Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Revisited: The Office Holiday Special with Costume Designer, Carey Bennett

Transcript

Revisited: The Office Holiday Special with Costume Designer, Carey Bennett · The Art of Costume Podcast

0:06
Hello and welcome to the Art of Costume Podcast.
0:09
I'm your host, Spencer Williams, and thank you so much for
0:11
joining me for another revisited episode of the Art of Costume
0:16
Podcast. Hey costume nerds, I hope you're
0:19
all doing well and getting into the holiday wintery spirit.
0:27
So today we were supposed to release our The Wizard of Oz
0:30
episode, but unfortunately we are having some audio
0:34
difficulties with it. So I didn't want to put it out
0:37
today because it's going to torture your ears and I don't
0:42
want to do that to you. So instead, that episode is
0:46
being released next week on December 9th.
0:50
In the meantime, I don't want to leave you hanging.
0:52
So instead, we're actually going to take a trip down memory lane
0:55
and go back to Season 1 of what was then called The Art of
1:00
Costume Blog Cast. Don't ask.
1:03
It was a poor naming decision, but we had reasons.
1:06
But we won't get into that. But going back to Season 1, we
1:12
did a episode during the holidays that I am still proud
1:16
of to this day. While the audio might not have
1:19
been perfect and maybe we were still so new to this all, I was
1:23
really proud of the episode back then and still to this day as we
1:27
talked to costume designer Carrie Bennett about her work on
1:31
The Office. She designed costumes for the
1:35
first few seasons of The Office and because we did this episode
1:39
during the. Holidays.
1:40
We asked her specifically. About costumes from the holiday
1:45
episodes of The Office, because we figured it's probably a lot
1:49
to go through every single season that she did.
1:52
So we focus entirely on the holidays and still to this day,
1:56
I mean, it was just such a fun episode.
1:58
Talking about, for example, the famous dinner party scene with
2:03
Jan wearing the red, looking like the devil, talking about
2:09
Michael Scott's ties it. It was all so much fun.
2:13
And we even went on to do a project with Kerry Bennett as
2:18
well, where we raised money for a great 'cause as well as we
2:22
gave away some actual Dunder Mifflin robes, which was a lot
2:26
of fun. So I hope you'll enjoy this
2:29
revisited episode. It still brings me a lot of joy,
2:32
and I think you'll do the same for you.
2:35
Enjoy. And we will be back next week
2:38
with another episode of the Art of Costume podcast.
2:41
We're going to be talking about The Wizard of Oz.
2:44
Not too long after that, we'll be talking about My Fair Lady.
2:48
And then we have a season finale episode that I am just so
2:54
excited to get into with you all.
2:56
But I'm going to leave it there for now.
2:59
And of course, we have so many episodes of The Costume House
3:02
with Spencer Williams coming out as well.
3:05
So many great interviews I've already done that I'm excited to
3:07
share with you. Also be on the lookout for those
3:09
as well. With that, I hope you all enjoy.
3:16
Hi, I'm Dan who does all the magic behind the scenes.
3:19
I wanted to say thank you. And if you want to support the
3:21
show even farther, go to tpublic.com/user slash the Art
3:28
of Costume where you can buy a couple variations of our logo on
3:32
T-shirts, mugs and stickers. Also, be sure to leave a like
3:37
comment and subscribe. And if you're an audio listener,
3:40
leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast.
3:43
Now back to the show. So when I see this episode, I
4:03
like actually in reviewing this for this interview, I looked
4:06
back at this episode and I was like, oh, that tie's coming up.
4:09
And I was like, I'm like, let me just see how it reads and like,
4:13
I'm so grateful. Like you don't really get a good
4:15
look at it ever because he's always, he's so kinetic and
4:17
moving around, but it is so janky.
4:32
Hello and welcome to the Art of Costume blog Cast.
4:34
I'm Elizabeth Joy Glass. And I'm Spencer Williams.
4:38
What's up, Elizabeth? Nothing much, just getting into
4:41
the holiday spirit, putting out some decorations, baking baked
4:45
goods, all the fun stuff. Can you come and do mine?
4:49
I still have all my Halloween stuff up.
4:51
Yeah, sure. I'll just, we'll just get on a
4:53
Zoom one day and I'll be like, take that down, put that up, put
4:56
a Santa hat on that. That's actually all I do.
5:00
I'll just direct you. All I do is just put Santa hats
5:03
on, like things that don't need Santa hats, and then I'll take
5:06
like, you know, like that cotton they turn into snow.
5:08
I put that on everything. It just makes me feel, you know,
5:11
it doesn't snow in Los Angeles, so I just like to make it feel.
5:14
Some white fluffiness to brighten your day.
5:19
Elizabeth, what are we going to do today to get into the Holly
5:23
Hollywood? Hollywood spirit.
5:25
What can we do today to get into holiday spirit?
5:29
Well, one of my favorite things to do in the holiday season is
5:33
to watch all the holiday episodes of all my favorite TV
5:36
shows. So this week Spencer, we are
5:39
watching the Christmas Party from Season 2 of The Office and
5:43
Benihana Christmas from Season 3 of The Office.
5:48
Two of the best episodes ever. I mean, I say that about every
5:51
episode, so whatever. I mean, they're so funny and I
5:55
personally love them because they have that like cringey,
5:58
like forced office party feel to both of them that makes them so
6:03
much fun. Right.
6:05
That's what makes The Office so cool.
6:06
It's just so cringe. It makes you so uncomfortable
6:09
and like I love that about it. I love feeling uncomfortable.
6:13
Also just really makes me want to play Secret Santa.
6:17
We should. Right, each other being our own
6:20
secret Santa's. Yeah, OK.
6:23
I'll send you decoy gifts. OK.
6:25
So you maybe think they're from some of our other friends and
6:27
then you'll get the real gift. Well, I think we should get into
6:32
this. I think we should too.
6:34
Give us some summary, Spencer. OK so this is the first episode
6:38
where we actually have two summaries, so one of them I took
6:43
from IMDb. Sorry I couldn't write 2
6:45
summaries. Elizabeth.
6:46
You know what, Spencer? We can talk about this later.
6:49
All right, in Christmas party, the Dunder Mifflin employees
6:52
play round of Secret Santa, which goes horribly wrong.
6:55
To make things worse, Michael changes the game from Secret
6:57
Santa to Yankee Swap Sing. The party's headed for
7:01
disastrous boredom, tears, everything.
7:04
Michael breaks corporate policy to buy alcohol for the staff.
7:07
I believe he buys like 20 bottles of vodka and ask if this
7:10
will do it. It's like an insane amount of
7:13
alcohol. I'm like, you needed two of
7:14
those bottles. Like just insane.
7:19
And then for Benihana Christmas trouble among the members of the
7:23
party planning committee results, with Pam and Karen
7:26
hosting A rival Christmas party. But Michael isn't interested in
7:29
celebrating after being dumped by Carol.
7:33
So good. So good.
7:35
I I love the scene where he's dumped by Carol because it's
7:38
like, gosh, like it's so obvious that that's not something you
7:42
should do. Right.
7:44
And breakups have never been so funny that not in the office.
7:47
All right, truly, truly. Ah, but let's get behind the
7:51
wardrobe. So Christmas party was directed
7:55
by Charles McDougal and Benihana Christmas Harold Ramis with
8:00
incredible costume designer Carrie Bennett.
8:03
You will know her from her work on Scrubs and seasons one
8:07
through 4 of The Office and Spencer this week for our Behind
8:12
the Wardrobe facts we have with us Carrie Bennett.
8:16
Yay, Carrie, welcome. Hi.
8:19
Guys. Welcome to the art of Costume
8:21
studio this. Is so super cool, thank you so
8:24
much for having me. We are so excited to talk to
8:28
you. We've been talking about this
8:29
episode since, like, I don't know.
8:32
August. Right.
8:34
Well before. Christmas.
8:37
You know, that's, that's that's Hollywood style.
8:39
You got to celebrate Christmas in July, right?
8:42
Yeah. You got to be sweating with a
8:44
Santa hat on. Yeah, that's when we make those
8:47
episodes. Try to make it look like it's
8:49
cold and everybody's being cozy. But yeah, meanwhile it's hotter
8:53
than the desert. Right, well, we're so excited to
9:01
talk to you, but first, before we get into all the fun office
9:04
stuff, I would just like to hear a little bit about your journey
9:07
to becoming a costume designer. Was this something you always
9:10
wanted to do? Oh my gosh.
9:13
Oh my gosh. OK, let me think here.
9:15
We're starting off real hard and quick.
9:17
As deep as can be. Yeah.
9:24
Well, I'll tell you this. So I actually, I went to UC
9:26
Santa Barbara as a a dance major, but quickly found the
9:30
costume shop there and it started working on, you know,
9:34
helping out with costumes and stuff like that and for the
9:37
different dance productions. And then took a costume design
9:40
class there by the amazing Anne Bruce, who planted the seed in
9:45
my head that my energy would be really good for costumes for TV
9:50
shows. And she had gone to Cal Arts,
9:53
California Institute of the Arts.
9:55
So when I graduated, I was like, Oh my God, what do I do?
9:59
Am I going to be a dancer? Am I going to move to New York
10:01
like all my friends and be a dancer or maybe get, go back to
10:05
school? So I got I, I, you know, rustled
10:09
up a, a portfolio, which is hilarious.
10:11
I should post that at some point.
10:13
Like yeah, my drawing skills were pretty weird.
10:17
I would love to see it. But I got into Kell Arts and for
10:22
the master's program for costume design, and they have an
10:25
incredible program there. It's called Padapt, Performing
10:28
Arts Design Technology. And that was like the best thing
10:32
I ever could have done. It just gave me the confidence
10:34
to know what I was talking about and really ignited the, the
10:39
costume design flame and one of the guest speakers that came and
10:44
spoke to us with Jenna Rosenblatt.
10:46
And she's, she actually is, no, she's doing interior design now.
10:49
She doesn't do costume anymore, but she's an amazing designer.
10:53
And she came and told us all the things to do to get a job in the
10:56
industry. And I did all those things to
10:59
her and hounded her for my first job, which was helping her out
11:08
on The State, which was a show on Comedy Central.
11:12
And so I moved to New York when I graduated and helped her with
11:15
that. I thought I was going to be
11:16
there for like 6 months and I end up being there for six
11:18
years. And it just totally set the
11:21
trajectory for my career because we just did all these like
11:24
Comedy Central, VH1, MTV shows that were all comedy shows.
11:31
So I ended up doing the State Upright Citizens Brigade and I
11:34
ended up taking over her her jobs when she was kind of moving
11:38
out of Cosmos Line Strangers with Candy.
11:41
I'm forgetting something. That's also a big one anyway.
11:47
OK, no, But you know, it was it just put me in this world of all
11:52
of these kind of now kind of culty classic comedy shows and
11:58
was really working in that world and meeting those directors.
12:02
And then flash forward, I was kind of trying to move back to
12:06
LA, which is where I'm from. And director Adam Bernstein, I
12:12
had done some commercials with him and we ran into each other
12:14
at a coffee shop and you're like, hey, what are you doing?
12:17
You're like, I'm doing this. I'm I'm doing a pilot for this
12:19
show Scrubs. I was like, I'm available.
12:22
Let's. Just this little show.
12:23
Well. You know, that's how they all
12:25
start out. Like, they just start out as
12:27
like a pilot and you're just kind of like scrapping it
12:28
together and, you know, trying to trying to find that world and
12:33
then, you know who no one knows it's going to blow up into some
12:36
big thing. I mean, that was certainly the
12:38
case with The Office. Yeah.
12:40
I mean, I, I did that on a hiatus from Scrubs.
12:43
I just kind of like threw it in like, oh, you know, yeah, I
12:46
could. I could do that little little
12:47
project. This little tiny project that's
12:51
not going to go anywhere. Yeah, well, I didn't think about
12:54
it. You just do it.
12:55
You just got your nose to the grindstone and you're figuring
12:57
it out. And I think it was like a year
13:00
after we did the pilot that it got picked up.
13:03
So again, I was kind of like, you know, did that.
13:05
A lot of pilots that I do don't go anywhere.
13:08
I think this the statistic is like 90% of pilots don't do
13:12
anything. I've done tons of those, you
13:14
know, So I just kind of was like, well, you know, just doing
13:16
another thing and then, well, you know.
13:20
That is crazy, but like look at what happened.
13:22
It's so insane. Isn't.
13:24
It so it's so insane and I, I actually feel like I, I, you
13:28
know, I've done a lot of pilots that have gone place, like I did
13:30
the pilots of scrubs and that went huge and yeah, done a lot
13:34
of pilots that have gone on to bigger and better things.
13:37
And I really feel like the, the magic sauce is that no one is
13:42
assuming it's going to go anywhere in the beginning.
13:44
Like you're just kind of invested in it in a really
13:48
visceral way. Like everyone's doing their
13:49
research and they're communicating, talking about
13:53
ideas. And those are the ones that that
13:55
I've been on that really end up going somewhere.
13:58
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, I love that so much.
14:02
So The Office isn't really thought of as like a costume
14:06
show, but it's their costumes that really make the look and
14:11
define like the feel of the show.
14:15
What was kind of your thoughts on that?
14:17
How do you dress a paper office? Yeah, I know.
14:21
But thank you for saying that. Like, I've had to sort of defend
14:23
my honor in a few interviews where they're like, well, it's
14:26
that there's no costumes. Like just like, that's just how
14:28
they look, right? Like that's how people look.
14:30
No, Oh my gosh, no. That makes me crazy.
14:33
And yeah, it makes me crazy. Well, it's like, you know, those
14:36
were the hottest actors in Hollywood.
14:38
Like, they show up in their cute little outfits and their little
14:41
jumpsuits. And like, you know, it's my job
14:43
to take them down a notch, right?
14:46
You take them down a couple notches and make them like, you
14:51
know, make them really real and really resonate and truly, truly
14:56
the only way I can do that is by calling on real life.
15:00
Like that's. I never assumed that I know what
15:04
the look is. I always have to go out in the
15:08
world and find some sort of touchstone that is my grounding
15:14
and, and my palate basically. So where the office was
15:18
concerned, I, you know, I was like, wow.
15:20
I've never, I personally have never worked in an office.
15:23
I got to get myself to an office and see what it looks like.
15:26
And I've told this story a lot of times.
15:29
But please tell it again. I'm obsessed with this story,
15:32
OK? I mean, I, you know, and this
15:36
is, again, it's like just that sort of innocence, like I always
15:38
kind of have like, I don't want to say fear of doing it wrong,
15:41
but like I, I want to, I really want to make sure that I'm
15:44
honoring the real what, what's, what the, that world that we're
15:48
trying to create, what's real in that world.
15:50
So I literally opened up the phone book and because that was
15:53
the phone book back then and found a paper company that I
15:59
kind of was like, well, it seems like it's sort of the right
16:01
size. It was in the next town over for
16:03
me and I just invited myself over there.
16:05
I was just like, I'm doing research.
16:06
Is it would it be OK if I came and saw what you guys do?
16:10
And they were so wonderful. The owner was Meredith 100%.
16:15
Oh, my gosh, she was so great. Well, but not, I mean, not like
16:19
in just in the way she looked. Yeah.
16:20
I don't want to put it out there.
16:25
She's a little nutty. Yeah.
16:28
But anyway, so anyways, I just yeah, I invited myself over
16:30
there and I took a million pictures.
16:32
They were so wonderful. They they let me just take
16:34
pictures. I asked each, you know, I went
16:37
kind of from office to office, took pictures of everybody that
16:39
was there. I mean, it was everything.
16:42
That office was incredible. They even had it had a similar
16:46
vibe to the English version, which I love.
16:49
Like they even had, Oh my God, they even had that, that talking
16:52
fish on a they had that. I was like, OK, great.
16:55
I found, I found it. This is so great.
16:58
They had like inspirational quotes that were printed off the
17:01
computer. So they were like on 8 1/2 by 11
17:03
like super long, giant long printed out things on their
17:07
walls. It was awesome.
17:09
It was so great. It's.
17:10
So awesomely terrible. So yeah, but just also just an
17:13
office, like real office life. It was wonderful.
17:17
And all the characters were there.
17:18
Everybody was there and including like the the warehouse
17:21
space was amazing. I mean, they had like a deer
17:24
head on the wall. And I just took pictures of
17:28
everything, everything, everything.
17:29
And then I went back and I made a little, what do I say
17:32
presentation and I had little Welcome to the working week
17:36
music with it. And I brought it back and and I
17:40
showed, you know, Greg Daniels and Ken Kwapis was our director
17:44
on the pilot. And they were like, what is
17:47
this? Where is this?
17:49
What is this place like? You must take us here.
17:53
And so we all went back. We and we took the, the
17:55
production designer and they took video cameras and they
17:58
literally videotaped the whole place.
18:00
We ended up making a deal with them to use all of their office
18:02
supplies. Like they supplied all the
18:05
things that we needed. Wow.
18:08
This is insane. It was the most incredible
18:10
wealth of information. And like that photo essay that I
18:14
did was always what I came back to when I kind of needed to like
18:17
be like, wait, where? What am I doing?
18:19
And especially when the actor started being like, I want to be
18:21
fancy. Like, no, you can't be fancy.
18:24
Like, you got to be this. Yeah.
18:27
Yeah. So that was that just was my
18:29
sort of cornerstone for moving forward with the design of the
18:33
show. And also sort of the realization
18:35
that like people that work in offices aren't really totally up
18:40
to modern fashion standards. You know, like it was a little,
18:46
they were a little bit sort of 80s, nineties kind of vibe, you
18:50
know, like it's no one's spending a lot of a lot of money
18:53
on those kind of clothes. Right, because you're just there
18:55
every day. You're not trying to like
18:57
impress anyone. You're.
18:58
Just kind of there. You're not particularly inspired
19:01
by your clothes. And so that was really the
19:06
flavor that I wanted to bring to it, as well as figuring out ways
19:10
to knock those actors down visually.
19:14
Visually, You know, like just just to to make them have a sort
19:19
of a sense of vulnerability because I feel like that is
19:22
always what makes the characters really endearing.
19:24
Oh. Man, This is why I love costume
19:27
design. I mean, just this entire
19:29
research project into a paper company like office, I mean,
19:34
This is why Elizabeth and I do this podcast that is one of the
19:37
coolest stories ever. You know, it's so important.
19:41
It's like that's that's what makes it really resonate.
19:44
And if you're just trying to like churn out a TV show that
19:48
reads too, you know, when the thought hasn't gone into it,
19:51
that reads too. And and you're doing it a
19:53
disservice at that point. I love that.
19:56
But you talked about how the like, when you went to the
19:58
company, like every character was there.
20:01
How did you like translate those real life employees into these
20:05
characters everybody loves? Oh my gosh.
20:08
Well, I mean, you know, it's like I said, there's there are
20:12
there were touchstones. Like there was a guy there that,
20:15
well, most of the people there had kind of this office wear on
20:18
like a, you know, a shirt and slacks.
20:20
But this one guy was there kind of, I don't know what his like
20:24
why he didn't have to be sort of dressed in office wear, but he
20:26
had on a T-shirt with wolves on it.
20:31
And I was like, that's amazing. That guy is amazing.
20:35
Like what is his story and why is he like this outlier?
20:39
And why does he he doesn't have to dress like everybody else.
20:41
He doesn't have to wear office wear.
20:42
It wasn't like casual Friday, but he was just he's like Wolf
20:46
guy. And so that was obviously Dwight
20:49
was like full on. Right.
20:51
Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was really, he was
20:54
the one. And then and then I started.
20:55
I also even kind of asked them like, where do you guys shop?
20:58
What's your? What's your?
21:00
How do you do? It I would like to know.
21:02
You know, like, I mean, a lot of the girls were like thrift
21:04
stores. They were like, they shop at
21:07
thrift stores. So we did a lot of that.
21:09
And then the guys were like, yeah, you know, I just go to
21:12
like JC Penney. And they have like their, I
21:16
think still to this day, you can go to JC Penney and you can get
21:19
a full a suit, a shirt, a belt and socks, I think for one
21:26
convenient price. Perfect.
21:28
Easy done. No.
21:31
The tie is like a whole outside thing.
21:32
Like you got to figure out your tie story, you know?
21:34
But but yeah, so I just, I was like, always embrace trying to
21:39
embrace that. Like, where do you shop?
21:40
Like where, you know, because a lot of times in Hollywood, like
21:43
what you're doing is these sneaky, amazing, creative ways
21:47
of making everybody look really good using really high end
21:52
clothes that you then kind of take down a notch.
21:55
Like that's kind of a thing. Like I've always say, like
21:57
T-shirts are like $200 off the top on a show because you're
22:01
buying these really expensive, beautifully cut T-shirts that
22:04
make everybody look great, you know, And then if you're having
22:07
it printed, then that's another probably $200.00.
22:10
So like T-shirts that you see on on shows are like, you know, 2
22:13
to $400.00. That's normal in in Hollywood.
22:17
So on this, I really dedicated myself to shopping at those
22:19
places, buying that that stuff that's like that everybody buys.
22:24
You know, people don't buy $200 T-shirts in real life.
22:27
I know Jenna always talks about like she there was a scene where
22:30
she had to have jeans and she was expecting all these like
22:32
high end jeans and I was like, no girl.
22:34
Oh, you're shopping at Mervyn's now?
22:36
We're shopping at. Mervyn's So we just because it,
22:39
it doesn't informs the fit and informs the way their bodies
22:42
look and informs the way they feel when they're wearing it,
22:46
all of that, it's all really important.
22:48
So yeah. So did that answer the question?
22:50
I guess, you know, yeah. Just asking those real people
22:52
where they shop and like and actually dedicating myself to
22:55
shopping at those places. This is so fun already.
22:58
Like I forgot that we're even doing an episode.
23:03
Well, Carrie, we have so many questions, but we're going to
23:06
kick up the holiday spirit in here a little bit.
23:08
So we're going to take a break and when we get back we're going
23:10
to play like Secret Santa or Yankee Swap or White Elephant.
23:15
A wonderful gift giving game. Let's do it.
23:42
All right, so the Christmas party this episode is so wild.
23:49
And I feel like the ties are even Wilder.
23:53
Where did you find these? Like who?
23:55
How did you decide who got what? Like this sexy like Santa woman
24:01
tie? Like I wouldn't even know where
24:03
to get that. It's so bad but so good, Carrie.
24:08
Like, so bad. I know, I know.
24:11
So, you know, I have to admit, like Mervyn's was, which I think
24:15
sadly is not really around anymore, but that was it was.
24:19
Mervyn's is not around anymore. I know because I used to shop
24:22
there. Why?
24:23
Oh God, it was such a wealth of bad ties and Jennifer Siri, who
24:29
who supervised that this show for with me.
24:32
She and I would shop our butts off and we would we always love
24:36
our tie tie time at Mervyn's and we would just be like, this is
24:40
so hideous. Oh my God.
24:42
Look how great this is. It's so hideous.
24:46
And I know. Yeah, just pouring through those
24:48
piles of ties there was, I think that was one of our main
24:52
sources, really. It's it's sad.
24:54
I feel I, I feel bad for guys because Mervyn's not there
24:57
anymore. Where else do we get our
24:59
terrible ties? I don't know.
25:01
I actually, I do not ever wear a tie.
25:04
I mean, Elizabeth would probably die if I wore a tie, so.
25:07
Yeah, now that I think about it, I don't think I've like all the
25:10
years we've known each other, I've never seen you in a tie,
25:12
Not once. I think it's because I don't
25:15
know how to tie one that I'm just like, let's not, let's just
25:18
plan an outfit around not wearing a tie.
25:20
Yeah, but tie, you know, ties are like jewelry for men.
25:24
It's the only way. It's the only way to express
25:26
themselves. And like that was and truly
25:29
that's how it is in the office like that, you know, they all
25:30
kind of wearing suits. So like I was really dedicated
25:33
to their tie story. Each character had had their
25:36
really specific tie story. It's so funny though, that Jim
25:40
went to the Christmas party and he's not wearing a special tie.
25:43
He's just, he doesn't care. He's wearing whatever he wants.
25:46
He doesn't care, you know, I always my idea with him from the
25:50
get go. I mean, he's alright.
25:52
Come on. He's so handsome.
25:53
I'm like, how am I going to bring this guy down?
25:57
And I was always thinking that he probably just really didn't
26:00
care about office clothes and probably just borrowed stuff
26:04
from his dad. And I had initially found these
26:07
woolly ties, like wool ties. Like, it's so weird.
26:10
It's such an old thing. And so we had, we had like, I
26:13
think we had three for him, these wool ties.
26:16
And it was so kind of thick and lumpy and it just softened John
26:20
so much that in those pleated pants, you know, I just think I
26:25
just always felt like he just never put any thought into it
26:28
and just if he just was getting by.
26:31
And so later on we ended up actually making ties for him.
26:34
We built all of his ties because it was really hard to find wool
26:38
ties. It's just not a thing.
26:41
Yeah, I don't even know where to look.
26:43
Yeah, I don't think I really, you can't find them.
26:45
You can, you know, find them sometimes, like in costume
26:47
houses because they collect those kind of things.
26:49
But yeah, I just, I needed him to have those soft fuzzy ties,
26:52
so we just always kept going with those.
26:55
Elizabeth, do you have a favorite tie from this episode?
26:59
I think my favorite tie, it's hard, OK?
27:03
It's hard to choose. I like Dwight's though, 'cause
27:07
it's holiday, but it's not. It's not holiday.
27:11
It's like it's Dwight. It's Dwight Day.
27:14
Yes, Yeah. I love how Dwight is like still
27:18
kind of wearing his everyday thing.
27:20
He's just like, I'll just put this elf hat on top and that
27:22
just finishes the look, you know?
27:24
Yeah, yeah, yeah. His nebulous.
27:27
Yeah, his his wardrobe was like olive ochre, like cream.
27:32
Wow. Such a.
27:34
Beautiful palette. You know what's funny too?
27:37
It's like I all of his suits again came from JC Penney and
27:40
they came and he's like kits like they had, they had all
27:43
those colors like that, like putty colors and olive green and
27:48
ochre yellow. And they they had, I was just
27:51
like, he was 100% JC Penney. And I was wandering through
27:55
there. I thought it must have been just
27:56
like a couple years ago. I swear to God, they had a whole
28:01
thing set up of those colors. Like it was like this.
28:04
It was almost like Dwight Land. Like they had done it.
28:06
It wasn't marketed that way. But I was like, I see you, JC
28:09
Penney. I see what you're doing.
28:12
This is the Dwight collection. You're capitalizing on the
28:15
Dwight collection. We see you.
28:18
You're not kidding, Bias. JC Penney Well, my favorite
28:25
character probably of like any TV show ever is Angela Martin.
28:30
I forgot her last time. I was going to call her Angela
28:32
Kinsey. Angela Martin, played by Angela
28:35
Kinsey. She is brilliant.
28:38
And I just love that, like, Christmas is her holiday.
28:40
And every Christmas she like, steps it up, you know?
28:43
I mean, I dare to say that her costumes always kind of elevated
28:47
compared to everyone else. But Christmas is like, this is
28:49
her day, you know? So how did you approach dressing
28:53
the incredible the legend Angela Martin in the Christmas party?
28:58
The legend, you know, Angela, she got lots of extra attention
29:02
because she's in real life is like Minnie.
29:06
She's she's she's like child size, right?
29:10
So trying to find those really pious grown up looks for her was
29:17
always just a total challenge because you can't go in the kids
29:20
section and find like an ice blue turtleneck.
29:23
A lot of her stuff was period because period stuff is is
29:26
smaller. That's why I heard like all her
29:29
crazy blouses with all the buttons and stuff.
29:31
But yeah, you know, you got to just, you got to pull up the
29:35
turtlenecks in winter. Yeah, LALA winter.
29:40
Winter in quotes. Yeah, right.
29:42
So just always trying to find ways to sort of make it feel
29:45
like it's it's colder out, even though totally not like we
29:49
actually had an ice machine. We're looking at this video
29:52
right now for for stomping the the ornaments out in the snow.
29:56
But we literally a truck came and blew snow all over our
29:59
parking lot and that stuff falling from the sky is bubbles.
30:04
My gosh. It's like a fake snow soap.
30:08
Yeah. So, you know, so the real
30:10
challenge is, is just trying to incorporate some clothing that
30:13
actually people would wear when it's actually cold, right?
30:17
And I love all her, like, little Christmas ornaments, the
30:20
jewelry, the little pins. It's like that's her favorite,
30:24
you know? Yeah, totally.
30:26
All her little things, usually cat oriented.
30:30
You know, it's actually funny because I feel like this
30:31
episode, this the first season, we weren't so deeply into the
30:36
cat theming because I'm realizing like, as I'm looking
30:39
at her pin, it's just a little Santa Claus.
30:41
But yeah, this might have been before we really were grasping
30:44
that. Her love of cats.
30:48
Elizabeth, there's a story about Angela doing this scene where
30:52
she was supposed to smash all the ornaments when she threw him
30:55
at the wall, but they were plastic so they wouldn't break.
30:57
So she like went into a frenzy and had to start smashing them
31:00
with her feet. It's so good.
31:03
It's just like one of my favorite scenes ever.
31:06
I love this because like she she does look like all like very
31:10
like inside wintry. But then she just walks out to
31:13
the snow just like in her turtleneck and like her skirt.
31:16
And I'm like, you know, she's angry because at at the point in
31:19
winter in Pennsylvania where it's snowing, it's so bitterly
31:22
cold out. Like this woman must be furious
31:24
to have just like, gone outside without a coat on.
31:29
That's that's a good point. Oh my gosh, I love that.
31:32
She was like screwed a coat. I'm leaving.
31:34
Bye. So I love Phyllis and Meredith
31:38
in these episodes because their outfits are so Christmas
31:41
centric. Like this is what I try to
31:43
achieve each Christmas. It really is so like I love just
31:49
like the how Christmas. Every single piece is Christmas.
31:54
Oh my gosh. And, and I mean Phyllis.
31:57
Let's just. Phyllis, come on.
31:58
I mean, she's just so darling and so earnest.
32:03
Like that's really where I always went with her.
32:06
Like, what was her? What's her earnest attempt at,
32:10
you know, being pretty, being on theme, being the lady of the
32:14
office, you know, and I think we might have applied those little
32:22
poinsettias onto her sweater. I, I think I possibly did that.
32:26
I think we added those on, you know, because she's always
32:29
wanted to have something that's kind of homemade.
32:31
We, we shopped a lot for her at a place called Dress Barn, which
32:36
I think is the saddest, most unfortunate name on the face of
32:40
the earth. Why would you ever?
32:42
There are a lot of those out here.
32:45
Gosh, I, I mean, I it's, yeah. What are what are ladies cows?
32:50
They have to go to the barn to get an outfit.
32:52
It's just so it's so unfortunate, but they had
32:56
wonderful outfits in there like that were a full outfit.
32:59
That's the other thing is that she's such a lady.
33:01
She always has her complete outfit with, you know, shirt and
33:05
skirt, that match sweater that goes with it and coordinating
33:09
jewelry. That was, like always, her.
33:11
Her jam. But then we have some of
33:14
Meredith as well, who's kind of like the same 5 as Phyllis, but
33:18
then like not. Really expect it from her.
33:21
Right. It's like this is she was going
33:23
for the Phyllis look, but then got into the vodka and then it
33:25
just kind of, you know, fizzled from there.
33:28
Yeah. And she's another one that I
33:29
feel like kind of like Jim, like doesn't she just has to get
33:33
through with her office wear? So she doesn't really.
33:37
It's not like she's shopping anywhere.
33:39
She's she's I think thrifted most of her stuff and she just
33:42
makes do because clearly, as we see as she goes along, like she
33:45
is somebody completely different when she's like, you know,
33:50
outside of work. So yeah, she for her totally.
33:54
The ugly Christmas sweater vibe was was perfection.
33:58
Right. It felt very thrifted, like you
34:00
said. I kind of guess it's like this
34:01
feels like a thrifted wardrobe for Meredith.
34:04
I'm pretty sure her yes, her yeah.
34:07
Or, or costume houses, which is also a giant thrift store.
34:11
But yeah, we thrift, thrift a lot of her stuff.
34:13
And that, you know, The thing is back when we did this, like
34:14
that's where you found those sweaters, those create.
34:17
You're like, wow, who made this insane, crazy sweater?
34:20
I think Kurt has like clowns on it.
34:21
Like Christmas. It's just so nuts.
34:24
You're like, who thought this was a great idea?
34:27
Snowmen clowns. Yeah.
34:29
And you know, it's funny. It's like now in I because I
34:31
live in Burbank. There's literally an ugly
34:34
Christmas sweater store here in Burbank now.
34:38
I'm going to get the address from you later.
34:40
Yeah, I need to go there. I'm going to say that.
34:44
Yeah. Yeah.
34:45
The office elevated ugly Christmas sweaters to that
34:47
point. Now we have a store.
34:49
Now they're everywhere, they're at Target.
34:51
They're all because of Meredith and Kerry Bennett.
34:53
So no. I don't know but but that was
35:00
definitely the vibe. We kind of talked about Dwight a
35:03
little bit. Is there any kind of fun story
35:05
you could tell me behind Dwight's ridiculous elf hat and
35:09
ears? Was that you?
35:10
No, for for sure. I mean, we, I always kind of
35:14
bring in a bunch of stuff, artifacts, you know, that that
35:19
could resonate somewhere and let the actors play with stuff and,
35:24
you know, just see what what, what sticks.
35:27
And, you know, Rain is such a consummate professional and such
35:31
like an actor's actor. Like he was always the one that
35:34
would contact me when he read the script and be like, hey, I'm
35:36
wearing a hat in this one. Like, what should it be?
35:40
I was thinking about this and, you know, I was thinking about
35:42
this. And then, you know, we would
35:44
always kind of like, you know, put our heads together and and
35:46
figure it out. But so, yeah, so the of course
35:48
that the elf thing was totally one of those things that he just
35:53
was like, this is it, this is great.
35:54
I'm going to wear the ears because you.
35:56
Know I could totally envision it.
35:58
He was like, this is the one and.
36:02
He wears it so well. I think now that the vodka is
36:04
starting to get out, I think we need to move on to the next
36:06
episode because this Christmas party is getting pretty wild.
36:10
So let's move on to another cringy Christmas party starting
36:14
with Benihana Christmas. This is season 3.
36:19
It's actually episode 10 and 11. They were is a Part 1 and Part
36:22
2. But if you watched on Netflix
36:24
forever like me it was just one episode.
36:26
So you might be confused but it's 10 and 11.
36:29
I love this episode the the Christmas theme really like
36:33
takes a step up once again. I feel like everyone else is
36:35
starting to get in on action too.
36:38
Even Dwight, you know, his colours changed slightly, you
36:41
know, not too much, but slightly.
36:43
But what I want to start with, we can't touch on this a little
36:46
bit. The show is filmed in the LA
36:48
area, but supposed to be Scranton, PA.
36:51
That's terribly cold, like Elizabeth mentioned.
36:54
I love that the show starts of Dwight walks in with this really
36:58
nice coat. Actually, it's very structured,
37:00
but everyone's dressed like it's freezing.
37:03
So how do you approach dressing this cast to pretend like
37:07
they're he's in gold, but it's actually probably like, what,
37:10
80° outside? How did he work around it?
37:15
That sounds terrible. You know, that's that's where
37:20
I'm standing there, like browbeating them into like, no,
37:22
you got it. You have to wear it.
37:24
You have to wear it. I'm sorry.
37:25
I know it's uncomfortable. You got to wear it.
37:28
No, we can't. We can't skimp on it.
37:30
No, you have to wear it. Like that's me literally
37:32
standing outside that little office door being like, no, it's
37:35
good visit. Yeah, you're wearing.
37:36
If you take it off, I'm going to get you keep it on.
37:39
Yeah, like, like, just like, you know, begging and pleading and,
37:43
you know, yeah, yeah, for sure. And then and then, you know, I'm
37:48
looking at the script, like after the scene, you can take
37:51
that off or, you know, like rationalize with them.
37:54
Like you got to do it. You got to do it.
37:59
I mean, Dwight's coat, actually, when we walk in, it's actually
38:01
pretty nice. I'm not mad at that coat.
38:03
I'm like Dwight, that was a good find.
38:05
I know, yeah. Yeah.
38:06
Well, and, you know, he really loved it when we got into this
38:09
later, like sort of his German ancestry.
38:11
And so I actually think that we got that in an Army Navy.
38:14
Like it's, it's like a it's a real wool.
38:18
We we a lot of his fashion came from Army, Navy actually, if
38:22
that makes sense. I mean I would say he kind of
38:27
ruins the coat though with the dead goose.
38:29
He just found on the street. So corporate gives a gift to
38:33
everyone in the office and it is this brilliant Dunder Mifflin
38:36
robe that looks so cozy. Was there literally one made for
38:40
everyone there in the office or how did that work out?
38:43
It looks so nice. Yeah, they're not just the the
38:48
actors on screen, but they end up getting made for every single
38:50
crew person and anybody who worked on The Office.
38:53
So we all got those robes. So it was kind of like a 2A2
38:57
fold thing to figure something that was going to work for this
38:59
bit and then, you know, make sure that we had enough of them
39:03
to go around. Except everyone except for Toby,
39:08
who is like me. I was so upset when he didn't
39:10
get one. So heartbreaking.
39:12
And when he reaches out to touch.
39:14
So it just breaks your heart, right?
39:19
So funny. So once again, we have some
39:23
incredible ties. Andys tie, it's one of the most
39:27
obnoxious things I think I've seen on the show, and it's just
39:31
like, it's such a reflection of his personality.
39:35
How did you like, come to this decision?
39:38
Oh my God. OK, wait, thank you for even
39:40
noticing it, first of all. But second of all, how?
39:42
Can you not notice it? It's the question.
39:45
But here's here's the thing, and this is the this is the honest
39:48
truth. And I bet every designer would
39:50
say this at a certain point in every production there, you're
39:53
under such pressure and under such a time limit and you're not
39:59
finding the thing that you want. This tie for me is actually so
40:03
cringey in my own personal life because.
40:09
You know, his Andy's ties were always these like really bright,
40:12
obnoxious, preppy ties, but I could not find one that was
40:16
Christmassy. I just couldn't land on the
40:19
thing that was Christmasy. So his tie, we literally made it
40:24
at the last minute. And if you really look carefully
40:26
at it, it's a red tie that has green ribbon sewn to it.
40:31
Oh my gosh, no way. That's amazing.
40:34
And I it always but it was so like it literally just got down
40:37
to the wire and we I just was like, there's a desperation move
40:40
on my part. So when I see this episode, I
40:43
like actually in reviewing this for this interview, I looked
40:45
back at this episode and I was like, oh, that tie is coming up.
40:48
And I was like, I'm like, let me just see how it reads.
40:52
And like I was so grateful. Like you don't really get a good
40:54
look at it ever because he's always, he's so kinetic and
40:56
moving around. You don't really get to look at
40:58
it too closely. But it is so janky.
41:05
So I'm glad it resonates with you.
41:06
But like for me, it's like one of those things, like there's
41:08
always something like that in every show for me where I'm
41:10
like, it's just cringy because I had to just I just ran out of
41:14
time and had to get it on camera.
41:17
There it is. We think it's incredible.
41:19
It's it's so on point for Andy. It says so much, you know, it's
41:24
like it's a simple green and red tie, but it just says everything
41:28
about his personality. Like even Michael's face is like
41:31
Oh my God, I can't with this guy.
41:33
Right. It's like shiny and just it's
41:35
just all his things are just so yeah, he just needed to have
41:38
like the most obnoxious bright ties because that's just him.
41:42
It's great. I also love like, Michael.
41:45
He's all like, oh, about Christmas, about Christmas.
41:47
And then as I was watching this second episode, I realized it's
41:51
the same tie from the previous year.
41:53
I would feel like he'd have like a slew of Christmas ties, but
41:57
yeah, no, yeah, no, no, I you know, And his ties are so
42:02
specific. Like, they again, it was like
42:04
the search at Mervin and Mervin's.
42:06
And we always had to have multiples of all the ties,
42:09
right? Because a lot of times the
42:10
episode would take place the scripted was only just one day,
42:14
but it would take us a whole week to shoot it.
42:16
So things happen, you know, like they get they go to lunch with
42:18
their costume on and they get spaghetti on their tie or
42:20
whatever. So we always had to have
42:22
multiples of everything. So finding his weird muddy ties
42:27
that he thought were cool was such a challenge because at
42:31
Mervyn's they were like, there's this weird muddy tie and it
42:34
would have little tiny triangles on it.
42:36
So I'd be digging through trying to find multiples of that tie,
42:38
and I would find the exact same tie, but it had little circles
42:42
instead of little triangles, but it was exactly the same.
42:45
Or then I'd find another one and it was like little squares
42:47
instead of the triangles. And I was like, so flustered one
42:51
time and I asked the sales girl and I'm like, what is the deal
42:53
with these ties? Like, why are they they're
42:55
exactly the same, but not? And she just totally shrugged.
42:59
And they're like, because men. And I was like, what does that
43:04
mean? And she's like, because men find
43:06
their thing that they like and then they just buy the same
43:10
version, the same thing. Like it's the same colorway, but
43:14
different shapes because then it's different.
43:16
It's quote UN quote different. And I was like, I'm like, that's
43:19
so profound. I feel so seen right now.
43:25
I love how she described that as men.
43:28
I'm taking this personally. You know, I, I, this was so
43:31
great. You know, you never know where
43:33
you're going to find your, your magical little source of
43:36
information that makes it all click.
43:38
Yeah. So she was, she was so
43:41
wonderful. And and yeah, so.
43:42
Yeah. So he's got the same Christmas
43:43
tie, because that's his tie. He brings it out every year.
43:46
That's, that's the one. He's got it.
43:47
This is the Eat Christmas tie, you know.
43:50
Right. He probably has a Halloween tie,
43:51
he probably has the Saint Patrick's Day tie, but that's
43:54
it. He brings it out.
43:55
I love that. So we're in Benihana.
44:00
When you're doing scenes like this in a real place, like a
44:04
Benihana's, how do you approach like the costume design for
44:07
that? Do you have to like partner with
44:08
the restaurant? Did you have to actually make
44:10
Benihana costumes? I also noticed there's a lot of
44:13
extras in the background too, which is fun.
44:15
Yeah, I don't know on the extras are always good because that's
44:18
like all fun thrifted stuff. Yeah, but to so to answer that
44:22
question, it's it's kind of there's sort of two routes to
44:24
that. Like if we're actually using the
44:26
real Benihana and we're using the name, then it's required
44:31
that we use exactly what they what they wear.
44:35
That was the same for when we did the Hooters episode.
44:39
I was horrified when I got those actual Hooter uniforms.
44:42
Wow. But yeah, this.
44:44
So I think, yeah, I think we use the real, the real Benihana
44:48
uniforms, if I remember correctly, yeah.
44:51
Right. I've been there like one time,
44:52
so this looks like it. I don't.
44:56
That checks for me. OK, so this is another Angela
45:01
heavy episode, so I'm not going to let you go without talking
45:04
about Angela once again. She somehow just elevates even
45:08
more. I am obsessed with this like
45:10
white Lacy meshy top that she wears.
45:13
And of course her party theme is Nutcracker Christmas, so she has
45:16
to have the little Nutcracker pin.
45:19
Can we just can you just walk us through this outfit?
45:22
It's just so good. That's such.
45:23
This is actually in my phone. Carrie, this is.
45:26
Your. Contact photo right now.
45:28
Stop. You're adorable.
45:31
That's so awesome. I'm I'm honored.
45:33
I literally like. I actually had some questions
45:36
about this blouse because I thought it might read too sexy
45:39
for her because it's a little transparent.
45:43
You know, that kind of came to my mind too, is like, this is a
45:45
little more risque for Angela, but somehow it still works,
45:49
though I don't know what it is about it.
45:51
You know, so the, so we ended up like, you know, I, I kind of
45:54
again, like, I kind of pull it back to sort of like 80s,
45:57
nineties. Like that's because it also
45:59
helps it feel a little dated a little, you know, kind of
46:03
frumpy. And so we actually ended up
46:06
putting, you know, back then people wore slips, people wore
46:10
little like little camisoles underneath their little blouse.
46:15
So that's what she's got on under there.
46:16
She's got her little cami to keep it, to keep it so that
46:19
it's, you know, proper, properly, she's properly covered
46:22
up. But I, you know, I, I pulled a
46:26
lot of vintage stuff for her because it just was what fit.
46:29
And that's what this little beauty is.
46:32
I think with the 1000 buttons. I think if you talk to Angela,
46:35
she will, she will disparage the blouses with 1000 buttons
46:39
because they were they were practical.
46:42
She had to do them all up. And I was always looked like,
46:44
you know what girl, this is, this is it's your meditation.
46:47
Like this is getting you into character.
46:49
Right. You got to button all those 60
46:51
buttons on that blouse. I no wonder she's so angry all
46:54
the time. That's how, yes, how she got
46:58
into her anger space, yeah. Let's get into the costume.
47:02
Well, Angela, if you're listening, I would like to talk
47:04
to you about the buttons, so please DM me.
47:08
And, and actually, if you look later on too, like a lot of
47:10
those buttons became little Kitty heads.
47:12
Oh that's perfect. I actually I have noticed that.
47:15
Little Kitty buttons. I love the Kitty theme that is
47:18
just so perfect for her. But then we get into like the
47:21
real madness of this episode that the they have Margarita
47:25
karaoke Christmas party versus The Nutcracker Christmas.
47:29
It's kind of subtle, but actually The Nutcracker
47:32
Christmas group is a little bit more traditional costumes.
47:35
I don't know if this is attentional, but like this is
47:37
how I see it. It's very like more traditional
47:40
costumes. But then when you are in the
47:41
Margarita karaoke Christmas party, like the warehouse guys
47:45
are there, it's a little bit more dressed down.
47:48
Karen. She has like a button undone.
47:50
You know, it's like a little more loose that were you kind of
47:53
like working on set to make that kind of come through?
47:55
Oh, well, yeah, of course. I mean, that's that's a big
48:00
moment when we start to establish these scenes, like
48:03
what level of undress or dishevelment are we trying to
48:09
trying to achieve here? You know, and then and then that
48:12
goes into the hands of the amazing detail oriented set
48:15
customers who who hold that line and make sure that everybody's
48:19
staying in that that level of whatever chaos that's.
48:25
So fun. I also could really use a
48:26
Margarita right now, Elizabeth. We talked about having
48:29
margaritas for podcast time and it hasn't happened yet, right?
48:33
I know we we need to find an episode where that's
48:35
appropriate. This might be it.
48:38
I don't know. I feel like this is good.
48:39
Yeah, we kind of dropped the ball.
48:42
Oh man, also real quick I just I'm looking at picture.
48:48
I just realized that I have to mention Angela's like red and
48:52
black skirt that went with that white top.
48:54
It was so perfect. I just saw the photos like whoa
48:57
whoa whoa, skirt. So good.
48:58
And actually, you know, as I'm looking at these photos, you
49:00
know what, I, I, I definitely, those things resonate with me
49:04
because there's stuff my mom used to wear, like she had like
49:08
a Christmas skirt, you know, and always the red turtleneck.
49:11
And, you know, like that those those things that are sort of
49:14
ingrained in your psyche, you know, like, like what Christmas
49:18
outfits are supposed to look like.
49:20
And Jenna's character, Pam, she's just like, so cute in this
49:24
episode. Like, I feel like she's really
49:26
starting to come into her style a little bit, at least for the
49:29
holidays. You know, like she she spends a
49:31
couple extra minutes in the morning when it's a Christmas or
49:34
a Halloween. Well, definitely Halloween.
49:35
Like, that's a whole different thing.
49:37
But yeah, Christmas she definitely, like takes a couple
49:40
extra minutes. And she always looks so cute.
49:42
And I love her jewelry. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
49:44
Well, thank you. I you know, she's just foxy
49:48
librarian is totally her her vibe and and we did you know,
49:54
it's funny because if you look at that the first Christmas
49:56
episode, she's just wearing a pink sweater like she's not
49:58
really again, like so engaged in it and you know, around now it
50:03
was it was difficult to hold the line with these actors because
50:06
they were it was getting more popular and they, like I said,
50:09
they wanted to be fancy. I've, I've told the story before
50:12
about Ricky Gervais coming to the set and I kind of forget
50:17
where that was. I feel like it was maybe the end
50:18
of the first season or second season.
50:20
And he said, hey, how's it going for you?
50:22
And I said, well, you know, I'm, I'm holding the line like I'm
50:26
trying really hard to keep everybody down and in that sort
50:31
of vulnerable space and kind of frumpy.
50:33
And he goes, oh, God, tell me about it.
50:35
He's out. He's like after the second,
50:37
after the first season on the English version, he's like
50:40
everybody, all the actors came back.
50:41
They had tans, they had whitened their teeth.
50:45
They were like, and they wanted to be all fancy.
50:47
And I was like, Oh my God, that's so.
50:51
Thank you for feeling my pain. You know you're.
50:54
Right, like Steve Carell is like blowing up at this moment.
50:58
Told a huge he was so huge and he was like flying out after
51:02
after shooting, going to movie sets and stuff like they all
51:04
were. And so they all really all
51:06
wanted their fancy stuff and they wanted to appear fancier,
51:09
you know, more, more well put together.
51:11
And I was like, no, please, no, no, no, we got to keep it.
51:16
But you start to see it in this episode, even in the picture of
51:19
this of the group shot of them at Christmas.
51:22
Like it. It's such a great picture, like
51:24
they look really put together and I'm like, but that, you
51:26
know, I was just trying so hard to hold that line and keep it.
51:31
Yeah, I think that's so interesting because it's like
51:33
they're that look is part of what's making it so successful.
51:36
So I it's so interesting that they want to like up to their
51:40
look a little bit, right? It's.
51:42
Right. It's like a blurred line, you
51:44
know? Yeah.
51:44
Yeah, it's hard to, it's hard to keep that in perspective.
51:46
And I feel like as a costume designer, like that's, it's
51:48
your, it's my job. Like I, I got to hold the line.
51:51
I got to hold the look and, and, and constantly keep pulling
51:55
myself back to the original. What was the original vibe?
51:58
You got to keep it because it does.
52:00
They do evolve and every and every, and people evolve and
52:02
people change and how they look and yeah.
52:05
So many great movies are like coming out at this time too,
52:07
like 40 year old Virgin, Jenna Fischer's and one of my favorite
52:11
movies, Blades of Glory. Oh, such a good movie.
52:14
Like they're all like doing such great movies at this time.
52:17
So that's hard. I could.
52:18
I feel for you. So they're having influences all
52:21
over the place. Yeah, yeah.
52:23
And, and different. They're working with different
52:24
designers and things are really fancy.
52:26
And, you know, I'm just trying to hold.
52:28
I'm like, please wear the Mervyn's clothes.
52:33
What? Character before we are done,
52:35
there's one character we have not yet mentioned and I feel
52:38
like she really has her moment in this episode, which is Mindy
52:41
Kalings, Kelly Kapoor, who's a brilliant, brilliant character.
52:45
So funny. She just looks so cute, so
52:49
classy. But I still love like, like
52:51
sparkles or lights in her hair. She's singing that Pat Benatar
52:55
song to Ryan. It's just so good.
52:58
What was it like? Like coming up with the costumes
53:00
with Mindy, who's, like, so funny.
53:03
Oh my gosh. I mean, Mindy is like such a
53:06
like a juggernaut. I don't know how to even like
53:08
explain it. Like I sort of witnessing her
53:12
growth was such a beautiful blessing really.
53:16
Because when she started on the show, like if you guys look back
53:19
and you look at those early episodes, she is completely
53:23
different. She is like, we had talked about
53:25
her having sort of like this immigrant vibe and kind of being
53:29
sort of not really knowing, you know, the where she was not
53:35
really having a lot of self-confidence, like all of
53:37
that. And she transformed as, as she
53:40
personally found her voice writing for the show, she really
53:45
wanted to change up her character.
53:47
And the transition was difficult because I was like, whoa, whoa.
53:51
We started out with something completely different.
53:53
And then, you know, finding that balance of not wanting her to be
53:59
like so flashy, so trendy, but knowing that like she probably
54:04
is like such a mall route, like goes to the goes to all those
54:07
stores in the mall shops at like Express.
54:09
And so she, it was we, there was a lot of finding who she was
54:16
just at the same time as Mindy herself was, you know, and it's
54:19
so beautiful to see how she has just just evolved in such a
54:23
gorgeous way. So I think that she thought,
54:26
really thought about her outfit for Christmas and she wanted to
54:29
be kind of shiny and kind of a little bit office sexy, you
54:33
know? You know, it can't be too overt.
54:36
It has to be kind of conservative still.
54:39
But yeah, she's just, it comes off so cute.
54:43
It's so funny. I just, my favorite scene is
54:46
when she's singing that song to Ryan.
54:48
It's so bad and he's just drinking his Margarita, trying
54:52
to get through it. So good.
54:56
And I, I mean, Mindy Kaling is amazing.
54:59
It's that's one of the fun things of these original seasons
55:02
is like watching her really like come into her own, knowing that
55:05
she's writing so many of these great episodes too.
55:07
It's so fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
55:09
Well Carrie, that brings us to the end of Benihana Christmas.
55:16
I have had so much fun talking to this has been so great.
55:21
Well, likewise you guys like it's I, I feel so honored to be
55:24
able to tell these stories and to sort of elevate the, the real
55:28
art form that costume design is. It takes so much thought and I
55:33
really I I appreciate you seeing it.
55:36
It's just so beautiful the way that you're able to tell stories
55:38
of just like real everyday, like original, authentic people, you
55:42
know, just like through the costumes.
55:43
It's just that's what makes Office so great.
55:45
It's just feel so real and you see yourself in each of these
55:48
characters, even if it's like a little extreme sometimes, you
55:50
know, like, like we all do see a little bit of ourselves and
55:53
Dwight maybe not like to that level.
55:55
But like that's what's so great about your costume design work
55:59
on the show is you just make everyone feel seen in the show.
56:02
And I just think, you know, you're one of the best of the
56:04
best. So I'm so honored that you
56:06
joined us. It was so fun.
56:07
That's so sweet. Well, I just really, I really
56:09
live by like, if you can't see the light in all, you can't see
56:12
the light at all. And so I just feel like in my
56:15
own need to elevate myself, like I think you really have to, you
56:20
got to look and you have have to listen.
56:22
You have to really see who your subject is and who you're trying
56:25
to create. I, I, I think every person is so
56:29
beautiful and all of the things, all the weird reasons they put
56:32
on this weird outfit today is so beautiful.
56:35
And that's what makes me want to do these projects and what makes
56:38
me tick. So, Carrie, this has been so
56:41
much fun, but the holidays are all about gift giving and we
56:45
have a collaboration with you that we are beyond excited
56:49
about. I've been dying to talk about
56:52
this. You have a little something
56:54
special that we're going to be doing for our listeners at the
56:56
podcast. Yeah, yeah, I have a little gift
56:59
for your, for your listeners that I, I found folded up at my
57:04
studio. It's one of the robes from the
57:08
Christmas episode of The Office. It's the very one that Michael
57:11
Scott wears. It was my wrap gift that year
57:15
working on The Office and I've I've never worn it.
57:18
That is crazy. It's crazy.
57:22
I feel like it's time for it to go to somebody who will love it
57:26
and cherish it and wear it. How do you not wear that every
57:30
single day? Well, you have to imagine I have
57:35
a lot of this stuff playing around.
57:38
First, I would love to hear a little bit about the charity
57:41
that you picked. Carrie, why did you choose the
57:43
Sunrise Movement? Well, I thought that we could
57:47
use this as a a charitable opportunity and the charity
57:50
that's near and dear to my heart is the Sunrise Movement.
57:53
They are so passionate about trying to stop climate change
57:58
and create millions of good jobs in the process.
58:01
And if we don't have our earth, we've got nothing.
58:04
So. The battle against climate
58:07
change is very near and dear to all of our hearts at the Art of
58:10
Costume broadcast. So very excited to do this with
58:13
Kerry. So let me explain how this is
58:16
going to work. First, you're going to head to
58:18
the sunrisemovement.org and make at least a $5 donation.
58:23
Once you've made your donation, e-mail us your receipt at
58:26
theartofcostumeofficeholiday@gmail.com. For every $5 you donate, your
58:32
name will be entered in a hat and the lovely Carrie Bennett
58:35
will be drawing the name of our lucky winner of this
58:38
one-of-a-kind piece that even Toby Flanderson will probably be
58:41
pretty jealous of. This opportunity is limited to
58:44
our listeners in the United States and must be 18 years of
58:47
age or older. Also, team members of The Art of
58:50
Costume are not eligible. So sorry Elizabeth, Donation
58:54
receipts must be emailed to us by November 30th, 2021 by 12:00
58:59
AM Pacific Standard Time. We'll be announcing the name of
59:02
our winner during our season finale happening in early
59:05
December, so stay tuned. You can head to The Art of
59:08
Costume blogcast.com or check our Instagrams.
59:11
For all of these details. And I, I, I will literally pull
59:15
a name out of a hat and that'll be that'll, that'll be our lucky
59:20
winner. Thank you all so much in advance
59:23
for all of your donations, and I'm so excited to see the lucky
59:26
recipient of this robe send us all the pictures.
59:29
I cannot wait and I can't wait to have Carrie back so we can
59:33
actually pull these names. Yeah, definitely.
59:36
I got pictures of you wearing it.
59:37
Required. Carrie, this has been so much
59:41
fun that we love you. Please come back.
59:44
You just need to be like a permanent host of this podcast
59:48
with us. You guys, thank you so much for
59:50
having me. I've had such a blast.
59:52
I'm so excited to be passing along this robe to someone who
59:55
will love and appreciate it. And you guys are crushing it on
59:59
this this podcast. I I really appreciate you
1:00:02
elevating the art of costume. And So what, what can we expect
1:00:06
from you in the future? Are you working on anything fun
1:00:09
that you could kind of sneak for us or maybe just?
1:00:12
Oh, I, I just, I just finished it's coming out, I think
1:00:17
November 4th, the reboot of head of the class We'll see.
1:00:23
That's my first show back after Pandemic World.
1:00:27
I also have a really fun thing that's out right now.
1:00:29
That was I thought was never going to have the light of day
1:00:32
because it was a Quibi and Quibi, you know, sadly went
1:00:35
under due to the pandemic. It's called Mapleworth Murders
1:00:39
and it's now it's on Roku now, which is so great.
1:00:43
So I hope it'll have a good see the light of day because it's
1:00:46
really campy. It has most of the stars from
1:00:50
Saturday Night Live and it's written by Paula Pell, who is
1:00:53
one of the writers, one of the main writers of Saturday Night
1:00:55
Live. It's super weird, super campy
1:00:59
and you can see it now on Roku. That's so exciting.
1:01:04
I'd actually, I'd seen the previews for that and was like,
1:01:06
oh, should I get Kwibi? And then it just disappeared.
1:01:09
And I was like, oh, I guess I can't see that.
1:01:11
Then it just disappeared, Right. I know.
1:01:14
Such a bummer. Yeah.
1:01:15
So a lot of those Quibi content got bought by Roku.
1:01:19
So there you go. You can find it on there.
1:01:21
Got to go look at Roku now. Got to go look at Mapleworth
1:01:24
Murders. Please come back anytime we love
1:01:29
you. This has been so fun.
1:01:31
Thanks Carrie. Can't wait.
1:01:33
Thanks. Spencer wasn't that amazing.
1:02:01
That was so much fun. I love Carrie so much.
1:02:04
This entire episode is great. I could talk about the Office
1:02:07
forever and ever. Forever and ever.
1:02:10
I feel like there are just so many more stories.
1:02:12
We're going to have to have her back.
1:02:14
Yeah, I really think that she should just be a permanent Co
1:02:17
host. We should just do like an office
1:02:19
costume podcast. I mean, if we have the time,
1:02:25
maybe one day. So I'm really getting into the
1:02:29
holiday spirit over here. I know, me too.
1:02:32
Are Are you ready for maybe like another fun, funny holiday
1:02:37
movie? I am.
1:02:39
What are we watching next? Spencer, we are watching the
1:02:43
Netflix original holiday. With Kristen Chenoweth.
1:02:49
Kristen Chenoweth. Emma Roberts.
1:02:56
It's going to be real good. I love this movie, I cannot wait
1:02:59
to watch it. So much fun, so many good
1:03:02
costumes. Everybody have a wonderful week
1:03:07
and we will see you for holiday next Tuesday.
1:03:14
The Art of Costume blog cast is hosted by Elizabeth Joy Glass
1:03:16
and Spencer Williams. Produced by Elizabeth Joy Glass
1:03:19
with associate producer Spencer Williams.
1:03:22
Our sound design and engineering is done by Daniel White.
1:03:25
Follow us on Instagram at the Art of Costume Pod.
1:03:28
Or visit the Art of Costume blogcast.com for all blog cast
1:03:31
updates. For more costume reviews, deep
1:03:34
dives and interviews, visit theartofcostume.com.
1:03:37
A blog dedicated to highlighting the best in costume design.
1:04:07
Sorry. Is rain in the room with you
1:04:10
right now? Rain.
1:04:13
Rain is right here. I'm so sorry.