Move over, Lestat de Lioncourt ( Sam Reid ), a brand-new, unwavering showman, is in town with a wardrobe to match. In Season 2, thespian vampire Santiago ( Ben Daniels ) dresses the part on and off stage, upping the style stakes ( no pun intended ). The AMC version of the popular Anne Rice guide series adds another layer of style drama to the city of New Orleans, which was ripe for bold fashionable turns.
Costume artist told IndieWire, “We actually increased the theatricality of anything when they were in the theatre, but when they were out in the world—no matter where they were,” this coven was for a heightened reality. With a whopping 14 new vampires entering Louis ( Jacob Anderson ) and Claudia’s ( Delainey Hayles ) orbit, Cutshall individualized each by picking a style icon and drawing on the period they became vampires. For actress Estelle ( Esme Appleton ), it is a twisted spin on legendary French singer Édith Piaf that Cutshall made “a little more grotesque, a little more theatrical, a little more frightening”. Cutshall gives insight into the blood- sucking stage company headed by Armand ( Assad Zaman ) and how Claudia, Louis, and even Lestat fit in.
From the text, Cutshall ( who also designed Season 1 ) soon drew parallels between Santiago’s “leaping through the air and gravity” and Fred Astaire’s personal squabbles, top hat, and dress with feathers. The black, white, and black level manufacturing color informs Santiago’s appearance, with Cutshall turning to Vincent Price scary movies for inspiration. ” Glance at those wigs, there are so many levels of style fight, texture, print, and line, as well as all of these materials and materials”, she said. “There was an infinite number you may give him [Daniels], he was always get more. He is one of those who has the capacity to back everything.”
Santiago hangs onto his leading man standing behind in a collection of beautiful washing dresses, with “great names of drama” like Peter O’Toole, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier providing suave cues. “Every vampire has a variety of speed,” they say. “It’s their look when they’re on stage, backstage, and then another look when they’re out on the kill”, said Cutshall. The latter phrase, “where you see their real personalities more,” sees Santiago switching from capes to high-collar leather jackets.
Regular people struggled in the postwar years, but this is still Paris and there is a sense of put together. “You’d look at research from that time, and still, the people on the street have such panache, and they were so chic”, Cutshall explained. Claudia and Madeleine ( Roxane Duran ), who are both designers, “have a relationship because someone has something made for her by someone who sees her. When Claudia enters the Théâtre des Vampires for the first time, she is wearing the pink silk dress. “She couldn’t be more beautiful, she’s the most vibrant flower there”, Cutshall described.
Claudia has long wanted to belong, but she finally believes she has found her true self. To become a member of the coven, Claudia must ditch her fancy frock for a work smock, which is one of Cutshall’s favorite Claudia looks. “We were looking everywhere for these gigantic rubber galoshes from the 1940s that resembled Frankenstein boots,” said Cutshall. The custom-made smock for workwear was created in the Prague workroom, and it not only inspires glam, but it also shows how beautifully finished the costumes are painted.
It is a short-lived victory for the vampiress because Claudia’s debut onstage performance as Baby Lulu is even more childish than the sailor get-up from Season 1. “For her to work so hard and want it so badly to be accepted, and then be presented with the most extreme regression,” she said. It had to be heartbreaking”, said Cutshall. “Mon Bébé Aime Les Fenêtres” aka “My Baby Loves Windows” is a huge crowd- pleaser, condemning Claudia to wear the baby doll dress to end all baby doll dresses. Cutshall collaborated with the theater company that created the stage and projection elements to create the best possible version of this costume, which resulted in the bold aquamarine flourishes and strong black outline. The entire Baby Lulu stage play “smells like a young child’s play,” she said.
The dress was also created and painted in Prague, and Cutshall had to take into account how it would appear on stage and in the real world. After Armand punishes Claudia for a lackluster milestone performance, she must wear the costume everywhere. “We even had to do a version that felt like she’d been wearing it for 500 performances”, said Cutshall. “By the time you see her out with the sandwich board, it’s got a gray haze.”
Claudia’s dedicated fans also wear a version of Baby Lulu’s baby doll on the front row. “We gathered all of these different fabrics that could be dyed into that same color story,” said Cutshall, “and we were also required to paint this very crude, very homemade version of her dress.”
Vampires have long enthralled audiences as Lestat, in the role of Harlequin 150 years earlier, turned heads in a fanciful red, white, and blue ensemble. Cutshall describes Lestat’s “rockstar energy” that appealed to the “Merveilleuses” women who adopted “glamour gore” accessories like “little red bead guillotine necklaces” at the end of the French Revolution. About the shift that Lestat embraces, Cutshall notes that “people are very rebellious, showing their finery, and being very edgy with their silks.”
It is the opposite of Armand, whose minimalist tastes don’t change much across the centuries. “When we find him in 1795 if you think about the cut of those clothes, the shape on him is very open,” Cutshall says. “He has no predators. He is the most powerful among us. He even shows Lestat, ‘I’m more powerful than you.” Relaxed, elegant tailoring continues in the ’40s and present- day Dubai.
Cutshall had a memorable time shopping in Paris for Armand and Louis’ midcentury looks. She says, “I was able to get just the most incredible French workwear from them for Louis.” Louis plays a part in a different Parisian art scene while avoiding the overt theater kid energy. It turns out that” all the world’s a stage” even for vampires.