Clothes Make the Half-Man/Half-Woman
“It’s been complicated,” admits PASSIONS costume designer Diana Eden about dressing the show’s cross-dressing blackmailer. “It’s a very tricky costume. We had to create a silhouette that was feminine on one side, with a little waist and bosom, and then boxy and masculine on the other, and do it without showing skin.”
That meant reshaping Phillip Jeanmarie‘s (Vincent) body. “We started out putting him in a bra, which was quite hysterical,” Eden recalls with a laugh. “One side had to be stuffed and the other had to be cut away and removed. It was ‘invent as you go.’ ”
In fact, after the first outfit, the blackmailer had to have some work done. “The female side didn’t look different enough,” Eden explains. “We had to exaggerate the bust to make it look normal. In emphasizing the female side, I wanted to show cleavage, shoulder and arm, but we needed to cover every bit of skin so as not to give away the identity. That made it a big challenge.”
Another challenge was simply fitting the two silhouettes together. “Even the waistline was tough,” says Eden. “A man wears his pants lower than a woman. Then, in order to keep the female side fitted to the body, we had to secure it on the male side, under the costume. It was tricky to get things to come out in the right place. Our seamstress (Ysabel Opyd) is amazing. She worked with it.”
Then, of course, Jeanmarie had to be able to put the costume on — and take it off. “He couldn’t button up the front,” Eden pointedly notes. “There were so many complications and it’s a very uncomfortable costume to have to wear. Thank goodness Phillip’s such a professional. In addition to having stockings, high heels and bras on, the poor man had his face completely covered with a mask and a wig. It’s hot in there! He was such a good sport. He’s so easygoing and took it in stride.”
In fact, he even embraced his lady parts. “When we started working on the first costume, he asked to borrow the heels, so he could take them home and practice,” Eden reveals with a laugh. “We teased him like crazy.”
With Jeanmarie and the wardrobe crew keeping things fun, it ultimately got easier for all involved. “The first and third costumes were my favorites, but this last one was the easiest,” reveals Eden. “We’d figured out how to do it and make it work. I knew what the elements were and it wasn’t such a challenge to figure it all out.”
Now, however, Vincent has come out from behind his mask, so Eden and her team have some sorting to do. “If anyone wants half a jacket,” Eden offers, “we have a lot of half-costumes lying around!”
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