Costume designer Carol Case has worked on multiple seasons of the FX anthology series “Fargo,” but no matter what era the show is set in, her job remains pretty consistent.
“It’s the same method, and Noah Hawley, the showrunner, producer, writer and brains of the entire series, usually has a vision,” Case tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview as part of our Meet the Experts costume designers panel. “We all start from character work whatever the period – whether it was Season 2, which took place in the ‘50s, the ‘70s, or whether it’s this latest one, which is set in 2019. So it’s all based pretty much on character. And we sort of drill down on who these people are and where they are – because it’s such a specific locale.”
The new season of “Fargo,” which debuts later this year, is set in Minnesota and North Dakota in 2019 and focuses on a homemaker named Dot (played by Emmy nominee Juno Temple) whose mysterious past puts her in the crosshairs of a rogue sheriff (played by Emmy winner Jon Hamm). In creating the looks for both Dot and Hamm’s Roy Tillman, Case focused on the core of the characters’ beings.
“When we first meet Dot, she’s at a school function. So where Noah and I kind of went was we wanted her to be unnoticeable in the group. But she’s still our leading lady,” Case says. “So we have to be able to think back to, ‘Oh, that’s the lady in the plaid coat’ at the end. Juno is so great. She can wear a paper bag and be fabulous. But she was involved in getting Dot’s look right. So we ended up where Dot wears overalls, and she always wears a yellow cardigan. And you might notice that throughout the entire show. So that’s kind of her signature look. I think that the overalls are just a practical ‘mom’ look. She’s still young, she’s still kind of interested in fashion, but she’s not dressing for anybody but herself.”
While Dot wants to go unnoticed, however, Hamm’s sheriff is a flamboyant maverick – and he stands out whether riding a horse through an idyllic landscape or having a cup of coffee at a local diner.
“For Jon, we started with the image of the Marlboro Man from the cigarette ads – and even the fact that they’re cigarette ads, it kind of says a lot about who he is, right?” Case says. “ You don’t want to hate him right from the beginning. So I think we just wanted him to be believable.”
Like Temple, Hamm was very much into the character’s wardrobe choices. “You’ll notice he’s wearing all the right stuff,” Case says of the lead actor. “He didn’t shy away from the giant belt buckle. He didn’t try to shy away from the hat. He was right into it. And that helped a lot.”
Hamm’s look as a local sheriff also stands in sharp contrast to some of the other law enforcement figures on the show, many of whom dress like law enforcement figures are expected to dress – and not like cowboys.
“Sheriff Roy is a maverick, right?” Case says. “So uniforms aren’t his world. He’s like, ‘I’ll wear whatever I feel like when I feel like it.’ So it ended up, strangely, a little bit of a uniform because he always wears that sheepskin jacket. It’s just of his own making.”
New episodes of “Fargo” debut on November 21.
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