The Ryan Murphy Series "Hollywood," and its 1940s Costumes

Ryan Murphy's newest TV masterpiece is the Netflix show Hollywood. It centers around the TV and film industry in the 1940's, with aspiring actors and directors trying to make it big. It is almost a "what if" look at the industry, with fictionalized versions of well-known figures, like Rock Hudson.

Since the show is a period drama, the fashion and costumes were a big part of the series. Costume designers Lou Eyrich and Sarah Evelyn based the fashions on "golden age cinema". They used a color palette of golden browns, pinks, caramels, reds, greens, and purples. Evelyn and Eyrich call this palette "harvest tones". They also took references from famous 1940's icons and movies, like Woman Of The Year, Casablanca, The Red Shoes, The Killers, Gilda, and Gentleman's Agreement. "As we looked at the characters and made the tone board, we developed style icons for each of the characters", Evelyn says about their process. Evelyn and Eyrich also worked closely with the hair and makeup departments, to determine the looks. "If Ryan chose a specific hair color or wig", Evelyn said, "that would affect our work greatly".

Many of the costumes were custom made because, "1940s clothing is extremely difficult to find and generally very small", Evelyn explains. However, some of the pieces were bought from vendors who specialize in vintage clothing.

Several of the show's actors enjoyed their costumes, some even got attached to them. "We definitely had characters who got attached to their costumes and wanted to take stuff home", Evelyn says.

Report: Anna Bechtel