Oy with the clothes!
After nearly a decade without fast-talk over coffee, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life finally premiered on Nov. 25, delivering four episodes of pop culture references, quirky town events and bright and shiny fashion, courtesy of our leading ladies.
"Shooting the whole thing was just an absolute treat," costume designer Brenda Maben, who worked on all seven seasons of the series' original run, told E! News of working on the Netflix revival. "Every day I woke up and I was like just, oh goody, I get to go to work today!"
Here, Maben takes viewers behind-the-scenes of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory's (Alexis Bledel) fashion in A Year in the Life, from the most important little black dress ever to Rory's one-of-a-kind accessory...Warning, spoilers ahead!
Spoiler alert!
Maben said they never discussed "anything traditional" when it came to the dress Lorelai would marry Luke in, and the black Kate Spade dress (with an Elie Tahari shrug over it) she wore was the only one they looked at. "The first option was non-traditional…it was an interesting choice," she explained. "She never goes with the flow, and that particular event It wasn't originally what she was going to wear for the occasion. It was just something she grabbed at the last minute. So it was very appropriate."
Of Luke and Lorelai's secret wedding, Maben gushed, "It was exactly the way it should've been," highlighting the dance sequence as particularly "amazing."
Did they ever consider having Luke wear his hat at the impromptu wedding? "It was discussed for a hot second," but ultimately, "No!"
One hat, however, did make it into the wedding. The hat Lorelai wears for a beat during the sequence? A total nod to creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, a noted hat aficionado.
Maben didn't change up Lorelai and Rory's go-to color palette too much from the original series, noting that "blue" is still her first choice.
"They really look good in blue. But there were a lot of other colors, too...just still bright. I didn't want to change that up too much. It's never been dull, it's always been bright and shiny, so I just kept with that." (Hello, colorful and fun "Summer" caftans!)
"I actually crocheted it myself," Maben revealed of the sun hat worn here by Rory "Summer."
"I told [Alexis] I wanted to do something fun, and would she mind if I crocheted her a hat, and she was like, ‘No, that's great!' So I did!"
While many series have had to hide leading ladies' pregnancies (Hi, Scandal using massive wraps, coats and even Tony Goldwyn to cover Kerry Washington's bump!), Maben said no tricks were needed for Bledel, who had given birth to her first child just before filming began on the revival.
"I was like, ‘Really? You just had a baby?!' Yeah, that's what I said. [Laughs.] Thank god for genetics! There was no anxiety fitting into the clothes, I just thought what I felt was appropriate and we agreed on it and she put it on, there were barely any alterations," Maben said. "It was a dream. She was a dream, just a dream."
A few of Maben's favorite looks of Lorelai's included a white Derek Lam blouse and the fun Stella McCartney animal print dress she wore in "Winter."
One note from Graham about Lorelai's revival looks? Less denim, a point Maben agreed with. "Lorelai did not wear a lot of jeans. That's kind of where her progression went," she explained. "She still had them, but she moved out of that realm, and into more of the next level."
Lorelai rocked a "Totes Y'All" bag from Reese Witherspoon's Draper James line, which Maben said was "perfect for ‘Summer.'"
Lorelai's Reese obsession didn't end with the bag either, as she decided to go on the Wild journey…but inspired by the book, not the movie, in "Fall." Maben said, "I liked the Wild sequence," adding that the animal-inspired beanie Lorelai wore was "perfect."
"That was my real go-to brand for Rory for that particular sequence," Maben said of the returning Rory's Burberry trench, which represented her new European lifestyle. "I definitely wanted to use Burberry because I felt it's recognizable and it's the stitch-fit...it was just the right thing to get for her."
For fans looking to recreate Rory's grown-up look, Maden suggested Maje and Anthropologie for the clothing, and Jamah, a high-end brand that manufactured her powder blue purse in the opening sequence. "It's almost like a brief case and I wanted to use that because it was made in America and I just felt that was very appropriate," she explained.
(Oh, Maden also highlighted this pink Guess coat of Lorelai's as one of her favorite revival pieces, and the blouse she's wearing underneath it was actually named the "Lorelai" blouse, which Maben "thought was appropriate!")
"When Rory was in Stars Hollow, she's going through all of her clothes…you do that when you go back home, especially if all these things are in a box. You want something familiar," Maben explained of Rory's hometown wardrobe. "So when she was in Stars Hollow, she dressed more like the old Rory dressed. We tried to find a couple of pieces that she wore [in the original series]."
"It was by Anthropologie, but it was just so right for her," Maben said of the much-discussed "lucky" dress of Rory's, which was also the costume designer's favorite look. "It was a shirt dress, it was very simple, but it just looked fantastic on her. That color, the shape of it, and I thought it showed off her face. It was a little bit more mature for her."
Like Graham, Bledel wanted to mature some of Rory's wardrobe a bit, with Maben saying, "With Alexis, she just thought more sophistication, and I totally agreed, from where she was when she left off. Amy was in agreeance. We were all on the same page. And what's so nice is it was short-hand because it was like the entire crew was back together again and so there weren't really any long discussions about what it should be because were all on the same track."
Melissa McCarthy's big return called for a special look, even if it was a smock. "Her smock was custom-made and I trimmed it in leather, because I felt like, you know, what are you doing to do with a smock?" Maben explained. "So I brought in some leather. I thought it was a nice little touch."
"The sweater that Keiko wears that has a big cup of coffee on it, that was hand-knitted…and I knitted the Rasta hat that [April] wears," Maden said.
"She was a lot looser," Maben said of the widowed matriarch, who moved away from her usual St. Johns-esque looks, though they did pull "a couple of old pieces" from the archives on the lot that she wore in the series' original run from 2000-07.
And while she happened to keep the same maid for once, a more "relaxed" Emily did change her wardrobe a bit. "We really wanted to take a small turn with Emily, because she was actually finding out who she really was, getting rid of all the old stuff, selling the house and moving on and starting anew," she said.
While Maben said Lorelai and Rory aren't "jewelry people" and GG was "never was a jewelry show," she revealed, "The one thing I did that was very consistent was Emily, she wore the same jewelry that she wore in the original show."
The Life and Death Brigade's big return in "Fall" made Maben "very happy" because the steam-punk look they rock is right up her alley. She revealed that Rory's coat was custom-made, because "it needed to be able to flow." And the werewolf masks Finn, Colin and Robert wore in the opening part of the scene were "just about the same masks" they wore in the original series.
Of the big tango dance number in the sequence, Maben said she had a "ball" with the dancers' looks. "We didn't want anything traditional, it was a non-traditional tango. And the costumes needed to have a little bit of a tango flair, but non-traditional. We went downtown and bought a load of dresses for all the dancers, cut them up, rearranged them and just had fun with it. It was great."
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