Since 2013, fans of the New York Times Bestselling The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat have waited for Edward Kelsey Moore’s endearing book to be brought to the screen. The wait is finally over and with a star-studded cast to boot! Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, and Uzo Aduba are set to bring Odette, Barbara Jean, and Clarice to life in Hulu’s adaptation. This story of true friendship spans decades. However, their bond is put to the test in what should be the happiest times of their lives. They face their most difficult trials together, but will their friendship endure?
Well, we can’t tell you the answer to that. We wouldn’t want to spoil anything. However, we can tell you they go through those trials in incredible style. This story isn’t just told by the characters; it’s told by their wardrobes as well. With fashions from the 1950s through the late ’90s, you’re in for a treat.
BGN interviewed costume designer Whitney Anne Adams via Zoom for the film The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat about how she started in costume design, how she managed dressing characters for three eras, and why costume design is so important.
How did you get started in costume design?
I’d been doing theater my whole life, but I didn’t think costume design was a career. I went to college for pre-med, and I was doing terribly in chemistry and calculus. My one fun class was intro to theater design, and I discovered costume design. I made a PowerPoint presentation to my parents about changing my major, and I couldn’t really describe why. I just could feel it.
There’s only a couple times in my life where I knew that it was the right answer without even having a true explanation. I switched my major within the first three weeks of college, and it’s been the greatest thing of my life. I was a huge cinephile as a teenager. Looking back now, it all fits together. Then, my first movie was The Great Gatsby, assisting Catherine Martin. Getting to have that experience and being on that set really solidified that this is what I want to spend my life doing.
How did your research, inspiration, and creativity interact to shape the costumes for the film?
My first step was reading the script and then the book for The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat several times, so I got a feel for all the characters. I put together a spreadsheet, and I pulled every visual reference from both. So I had that as my foundation for each character. I could pick and choose what worked for the story that we were telling. Then, I started on the research process, which involved getting things from literally everywhere. It was like gathering every visual reference in the world and then starting to sort them by character.
What was your approach to the challenge of reflecting fashion trends from the ’50s to the ’90s while maintaining a cohesive aesthetic?
I had four very distinct time periods to work within and a lot of research to do. I got contemporary catalogs, magazines, and books from each period. I watched a lot of movies from each era. I also love Flickr so much because so many people share their personal family albums publicly. I was able to get a ton of real-world, real people research because magazines and movies will only take you so far. So it was really important for me to get what people actually looked like. I got a lot of yearbooks from those eras so I could see the real people. Getting old yearbooks on eBay is kind of my favorite research tool.
How did you use their costumes to reflect the characters’ unique personalities and the evolution of their friendship over the decades?
The number one thing for me is making sure that they felt like a true trio. I didn’t want their costumes to match, but I wanted them to vibe with each other. So, I got every costume under the sun. We also built a lot of things, like Odette’s orange dress. Each scene has its own board where I put every photo from fittings. I made sure that all the actors felt good together and that their costumes felt cohesive, especially when they’re in the diner in the booth. I wanted them to feel like a team and like sisters, so it was figuring out their own personalities within that.
Clarice is the organized, straight shooter. Odette is fiery and wild. And then you have Barbara Jean coming from her mother’s funeral in her mother’s hand-me-downs. I took that and ran with it. Every piece is from a character perspective. I had to figure out where each piece came from, how they got it, how long they’ve had it, and where it was made. I answered all those questions for everything I put on their bodies.
What were the biggest challenges you faced while designing costumes for this film, and how did you overcome them?
We had a pretty short timeline. I had to cram four decades worth of research into two weeks, and it was just me. The filming was only 30 days, and we had a lot to pack into that time. We had 162 total principal costumes, and 67 of those were just our Supremes. That’s a lot of costumes for six actors. I had to go to LA, New York, and Atlanta.
We got costume rentals, went to every vintage shop in all of those cities, and searched the internet. We made a lot of costumes in house. Then we had to get all the clothes to Wilmington, North Carolina, because we were filming in a region that didn’t have much of anything. There’s one vintage store in town, Jess James and Company; they saved my butt several times. And then there’s telling the story across the decades and making sure the characters felt true to themselves as they got older. There’s a lot of spinning plates that you have to keep going.
How do you think the costumes enhance the storytelling in this film?
Costumes are such an important piece of the storytelling. You really need to see that they’re real people. It heightens everything that these characters are going through if they feel real to you and they feel grounded. Portraying them through all of their clothes and making them feel like the unique, interesting people that they are is so important to help get to those emotional places that the story needs to take you in. If they feel one note, don’t feel like they have depth, or don’t feel like real people, you’ve lost the audience.
The costumes will surely draw you in, and the story will make you stay. Grab your besties, some tissue, and your favorite snacks! The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat airs August 23, 2024, on Hulu.
What's Your Reaction?
