Making Them Bold and Beautiful
The job of a costume designer is more than just putting pretty dresses on prettier people; it’s a juggling act. THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL’s Birgit Muller gets input from executive producer/head writer Bradley Bell as well as the actors, and takes into account body type, coloring and personal preferences. But Muller’s choices are also dictated by storyline. If a character is battling cancer (like Felicia), viewers won’t see her in reds and yellows. And, finally, each character has her own individual look.
•Phoebe (Mackenzie Mauzy)
“The newly grown-up Phoebe is lovely,” gushes Muller. “Mackenzie is such a beautiful girl, and she is so cute in whatever she wears. I keep it simple so as not to distract from her beautiful face and beautiful hair. I rarely use patterned fabrics. I think they distract from what’s going on in the story, they distract from the actor’s face. I keep her very simple, but young and in different colors. Obviously I have to go with also what the story is; she wore black for [Darla’s] recent funeral. I try to make her ‘conservative young.’ I don’t put her in anything ripped or really weird looking.”
•Felicia (Lesli Kay)
Bell specifically told Muller that Felicia was to have a very edgy look and be kept in dark colors. Even her ill-fated wedding was played in black. However, black often swallows details on-camera. “When the scenes are a little more serious, they don’t want accessories, they don’t want this, they don’t want that,” Muller recounts. “It’s hard to see definition in a black outfit on-camera. Brad didn’t want me to put her in brighter colors, so I put her in edgy things with trivets and studs — no buttons — and zippers, things draped in a certain way and cut out in a certain way.”
•Bridget (Ashley Jones)
“I use a lot of champagne on her, to show innocence,” explains Muller. “I’ve used off-red tones, a lot of pink and beige, because it softens her up a lot. Ashley likes to wear things that are form-fitting. She has a very nice figure and a very small waist.” Despite Muller’s emphasis on the character’s innocence, Bridget has already worn several wedding dresses. Muller’s favorite? “We called it ‘the bell dress,’ when she married Nick and the wedding got interrupted. The bodice was very tight through the hips and it had a lot of Swarovski crystals on it. That off-white dress was strapless and it was made to fit her because she is so small in the waist. Her measurements are just so tiny that there’s no way you can ever find anything for her.”
•Donna (Jennifer Gareis)
“We keep her on the ditzy side,” explains Muller. “When we started off with her, she just wore a black top with jeans because they didn’t want me to reveal her figure from the get-go. The first time we saw her figure she was modeling lingerie in the living room for Brooke and Nick, and you’re like ‘Oh, my God, this body….’ She’s very, very sexy. No matter what you put her in, she looks incredibly sexy. She has that Playboy Bunny look about her. She wears all sorts of things. You see her wearing an orange dress one day, which isn’t really a color that we use much on the show, then you see her wearing bright pink. She has a great body, and we put her in very fitted things.”
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