How PEN15’s Costume Designer Created Two Fashion Outcasts
In Hulu’s breakout dramedy, Melissa Walker’s expertly chosen wardrobe helps turn two adults into hopelessly awkward seventh graders.
While many of us would rather leave our memories of middle school buried in the past, costume designer Melissa Walker bravely revisited her awkward years while working on PEN15, the Hulu coming-of-age dramedy that has Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine—the show’s 31-year-old co-creators, executive producers, and stars—playing 13-year-old outcasts navigating seventh grade in the year 2000.
Walker couldn’t say no to the gig after viewing the pilot presentation Konkle and Erskine made to sell the series. “It was hilarious — the general concept of two women in their thirties playing 13-year-olds was so absurd,” the costume designer says.
But PEN15 was also a challenging gig, because Walker — along with the hair and makeup team — had to orchestrate physical transformations that would enable viewers to buy two grown women as teenagers. Walker did her part by outfitting Konkle and Erskine in the trends of the time — cropped polo shirts, “jeans that were so low waisted they had an inch-long zipper,” and matching monochromatic monstrosities that the stars wear to a nursing-home fashion show.
Magenta talked to Walker, who is currently at work on director Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob reboot, about sourcing the wardrobe for PEN15’s BFFs, creating two fashion outcasts, and the necessity of collaborating with actors.
Was it fun prepping for this job?
It was fun. We went through old yearbooks, and Anna’s and Maya’s parents sent photos of them back then. We were going through all of them and just reliving the horror of it all. We also ended up buying, like, 20 teen magazines from that era and taking the dumb little quizzes.
As awful as they are, I love the clothes. How did you source the wardrobe for the show’s leads?
We went on a massive thrifting spree, scouring L.A., and then we went nuts on eBay. Early ’90s and mid-’90s fashion has come back around, but this late ’90s silhouette in fashion is still pretty readily available because it’s caught in between not being on trend right now and not being old enough to be cool again and be desired. So we had a plethora of undesirable clothing when we did the show, and we were able to go strictly vintage.
Any particularly good finds?
That disgusting cargo skirt that unzips into three different levels was hilarious. Anna was walking around with her Walkman and her sandwiches in her pockets. It was pretty insane.
I know Anna and Maya had to strap down their breasts to play 13-year-olds, but they are also taller than most of the real adolescents who appear on the show. Did you have trouble finding clothes that fit them?
Yes and no. I mean, we were finding l.e.i. jeans and things that were in junior sizes of five, seven, and nine, so the girls were able to wear them.
How did you dress the character of Anna versus Maya?
Anna was a little more hip because her parents didn’t have the same restrictions as Maya’s. So Maya’s look ended up being a little younger — she was wearing a Care Bears sweatshirt on her first day of school. Then we tried to go a little looser with some of Maya’s clothes since some of them were hand-me-downs from Anna. But Anna’s clothes — we made things a little tighter, like she was thinking, Oh, my God, these are the cool jeans! And you don’t want to give up your favorite article of clothing even though you’re going through a growth spurt.
How did you make the best use of the trends of the late ’90s and the year 2000?
I had to translate how the popular girls absorbed trends and how the trends were mismanaged by Anna and Maya. Even at their first big dance, Anna and Maya shave their legs and think they look so cool, but they’re wearing strange pedal pushers, and all the popular girls are in purple dresses and have a theme. So it was about finding ways to keep Anna and Maya excluded.
Tell me about the early fittings. It must be so exciting to see the actors become the characters.
Oh, my God, the fittings. The first round of fittings that I had with the girls was so fun because Anna brought in her braces and Maya had her wig, and we got to do a full dress-up jamming out to Jock Jams and MTV Party to Go, and they instantly transformed and flipped right into character. Their posture changed, everything transformed, even in that first fitting.
In general, how closely do you work with actors on wardrobe?
An actor has to be involved in what they wear. You can’t assume they’re going to put something on, that it’s going to fit them, that they’re going to be comfortable in it, that they’re going to feel like it’s their character. They’re bringing this to life, too. This is a collaboration, and you can’t take that away from somebody. You can’t say, “This is what you’re wearing. Put it on.” There’s an ebb and flow, and everyone’s contribution is what makes things real.
Magenta is a publication of Huge.
