Fabulous fashion of ‘Mrs. Maisel’ is more than just attire

NEW YORK >> Fans of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” know the show’s clothes deliver eye-popping color and to-die-for style, but they might not know the costumes represent more than 1950s couture. They also meticulously reflect each character’s mood and development.

Costume designer Donna Zakowska said she thought about how each character changed from the first season of the hit show to the second season, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video last month. Zakowska started out studying painting at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which instilled a “very strong response to color,” she said in a recent interview, and that influenced her approach in costume design. One of her first decisions was putting lead character Midge Maisel, played by Rachel Brosnahan, in a baby pink coat in the first season when she is married and seemingly happy.

“I do feel that color signals things to people and you know I don’t take it for granted,” Zakowska said. “I love doing it and I put a lot of effort into really working with the palette and working with the colors. It started with that pink coat, but that became sort of a characteristic of who Midge was when I first started.”

But when Midge’s husband leaves her, her character puts on different, darker colors.

Brosnahan said while the second season is full of “exceptional clothes,” the outfits aren’t just eye candy. Zakowska helps shape the narrative with her designs.

“She’s a storyteller. And she dives just as deeply, if not more deeply in some ways, than we do into these characters, into their arcs, into the stories, into the settings, into everything that came before and is yet to come.”

Zakowska said she leads a crew of at least 25 people on set to dress the principal players and the extras in hundreds of costume changes. She pays strict attention to detail, even for day players, who often wear 1950s outfits found in vintage stores or on the internet. But most of the clothes worn by the principal characters are designed by Zakowska.

Not all the clothes are fun to wear. Zakowska said one of the most important accessories on the show is the underwear — which had to be tight and supportive, even for the extras.

The second season provides much deeper insight into the characters, like Midge’s mother, Rose, who leaves her uptight life in Manhattan and takes off to Paris, which Zakowska relays in color and style.

Marin Hinkle, who plays Rose, said wearing the costumes helped her get into character.

“The first season Rose had a kind of muted quality,” Hinkle said. “And then by the second season they dressed me in these more vibrant colors and more youthful styles. And that dictates a kind of way you can be as a performer where you literally are putting something on and sort of 90 percent of the work is done.”