Interview: Costume Designer Kasia Walicka Maimone on ‘The Gilded Age’

The Gilded Age is known for its intricate costumes (and hats!), and that’s thanks to costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone’s attention to detail. The artisan has been nominated for several awards for her work, including from this season and the episode You Don’t Even Like Opera, from her own guild at the CDG Awards.

Although our conversation over Zoom was short, the designer shared some fascinating insight into her work on the Julian Fellowes show. Not only did she talk about her journey to the project way back in season 1, but she also talked about the challenges of bringing the historical drama to life.

For Walicka Maimone, the conversations about coming on board to the show started with two specific creatives involved in the process. “And then I met with Michael Engler and with David Crockett, and we had wonderful conversation about what this material is and some of my ideas how to approach it. And with Michael Engler, we discovered that we share language that is very similar visually and that both of us go back deeply into the roots of theater in New York City. And also, then followed by life of many different projects and felt like we were a really good match for each other. And that’s how it started.”

Every aspect of The Gilded Age is immersive, and so much of that springs from the scripts and the words on the page. For Kasia Walicka Maimone, starting with those scripts is both an exceedingly interesting and challenging part of the costume design process. “I think that it’s always, the beginning of each process is very interesting and very challenging because the moment when you get the script of a sudden you are faced with this giant material that needs to be portrayed and visualized. There’s always this moment of excitement and discovery and sharing with the team of how this project is going to get visualized.” said Walicka Maimone.

At the very start of season 2 on The Gilded Age, the writers presented a challenge to Walicka-Maimone in the from of Easter Sunday services. As the audience, watching on screen as Bertha Russell gets news that she’s thwarted in her attempt to get a box at the Academy Of Music is elevated because of not only the fashion, but also the exquiste hats.

Kasia Walicka Maimone knew that was going to be a challenge when she saw the scripts. “For sure that the moment when I read the sequences of the Easter and realized the size of the Easter was definitely one of those moments that they’re like, “Oh, right off we go. This is going to be big and exciting and definitely challenging. I will need this incredible team that I’m working with, we’ll need to all put all of our enormous enthusiasm and experience into action to make it realize.” said Walicka Maimone.

The show is ambitious, and Walicka Maimone’s philosophy about costume design and how it supports the characters helps keep everything grounded. It’s a mix of collaboration and strict discipline. “I would say absolutely. First of all, it’s always driven by material, but what’s on the page. And after reading the script, I follow up with the discussions with Julian Fellowes or how he sees the characters, follow up with a discussion with the director or directors and discuss it with the production designer and directors of photography. “

“How are we going to visualize the world of each of the characters, each of the characters, making sure that each of the characters have their own individual language, that the costumes represent, the history, the personalities, that they work within the environments. And first of all, that they present the story. That’s very much, I would say very strict discipline to make sure that each of those characters have very different life portrayed in the representation of the costumes.” said the designer.

Walicka Maimone. is returning as costume designer for the third season of The Gilded Age, and we can’t wait to see what she spins up for the world.