay, it's incredible how she managed it. That's why, in the documentary, you always see her adjusting her turban.

TS: I liked the scene where Jaclde Kennedy visits. She drops her scarf before she leaves and Edie adopts it into her wardrobe.

CT: We took liberties. Who knows if Jackie ever dropped that scarf?. Probably not. But we thought the scarf was a great vehicle because there is an animosity between Jackie and Edie.

TS: You don't see Little Edie actually pocketing it.

CT: You never see that. I'm really amazed you noticed. It was a little inside secret we put in the movie.

TS: How involved were Drew and Jessica with the costumes? Did they have a lot of opinions?

CT: I think there are never too many opinions in a collaboration. Drew really trusted me and Michael to guide her. But I realized while I was working with her, "God, Drew loves clothes. She loves fashion ..." But she really let us give her the proper ammunition to get into the character of Little Edie.