| Andromeda: Commonwealth Couture
By Don Lipper
posted: 02:28 pm ET
15 December 2000
|
Costume
designer Patricia Hargrave has a very tough job, putting chain mail on
Keith Hamilton Cobb. But for others it could be a dream to measure Kevin
Sorbo’s inseam. She tells SPACE.com’s Don Lipper how to dress -- for space
battles and Commonwealth-restoring success -- about finding a leather look
for Beka Valentine and how to stop Rommie’s constantly plunging neckline.
SPACE.com: Have you
been designing costumes from the beginning?
Patricia Hargrave: From
the third episode [filmed]. Which was the opening
episode. From the second and third episodes first, if that makes any
sense.
SPACE.com: When you
were first designing the look of the costumes, what sort of guidelines
did you have?
PH: "Futuristic."
The original guidelines were, "create something and let’s see if we can
all agree on it." A little bit of a military flavor and elements from everything.
SPACE.com: So how
do you create?
PH: It’s pretty open.
It was much more open in the beginning then it is now. Now that they have
kind of honed it down to a particular look that they like. It’s become,
as you probably will notice watching the shows, the cleaner look. "Less
is more" is my motto. I’m much happier with the direction that it’s going
now.
SPACE.com: Let’s talk
about the evolution of the signature uniform, which was the High Guard
uniform.
PH: Yeah, many debates
over that.
SPACE.com: So how
did that evolve?
PH: Well, it evolved
in the thinking of how military [dresses] today: a combat-type uniform
and a dress uniform. The burgundy being the dress uniform in the beginning.
But you’ll notice, as the season goes on, Dylan is only in his combat uniform,
with the exception of some flashbacks. They find that works better. It’s
less confusing, I think, to the audience as well. It’s much easier for
me because we know what Dylan is going to be wearing, we don’t have to
figure out if he is in an official capacity with superiors. He just is
always in combat mode. Ready for action.
SPACE.com: Now the
character of Andromeda has been having quite a
field day with her costumes. How has she evolved?
PH: Well, now we have
the Andromeda hologram, we have Andromeda AI and we have Rommie, so they
all three have a different look. So that a guy in the audience will be
able to differentiate between the three characters of Andromeda. But there
has been some debate over Rommie still looking like she’s in a uniform
as opposed to turning into a femme fatale, for lack of a better description.
SPACE.com: So is she
going out of uniform?
PH: No. She’s had
a few episodes where the opportunity was for her to be in a different costume
where she was dressed up on a prison
planet. But mostly she’s just in some kind of an interpretation of
her uniform.
SPACE.com: When I
spoke with Lexa [Doig who plays Andromeda] she said that the AI and the
hologram were going to be wearing a variation of the battleguard uniform.
PH: That’s right.
Next page: some new wrinkles
in the neckline debate
SPACE.com: In Star
Trek, as I’m sure you know, the Federation uniform evolved over a course
of not only the eight years of Next Generation, but DS9 and
the movies as well. Will there be a continual evolution of the Andromeda
look?
PH: I think so. We
are already modifying for next season.
SPACE.com: How so?
PH: Just modifying
Dylan’s uniform so that it’s a little more versatile. So he doesn’t have
to wear it completely done up, and he can wear it in a more relaxed fashion.
SPACE.com: But you
are not incorporating them this year?
PH: Well, we have
been, especially with Lexa's costumes. Hers have [been] modified on an
episode [by episode] basis actually. They keep that military [look] but
also [incorporate a] sexy element.
SPACE.com: So the
plunging necklines for the female costumes will continue?
PH: Yeah, but I’m
fighting hard to not have it so plunging. I find it distracting myself,
but that’s a male/female opinion perhaps.
SPACE.com: Lexa agrees
with you.
PH: Yes, I know she
does. So we are on the same team on that.
SPACE.com: Are other
members of the crew going to be adopting the High Guard uniforms?
PH: No, there was
some talk about it in the beginning. There were uniforms made for all of
the cast and, I think there was just one episode where we saw Trance in
a jacket, with her Trance outfit. I think that’s something that could rear
its head again next season, but it's nowhere in our last four episodes
that I am aware of now, so their character development is just going to
carry on where it is.
Next: painting Trance
SPACE.com: Are they
going to be increasing the crews so there will be more High Guard people?
Or is it going to pretty much stay at six?
PH: As far as I gather,
it’s the top six and our guest stars. The same formula.
SPACE.com: Trance's
costume has gone through some changes.
PH: Yes. Well, they
really like her in her catsuits. They're much easier for make up to deal
with as far as the time factor in shooting. Laura herself is much more
comfortable in it than the more exposed [costume]. But I did, for the next
episode coming, [give in to] a request to start showing some more skin
again. I’m not sure where’s that going, but we’re going to do a peekaboo
version of her catsuit so that they can see some more skin. We are going
to meet them halfway.
SPACE.com: So if it’s
a little peekaboo, does she have to spend as much time
in makeup?
PH: Yes because it’s
doing her stomach and her back and exposing those areas of her body. I
think in the beginning it was five hours of makeup, and they’ve got it
down to about 2-1/2 now.
SPACE.com: When they
paint each area do they just do those isolated areas or is it easier to
just spray-paint her entire torso?
PH: No, they usually
only really make her up to just inside the line of her costume. So in the
first episode when she pretty much didn’t have a whole lot on, she was
full body make up. Now it’s just her neck and shoulders and her hands and
her face.
Next page: which guest star
is coming back?
SPACE.com: What’s
fun for you to design now that you’ve done the hard work of getting the
look of the show down?
PH: The guest stars.
We’ve had some interesting episodes and been able to use elements from
different periods of history, just because of the nature of the planet
that they come from. We have one coming up with some water-breathing fish
people, so we had to do a costume that incorporated some water tanks that
they breathe through with gills on throats. It’s a good compilation with
the prosthetic people and figuring out how to do it so it’s as comfortable
as possible for the actors and logistically, time related for make up and
all of that. So, it’s had its challenges.
SPACE.com: If you
were to classify the different looks that the different people have, for
example, Gerentex, the Nightsider we see here on the pilot, I would call
him, I don’t know, early pimp.
PH: Or he’s Prince.
He’s Prince or Liberace. Now he’s a character that is coming back. And
he’s a good example of how now I get to modify that into something that’s
not quite so flamboyant which I’m happy about, because I think he was quite
over the top. And [I get to] modify his prosthetics as well so that he
might be facially more appealing. But he is a fabulous character; the actor,
and the actual character that he’s playing. So I think he’s going to be
threading through. We’ll see him coming, showing his head every once in
a while. [He's] coming in, I think, our second to last episode.
SPACE.com: And what
would you say Harper is?
PH: Well, he’s a surfer
mechanic dude.
SPACE.com: Okay. And
what would you call Tyr's costume?
PH: Oh gee, that’s
an answer that just rolls off the tip of my tongue. Um, sex god I think.
That’s
what happens in chain mail. He wears it well.
SPACE.com: And Beka?
How would you describe that?
PH: Well I like her
look now, better than in the beginning when she was a little bit fluffier.
She’s tough, she’s getting slightly more androgynous, and then we see how
[that happens]. You haven’t seen that on the screen yet though. And I like
the way her look is going. She’s like Ripley from Aliens. That’s
kind of the vein that she’s going towards. [She has] that tough, "don’t
screw with me, I can kick your ass" kind of attitude to the way that she
dresses.
SPACE.com: So is it
sort of a jumpsuit leather jacket type deal?
PH: Well, it’s tight
pants, sleeveless, showing off her arms, she’s been working out and is
looking pretty hot and showing it off a bit more, but not in the same manner
as Andromeda.
Next page: sex kittens and
why the show needs Magog fur
SPACE.com: And so
what kind of clothes can we look forward to on Rommie, how would you describe
that?
PH: Well, that’s where
the debate has come in with Rommie. She is a giant Barbie doll and the
powers that be had disagreements over the uniform, as opposed to her becoming
a fashion style. So we’ve done a couple of updates where she was very fashion-oriented,
and now everyone has sort of agreed that she should stay in some kind of
interpretation of a uniform. But her uniform as Rommie will be made out
of vinyl, or something shiny, you know, sexier. So that will be the sexier
side of the Andromeda character. But it will still have a uniform flavor
to it.
SPACE.com: And Trance's
catsuits. What would you call that?
PH: Well, it’s a catsuit
and she’s going to be in interpretations of that. She’s supposed to be
an acrobat, so she has to look like she move around and hang from her tail.
SPACE.com: So if Tyr
is the sex god, she is the sex kitten?
PH: Yes, I guess.
Oh, I could certainly see her getting quite a following with the younger
generation of males.
SPACE.com: Have there
been any costuming nightmares?
PH: Really, there
haven’t been any nightmares. The hardest thing [was Beka Valentine], because
nobody could really agree on what direction [to go]. She's been down a
rocky road, but I think now everybody seems happy. I’m happy, Lisa [Ryder]
is happy and I think she looks hot. So there will be more of that. And
then [Rev
Bem], well, he just is what he is. That’s really my only nightmare.
SPACE.com: Why?
PH: Because of his
costume.
SPACE.com: Isn't it
just a fur suit and a collar basically?
PH: The planet of
Magog is coming up and we cannot find any fur to make Magogs.
SPACE.com: Are the
PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] supermodels against
fake fur now?
PH: It seems so. None
of the suppliers have long-haired Magog-like fur. So that’s the only nightmare
in our department, is trying to find that fur.
SPACE.com: Why don’t
you just use long robes?
PH: Just long robes
with furry gloves. Right. What would happen?
SPACE.com: Well, you
work with the cinematographer to keep the Magog place really dark and scary
so you only sort of half see them. You hear them, and you see them scuttling
in and out of the light and darkness, but you basically have Brent doing
all the Magog work in his costume.
PH: I might steal
that idea.
SPACE.com: You're
welcome to it. Free of charge.
| 
