In just three episodes, HBO’s The Idol has already managed to cement itself as the most provocative and divisive show of the year. Swirling social media commentary can’t stop picking apart Lily-Rose Depp’s explicit scenes, Sam Levinson’s dark script, the show’s lurid cinematography and, most crucially, Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye’s character Tedros’ greasy rat-tail. The show paints a violent portrait of stardom; Jocelyn, its protagonist, lives a double-life. She’s both a fawned over pop girl and a ticking emotional time bomb waiting to explode.
Besides sex and music, the show uses fashion as another of its key creative languages. In the opening scene, Jocelyn is described as having the stature and beauty of a Hollywood starlet — say, Brigitte Bardot or Sharon Tate — while wearing a scarlet red silk robe with carefully-embroidered lace. She holds a French cigarette.
But Natasha Newman-Thomas, the show’s costume designer, sees Jocelyn as a true original: “[She’s] a new, true iconic pop star that isn’t necessarily derivative of anyone who has come before,” she says. “Part of what makes someone so iconic is their individuality.” All of Jocelyn’s looks – from her downtime wardrobe to her on-stage regalia – were “a really important element in creating the Jocelyn character.”
Natasha, a costume designer and wardrobe stylist whose work on music videos is prolific (she worked on Childish Gambino’s “This is America”, as well as with Weyes Blood, Adele and Future), started the show with what she calls a “mega fitting” for Abel, who also co-created the show: “I just brought in ten racks of clothes, maybe more to Abel’s house and he and Sam and I just kind of played dress up,” she says. Most of The Idol was shot in Abel’s own home in Los Angeles last summer. “I’d put looks together, he’d try them on, and we figured out what was working and what wasn’t and what direction we wanted to go with the characters. It was my dream day.”
Tedros’ attire in the show is reminiscent of the sordid characters of a Miami Vice-esque crime noir, only with much more grime and less suave. Jocelyn’s manager Chaim, played by Hank Azaria, has the suited silhouette of a paternal figure in the Soprano’s family. Co-manager Destiny, played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, makes business calls with sharp stiletto nails in a logomaniac Louis Vuitton bustier-strapped sweater. Meanwhile, Jennie Kim and Rachel Sennott – playing Dyanne, Jocelyn’s back-up dancer and Leia, her PA best friend respectively – occupy markedly different sartorial states to their boss. (Dyanne’s narrative suggests we’ll see a change in that shortly.) Working with Jennie of BLACKPINK fame, was a struggle owing to her schedule: “When we got her in we had to move fast,” Natasha says.
But dressing down powerhouse artists like these wasn’t a daunting assignment for Natasha. “I always recalled this Sam Smith [music video] I did the costumes for years ago,” she recalls. “I remember the way you have to stretch a shoestring budget because all the money goes toward the pop star. So, I took the same approach in designing their costumes by getting in the head of a music costume designer again.”
Lily-Rose Depp and Jennie are both ambassadors for Chanel; the fashion house delivered high-class accessories for Jocelyn to flaunt. “Chanel was super helpful because they sent us a lot of jewellery. We wanted to give her a couple of expensive everyday pieces of jewellery that say a lot about who she is and heightens her.”
Jocelyn is often seen draped in designer vintage, rather than brand new pieces (although she does dip into Valentino in episode three). That was a deliberate choice to mirror the starlet’s tragic story, reflective of old Hollywood. “In episode two, we sourced from scouts and she was wearing original Alexander McQueen bumster trousers, custom, contemporary Margiela gowns, and a lot of Jimmy Choo as casual wear”, Natasha says.
Jocelyn’s most showstopping look so far, though, is her music video outfit for “World Class Sinner/I’m A Freak”. Bleeding in her vertiginous heels, she’s sewn into a Nusi Quero metallic fluorescent breast plate, a beautiful, albeit restrictive piece. “Nusi Quero doesn’t create functional costume design for stage,” Natasha says, recalling the breakdown when the agony from Jocelyn’s clothes and shoes begin to show on the performer’s face. “That was a bit of art imitating life, in terms of the reality of the pain that could be felt in those multiple takes.”
It was during the shooting of those scenes last summer that the costume department’s most serendipitous moment occurred, connecting the character of Jocelyn to real life pop culture. Beyoncé dropped her Renaissance album cover; on it, she wore a Nusi Quero piece. “It’s funny,” Natasha recalls, “we shot [Jocelyn’s] music video scene before anyone knew when Beyonce’s album cover art was going to come out.”
Now officially halfway through, The Idol’s fashion continues to help build the world of these characters existing on a knife-edge, their garments foreshadowing what’s still to come. Natasha Newman-Thomas assures that the fashion will “evolve” according to the “power shifts” that take place in Jocelyn’s career and life behind closed doors. Let’s just hope we don’t see her with a rat tail any time soon.
