Cory Stillman
Netflix’s Sirens was a surprising snub in the category for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series at this year’s Emmys, but the show still picked up four deserving nominations, including one for costume designer Caroline Duncan and her entire team’s incredible work on Molly Smith Metzler’s adaptation of her own 2011 play. Duncan was nominated alongside Sirens editor Catherine Haight and director Nicole Kassell, not to mention series star Meghann Fahy, whose collaboration Duncan particularly cherished throughout her time on the show.
“She is a remarkable actress and woman, and completely trusting in the design process,” Duncan says. “Her evolution as Devon made the fittings so much fun because they held such a story-driven metamorphosis in terms of the design.”
Indeed, Fahy’s arc as Devon DeWitt finds her occupying entirely different socioeconomic strata, wearing everything from ratty workout gear to elaborate gowns. This visual interrogation of class is largely what has made Sirens such a hit with audiences, carving out its own unique perspective in a growing landscape of films and TV shows examining status and wealth. Sirens cleverly splits the difference between incisive drama and heightened satire, which required a constant awareness of the thematic tradition in which the show was participating.
“We had to be visually fluent in all of the rules and cues that viewers love about stories about the rich, and then find ways to subvert them to bring comedy and eerie other-worldliness to our design.”
Duncan is no stranger to that kind of subversion, having designed for genre films like Marry Me and Old, the latter of which shares some common DNA with Sirens. Both projects deal with issues of class in seemingly idyllic and remote locations, and both required Duncan to consider a kind of uniformity in her approach, albeit for very different reasons. While the former’s horror trappings ultimately required Duncan to consider how sand, saltwater, and blood would interact with the fabrics, Sirens demanded an entirely separate set of considerations from its costume designer.
“We needed to build a cohesive, homogeneously pastel world,” describes Duncan. “And then, using a conformity to that world, or a defiance of it, I could really support each character’s development.”
With the help of additional stars like Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Milly Alcock, and more, it is no wonder that the character development in Sirens is so refreshingly rich and complex. And as Duncan has immersed herself further and further into this world of high-end luxury, she has considered more and more opportunities to convey the complicated personalities of the elite through her thoughtful costume design.
“Sometimes, when you design a specific genre or class repeatedly, you can experience design fatigue, but that has definitely not been the case with the world of the elite, which I’m still excited about exploring through design,” Duncan says. “I would also love to design another story about this world of privilege, but set in a different time period, or that requires the builds and curation Sirens did. I don’t see our cultural interest in these characters diminishing!”
Check out my full conversation with costume designer Caroline Duncan below! She highlights several of her key styles and brands on Sirens, and shares further details on working with the show’s star-studded cast.
Hi Caroline! Can you walk us through your initial reaction when you heard you had been Emmy-nominated for your work on Sirens?
Hi Cory! I was so thrilled and honored when I heard we were nominated. Sirens was such an artistically fulfilling world to build, and also a complex design to straddle so many visual tones. I worked in tandem with such a talented team in my department, and so many incredible vendors who helped to bring our vision to life, so I was so moved and happy that my team’s hard work was acknowledged by the Academy members. Molly Smith-Metzler created the most incredible world for us to design, it was a great joy and privilege to bring her characters to life!
The show features quite a star-studded cast. What was the collaborative process like with such notable talent as Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon?
Working with this cast was phenomenal – Julianne and Kevin bring such a pedigree and elevation to the work in that they are so invested in character and story-telling, and see costume design as a key to unlocking their characters. Because the majority of Julianne’s costumes were built for her, she and I worked closely; I shared illustrations of all of my designs with her and, as she was filming another project while I was in prep, I shipped her swatches of the fabrics I was planning to build her costumes from to ensure the ivories and pastels worked beautifully on her skin tone. She is a designer’s dream collaborator, and our vision of how to bring Micaela to life through costume was entirely aligned. In our very first fitting she moved around the wardrobe space with such grace and ease in our gossamer gowns, and lustrous peignoir sets, and breathed immediate life into the designs. Kevin is an incredibly thoughtful partner to have as a designer and loved the marriage of quieter nostalgic “old-money” casual wear, as much as the bespoke suiting and tuxedo I built for him. I was so lucky to have such an incredible duo to build costumes for.
Meghann Fahy is also a deserving Emmy nominee for Sirens this year! How did you work with Meghann to convey her character Devon’s evolution over the course of the series?
Meghann is the BEST! She is a remarkable actress and woman, and completely trusting in the design process. Her evolution as Devon made the fittings so much fun because they held such a story-driven metamorphosis in terms of the design. She brought humor and physicality to her skimpy defiant all-black costume, which we first meet her in; she brought sensuality and confidence to the red satin ribbon dress Devon buys when she is feeling luxurious and charged at the Whaler Inn; she played into the satire and physical degradation of the custom Lilly Pulitzer inspired shift dresses Micaela forces her to wear; and she brought grace and a Goddess-like poise to the Gala gown we built for her, when Devon is nearly seduced by the island she so hates. Meghann and I really had fun in her makeover sequence in the 3rd episode; because she naturally has a physique and beauty that can lean editorial, I wanted to pair exaggerated and excessive accessories with each gown, to tip the tone from fashionable to humorous; she was always game and always found a way to use her costumes to enrich the scenes. She is a dream partner for any Costume Designer lucky enough to work with her! Her nomination is so deserved.
Sirens seems to be participating in a growing tradition of stories focused on wealthy elites. What do you believe is the appeal of these stories, and how has that changed your creative approach as a costume designer?
Our culture has always been obsessed with stories about the elite and 1%, but lately I think the appeal is in a darker exploration of class divisions between the haves and have-nots, which makes complete sense with where our country lies politically and economically. What’s creatively fun and challenging about this trend is showing not only the glittering world of a Jay Gatsby, but also its contrast; seeing this world critically, and darkly, through the lens of the outsider. Building the world of the elite, but through the eyes of someone who is not in its folds, requires more nuance and – in the case of Sirens – some darkly comedic design elements. For a project like Sirens we had to be visually fluent in all of the rules and cues that viewers love about stories about the rich, and then find ways to subvert them to bring comedy and eerie other-worldliness to our design.
Sirens is now part of a body of work of mine that explores the world of the elite and the tensions of our class system. Sometimes, when you design a specific genre or class repeatedly, you can experience design fatigue, but that has definitely not been the case with the world of the elite, which I’m still excited about exploring through design. I would also love to design another story about this world of privilege, but set in a different time period, or that requires the builds and curation Sirens did. I don’t see our cultural interest in these characters diminishing!
Your previous work on M. Night Shyamalan’s Old seems relevant to this new narrative focus as well. How did that film or any other previous credits prepare you for a show like Sirens?
Old was such a fun design challenge because in that film the characters are all trapped in one costume as their bodies rapidly age on a beach(!), so we had to really consider what costumes would work on a character when they are 35, and how does that same costume fall and fit still once they are 80? Or in the case of one of the characters, who is incredibly vain, I put her in something flamboyant, luxurious, and sexy because all of her power stemmed from her vanity, but then as her skin and body aged, her costume made her feel shame and mania. Old is a horror film, and the costumes in it had to survive many weeks of filming on a beach, the fabrics all had to be tested for sand and ocean elements as well as bloodwork, so the design also had to consider all of those elements. In approaching Sirens, I knew we needed to build a cohesive, homogeneously pastel world, and then, using a conformity to that world, or a defiance of it, I could really support each character’s development.
Considering the show’s emphasis on luxury and wealth, were there any brands or styles that proved particularly crucial to your storytelling in Sirens?
Sirens takes place on a fictional island, similar to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, so I wanted to pay homage to a lot of storied American designers and brands, who really created the preppy aesthetic. Ralph Lauren, Paul Stuart, Vineyard Vines, J. McLaughlin, J. Press, and of course Lilly Pulitzer, were the building blocks and reference for this world, especially when it came to the background, or to Ethan’s character, the poster-boy for American prep in a critter-embroidered Nantucket red sport coat. For the pieces of Micaela and Peter’s that were not built, I leaned more into luxury brands like Brunello Cuccinelli, The Row, and Zegna, in pale neutrals; their extreme affluence pushed them into a status above their circle, so we wanted them to feel outside of the rule book and coolly poised and easy in their style.
How does designing for a limited series like Sirens differ from your work on long-running series like The Affair or Royal Pains?
A limited series is a rare jewel! When you design a film, you approach the characters much as you would a play because their arc is delineated into clear acts, with a beginning, middle, and end. With a series, the joy and challenge of the design lies in its evolution; the design is never locked because the character is forever changing, and you often don’t know how the season or series will end! A limited series is a rare hybrid, and so it’s an amazing creative space to get to stretch and evolve a character in design. I find that with television, while you design specifically for the script and scene you are prepping, you also know you are going to live with a character for a long period, so you might fall in love with something for a character and not quite know when or where it will fit into their arc, but you buy or build it anyway knowing it likely will find its way to camera eventually. When you’re designing for a limited series or film, you know the costumes you’ll put on camera are finite; that definitely focuses your design in a different way.
It’s interesting you specifically mentioned The Affair and Royal Pains; both are shows that take place in communities that are, on the surface, similar to Sirens’ fictional moneyed island, but could not be more different series. I love getting to revisit these communities with such different perspectives and storylines; with Royal Pains, which was part of a “blue sky” TV era, everything was curated and bubbly and fashion-driven. The Affair was a dark psychological exploration, and the costumes were quiet and character-driven; even when set in the same town that an episode of Royal Pains was, those two visual languages were very far from one another. Sirens’ satirical tone required a completely new visual language for a similarly moneyed world. What was so wonderful about designing Sirens was the support we had from our showrunner Molly Smith-Metzler, and EPs to really build a world of our own, so we approached the design process as a hybrid of made-to-measure and sourcing from existing fashion.
Having collaborated with industry icons like Shyamalan and Ava DuVernay, are there any other filmmakers with whom you would like to work?
Currently I am designing a film for Robert Zemeckis, which is a dream unto itself, and I am so grateful for frequent collaborators like Ava and Night who are both true auteurs; I just finished designing a film with Night, which was our fifth project together! Working again-and-again with directors with whom you share a creative energy is a phenomenal gift as an artist. Because you asked, of course there are so many filmmakers I admire and with whom I would be honored to collaborate; in the last few years I have been particularly excited by how Emerald Fennell and Yorgos Lanthimos build character through costume design.
Keep up with Caroline Duncan on Instagram @caroduncan, and stream ‘Sirens’ on Netflix today!
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